I'm still a bit amazed by all that happened last weekend in New York, it was a trip of a lifetime and I'll never forget it. Once it was announced in December that Journey would be among the 2017 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I started making plans to be there. I had joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when I saw Journey's name on the ballot on the likely chance that should they get in there would be a members only pre-sale for tickets to the show. Fortunately so did Cheryl and Mary Ann and between the three of us we figured we'd have a good chance of securing the seven tickets we needed for our group (with Leslie F., Jenn, Emerson, & Nicole.) Our group could have been even bigger, but alas, lots of our friends couldn't make the trip. We'd just have to celebrate on their behalf.
The members-only pre-sale came up towards the end of January and it was off to pray to the Ticketmaster gods at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time. This was actually a pretty good thing as it meant most of us wouldn't have to try to get tickets while at work and could try our purchasing interruption free (no way would it be stress free!) We were a bit surprised that the ticket limit was 2 per member, which meant it was going to be challenging to get the needed 7 tickets, but at least the price range fell in line with what we were expecting with the top non-VIP tickets being around $500 (still, the most expensive single ticket I've purchased for a concert.) Ultimately though, whatever got all of us in the door was going to be the deal. We managed to have 4 of us available when the pre-sale started and away we went. After lots of texting back and forth, we wound up with 6 tickets before the pre-sale sold out. Four of the tickets were on the lower level and the other two were in the 200 section. We still needed 1 more ticket for our group, and so we planned to try again in a few days when the Citibank card pre-sale was scheduled. When that sale began, also at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, I wound up with the miracle luck and snagged a pair of lower level seats by 7:05! We now had 8 tickets for 7 people, but wanted to see if we could improve on the 200 level seats. That didn't happen with the pre-sale and attempts during the general public on sale also proved fruitless as no one could get in to even attempt to buy tickets. Mary Ann wound up with the 200 level seats, so it was her call as to who would buy the extra ticket (though we helped and let her know who we knew was looking for a ticket.) This was probably one of the most stressful ticket buying experiences of my life -- I could NOT fail at getting these tickets, it just wasn't an option, so to have managed to snag four was just a thrill.
February and March were spent coordinating with everyone on where to stay and what to do and, yes, plan a JPP-lite event. One of my cousins lived in New York for a while and met her husband there, so I asked them for a recommendation for a reasonably priced restaurant that was good for large groups. They recommended Tony's DiNapoli near Times Square, which turned out to be perfect. Good family style Italian and lots of it. I also went down to my storage locker and pulled out the box of JPP stuff left over from previous events and shipped most of it to myself at my hotel with the plan of not coming home with any of it!
Finally, it was time to hit the road. Things started out pretty rocky on Thursday morning, storms from Chicago eastward screwed up nearly everyone's travel plans. My flight was delayed leaving San Francisco for two hours, Jenn got delayed in Kansas City, Leslie and Cheryl were re-routed to Washington DC, the crew from Chicago sat at O'Hare for hours, and poor Mary Ann spent the night at the Atlanta airport and didn't land in New York until 4:45 Friday afternoon!!!! A few other people had cancelled and delayed flights, but eventually everyone made their way to New York.
Once I got to my hotel Thursday night around 9, I met up with Jenn, Leslie, and Cheryl, and we shared our travel woes and general excitement for Friday. It's always fun once the gang starts gathering and we chatted for a couple of hours before running out of gas and heading to bed. I woke up around 5:30 -- way too early -- only to discover that Mary Ann hadn't arrived in the night. I looked up the flight she said she was supposed to be arriving on and discovered it had been cancelled -- the third cancelled flight of her trip! I checked in with her stuck in Atlanta to see how she was doing and to give what moral support I could via text message then went back to sleep for about an hour. It was still too early to be awake and up, but there was just too much excitement and anticipation to really get more sleep. Morning was spent taking it easy, pulling things together for lunch, making plans for how to get to Brooklyn for the show, and what to do on Saturday.
