Irvine, CA
Irvine Meadows
Irvine Meadows
At the end of the 2006 Journey tour with Def Leppard, I decided I was done with road trips away from Northern California. I said to a couple of friends at the time "I'm not traveling unless someone named Steve is singing. Hell, it could be Steve Smith!" A joke to be sure, but also one that reflected my thought that Steve Smith returning to perform with Journey a decade after he last recorded with them and over two decades since he had last toured with them was just too unlikely. Well, here we are another decade after THAT and Steve Smith is back out on the road with Journey playing drums. Never say never I guess.
When the "San Francisco Fest" tour was announced back in December, I was a bit perturbed that there wasn't a show listed for the Bay Area. The closest show was for Fresno in August (since canceled) - nearly 200 miles away from San Francisco! I figured a show would eventually be added, and boy was it, but I also didn't want to wait all summer for a show since I really wanted to see Steve Smith back in Journey. So it was that I decided to make a road trip to Irvine for the tour opener -- two things I hadn't done in 10 years! (In fact, I think the last tour opener I went to was in 2004!)
So there I was on Wednesday, tooling down I-5 from the Bay Area to SoCal. It's a long and boring ride, but with good tunes and cruise control it went by pretty swiftly and I arrived safely late Wednesday afternoon. I'd be meeting up with Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose on Thursday for the show, which was something else I was looking forward to -- hanging with some Journey buddies I don't get to see much any more (especially since Cheryl went and moved to SoCal from NorCal like a crazy person!) My favorite part of all those road trips I did over about 10 years was always hanging out with all the friends I'd met and made along the way.
Thursday arrived soon enough and I met Jenn and Cheryl at their hotel for lunch. Rose would be picking them up later as all three had VIP seats and thus would be heading over to the show earlier than I was. Closer to show time I drove over to Irvine Meadows for one last time -- this is apparently the last season for the venue, and honestly it probably is a good thing. This was probably my 4th time seeing a show there (under various names) and it's got to be one of the most inconvenient venues I've ever been to. Parking is a nightmare (and I learned even buying the premier parking didn't help with the nightmare exit) and the way the crowd has to go in and out of the amphitheater is supremely stupid.
I got in about 6:15 or so for the 7:00 start. Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose were still in their VIP party, so I just grabbed a drink, found my seat, and waited for the show to start. About 15 minutes before the show started, Rose came out and found me and we had a nice little chat. Just before the show started, I saw Cheryl and Jenn make their way to their front row seats. I was pretty much directly behind them, just a couple of sections back.
When the tour was announced, I tried to think of a couple of Dave Mason songs, but nothing came immediately to mind. Fortunately, when he took the stage for his set he launched into a bunch of familiar tunes from both his solo career and time in Traffic and I recognized most of them. I didn't write down a set list for his part of the show, but I enjoyed it.
The Doobie Brothers were up next (again I didn't write down a set list, but you can find one here) and I was curious what their set would be like. Unlike Dave Mason, I could name a bunch of their songs off the top of my head and was interested in what their show would be like. Now, I can't say I'm a HUGE fan of the Doobies and probably wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but I wasn't put off by having them on the bill with Journey. They came out and did a great set of their hits, with a few more obscure songs thrown in. The crowd down in front was up for a lot of their set, but most of the rest of the folks were doing a lot of chair dancing. It really wasn't until the encore of "Listen to the Music" that everyone was up on their feet dancing along. I will point out one annoying thing about their set, or more accurately their set design. The backdrop they use shows the Golden Gate Bridge and a city skyline. The skyline didn't look at all like San Francisco, but even worse, you can't see downtown San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge as depicted on the banner! It looked more like the view you would see from the Bay Bridge. Just a native grumble.
Journey took the stage about 9:30 and by that time the crowd had filled in and was buzzing. Where I was sitting it was about half sitting/half standing, but the lower section and the pit where Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose were was on their feet. Early on in the set list, they played "Be Good to Yourself" (with Jenn, Cheryl, and Rose appearing on the big video screen) and I definitely missed Deen's backing vocals on that one. They've brought on a guy playing keyboards and doing some of the background vocals, but he definitely didn't hit the notes Deen did. They never introduced him and he was kind of hidden behind Jon all night.
Between Dave Mason and the Doobies, Jenn had come up to visit me and insisted that I use her ticket for a couple of songs during the Journey set, so we coordinated that I would head down and meet her after "Any Way You Want It" (about 6 songs in) and hang out for a couple of songs. My seat was in the lower rows of the Loge section -- about 5 or 6 rows up from the aisle between the Loge and Orchestra seats, but in order to get over to the restroom area to meet Jenn, I had to walk all the way to the top of the Loge section, over 2 sections, and then back down. That meant leaving my seat pretty much as AWYWI started. I met up with Jenn and swapped tickets then headed down to the front row for "Lights" and "Open Arms" I headed back up to swap back during "Line of Fire" -- Jenn scolded me for not staying through that song too, but it's not one of my favorites, so I'd rather wander up and back during that than another song I like more.
For most of the show, I really focused on watching Steve Smith. I've seen him numerous times on his own or with Vital Information, so I know what an amazing drummer he is, but to see him back with Journey was something special. It occurred to me that this was as close as I was ever going to get to seeing the classic Escape line up perform, and I really loved that. (Okay, sure, never say never, hell could freeze over, pigs could fly, and Perry could rejoin for a gig or two, but if I held my breath on that one I would have passed out a long time ago!) Perhaps having Steve Smith back was part of the reason for the Escape heavy set list. It was great to hear "Who's Crying Now" in the set and fun to watch Jenn jumping up and down during "Dead or Alive." (Yes, I saw you Jenn!) Near the end of the set, they launched in to "La Do Da" and towards the end of the song the rest of the band stepped off stage while Smitty went off on a solo. It was fantastic and very similar to some of the things I've seen him do during his own shows. Arms and legs in constant motion. Amazing!
One of the unexpected bits of the show was the full on cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," once again proving to me that I like Led Zeppelin songs so long as Robert Plant isn't singing them.
The show was over much too quickly and I worked my way through the throngs of people to meet up with Cheryl and Jenn to give them a ride back to their hotel. Taking forever to get out of the parking lot does have one advantage in that it allowed us to visit a bit more before all was said and done. We met up again Friday morning for a quick breakfast before we headed our separate ways -- Cheryl and Jenn to Phoenix for the next show, me to visit a cousin near LA (where we wound up watching the Journey episode of "Behind the Music" and clips of Perry's 1994 Beacon Theater show thanks to You Tube.) As always, time flew by much too fast, but it was great hanging with my Journey buddies again. See you all in San Francisco!
Set List:
Separate Ways
Be Good to Yourself
Only the Young
- Neal solo -
Stone in Love
Any Way You Want It
Lights
Open Arms
Line of Fire
Dead or Alive
Rock and Roll
- Jon solo -
Who's Crying Now
Escape
La Do Da
- Drum solo -
- Neal solo 2 -
Wheel in the Sky
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Encore:
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
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