Soon it was time to head over to Tony DiNapoli's in Times Square to meet up with a bunch of other crazies for a JPP-lite lunch. Cheryl, Leslie, Jenn, and I walked from our hotel to the restaurant with the intent of being a little early so we could set up and be there when everyone else arrived. Emerson and Nicole were already there when we arrived having had dinner there a couple of nights previously (they did the trip right -- a weekend in Cleveland and the RRHOF before spending the week in New York!) I went downstairs and set a few things up -- a little trivia quiz for the folks coming in which would result in prizes from the bag-o-JPP-stuff!
People started arriving not too long afterwards and it was time to catch up and visit. It was great seeing everyone who could make it for lunch. Unfortunately a few people, besides poor Mary Ann, got held up by travel snafus and missed lunch. We did meet a few other fans who hadn't RSVP'd for the lunch but stopped by the restaurant to say hello. Everyone was taking pictures and checking in with friends who couldn't join us when someone spotted a news alert from TMZ. They were reporting Steve Perry would be singing at the ceremonies Friday night! Well you can imagine the buzz among the group (including the fans who dropped in running downstairs to see if we'd seen the news) -- if this were true, it was going to be an even more memorable night than we were expecting. Fortunately, this was also a group of long-time fans who had heard rumors of all sorts before and knew to temper their expectations. While we all hoped Steve Perry would sing, we pretty much agreed that it probably wasn't going to happen. Still, he'd proven us wrong before, so we kept our fingers crossed that miracles would happen. Ever since the official split between Steve Perry and the rest of Journey I had felt if he were ever to sing with them again it would be at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, but twenty or so years of living in Journeyland (including about 10 pretty deeply involved beyond the level of normal fandom) had taught me to keep my expectations low.
Soon it was time to hand out prizes (and no the trivia wasn't too hard -- I said you could collaborate/cheat!) and everyone went home with some kind of goodie. This included Amanda winning an Evolution-era head shot of Steve Perry. This would prove quite important as the day progressed. Lunch wrapped up about 2:30 and it was time to head back to the hotel and freshen up for the evening. Since we were staying right next to Grand Central Station, we stopped in there first to pick up our Metro Cards for the subway including getting one for Mary Ann who, per her most recent text, was due to arrive around 4:00. Since we were planning to get to Barclays about 5:15 or so for the 5:45 doors, we didn't think we'd have time to connect with her before the show so wanted to make sure she had everything she needed to meet us when she finally arrived.
A group of us met in the lobby to caravan over to Barclays via subway. I had done some research on which trains would go where we needed and was fairly confident I could get us there safely, but it was great to have a local in Amanda to truly help everyone get through the subway. So as to not to lose people from one point to another, Amanda eventually pulled out her Steve Perry head shot and held it up over her head like a tour guide would as she led us through the tunnels. This was probably one of those "you had to be there" moments, but it was one of the funnier parts of the day. About a dozen of us arrived at the Barclays Center about a half an hour before the doors opened where we promptly ran into a few more of the Journey faithful we knew. As it was chilly and windy, some of us ducked across the street to a small mall to grab a quick drink and sit and chat.
Back across to Barclays to go through security, which was quite quick -- I had really expected much longer lines even that early, but there were almost no lines at all when we arrived. There was a DJ just past security blasting all kinds of classic rock. "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" was blaring as I passed through the security gate and I thought "Oh man, too bad it's Friday, this would be perfect!" Then it was off to find the swag. We were directed to where the swag was supposed to be only to find everything shuttered. Nothing. No swag anywhere! Well, that was quite disappointing. None of us could figure out why there were no t-shirts or any other memorabilia available for sale. Missed opportunity for sure. With no shopping to do, we all mixed and mingled and found our other friends coming to the show. I think I managed to at least say a quick hello to everyone I knew in advance would be attending (we did run in to a couple of other old time Back Talkers on our way out after it was over that I don't think anyone knew would be there.) It was fantastic seeing everyone, even if briefly.
While chatting with Deb, Lori, Teresa, and Barb, one of them mentioned Journey would be on first. I was hoping very hard that would not be the case. I had gotten a text from Mary Ann at 4:45 that she had landed, but she still needed to drop her suitcase at the hotel, pick up the Metro Card, and get to Barclays by the 7:00 start time. Who knew if she'd make it on time, and if Journey were on first, that would be a nightmare!
Soon it was off to our seats and time to get settled in for the show. I knew beforehand that Janice and Randal would be sitting next to Leslie and me, but had to laugh when we got in and they were sitting in the wrong seats! Once everyone got settled, we chatted and visited while waiting for the show to start and just before things got started I got a text from Mary Ann -- she'd made it! Thank God!
My previous two posts describe the show, so I'll skip over all of that except to say it was so much fun keeping up with the folks who couldn't make it via Facebook. The way the show was set up with videos and speeches meant there were lulls where it was easy to make a quick post about what was going on and check on responses without missing much of the action (and if I missed a random member of ELO or Yes thanking their wives and children, well it wasn't a big deal.) When Journey (or "Journry" as I posted) hit the stage, it got a little crazier trying to take pictures, snag a little video, and make a couple of concert calls while in a state of complete excitement and lunacy. I'm still shocked I didn't actually cry, and maybe that's because I was looking for Steve to come up from the floor with the rest of the guys when he came in from the wings so I didn't actually see him take the stage. I just heard this huge roar from the crowd and I knew what had happened even while I was thinking "Where the hell is Steve in that bunch?!" I'm really curious why he spent the whole show backstage instead of on the floor with everyone else. And from pictures I've seen since, he didn't stick around to chat with the press afterwards. He seems to just want to isolate himself from everything and that makes me sad. I do hope Neal's post-induction comments that he's going to try to reconnect with Steve come to fruition, and not in the sense of them making music together, but to rekindle a friendship. If something beyond that comes out of it, terrific, but those guys did so much together when they were younger it would be nice to see the bad feelings put in the past. It's reminded me of the conversation I had with Jon in Hollywood at the luncheon after the star ceremony. He made a comment to me about how nice it was that Steve had shown up for it, which none of them knew about until they saw him, and the way he said it was touched with the same kind of nostalgia that the fans were feeling. Hopefully some fences can be mended.
After five hours of a huge spectrum of music, we all gathered outside Barclays for the subway ride back -- again led by Amanda and her photo of Steve Perry, which was much more important for the return trip as subway construction required us to find a completely different platform than expected. We said goodbye to Amanda at Grand Central Station as she had to run to catch her train home and headed back to the hotel. My traveling companions all called it a night (especially poor Mary Ann who hadn't slept since Wednesday night!) but I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the lobby to meet a few folks for what was supposed to be a quick after-show drink. My plan was to have a quick drink and say good bye/good night to everyone as they headed off to their respective hotels/rooms and then work on the first report. A little proscecco and a lot of chat meant reporting was delayed, but it was great being able to visit with folks a while longer. Everyone started to fade around 2:00, so it was off to bed and farewell to most of the Journey-ers who'd joined us.
A quick wrap for the rest of the weekend. Cheryl, Leslie, Jenn, Mary Ann, and I set out Saturday morning to meet Deb A. and a friend at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Debbie is someone I've known from the Perry List since the late 1990s and was in the South Tower on 9/11, so going to the museum with her was special. I will say it was a complete 180 degrees opposite from the emotions of the night before, and being completely exhausted meant getting overwhelmed once or twice. If you ever get a chance to go to the museum I would say do it, but bring Kleenex and be prepared to be a bit emotionally wrung out when you're through.
We said our goodbyes to Deb and headed back to the hotel for a late lunch and a nap before grabbing a car from the hotel to go see the musical Beautiful which is about Carole King and features a lot of her music. Jenn managed to snag us 5 dead center orchestra seats and it was a fantastic show. I grew up on Carole King and just absolutely loved the show. It was a perfect addition to the theme of the weekend.
Mary Ann had an early-ish flight out Sunday, so we had a nice farewell breakfast at the hotel before she had to head off to the airport. My flight wasn't until 6 that evening, so I had half a day to spend with Cheryl, Leslie, and Jenn before heading home. We hopped on the subway up to Central Park to visit Strawberry Fields and then walked around the park a bit before hopping into a cab to Rockefeller Center. We grabbed mimosas at a wine bar at Rockefeller Center then walked down Fifth Avenue back to the hotel where I was to grab my shuttle to the airport.
I still can't quite believe I actually was in New York for Journey's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Part of that is due to thinking it would never happen and part of it is due to it just being such an exciting and whirlwind of a weekend. Attending the Giants home opener on Monday and getting to hear "Lights" play in the middle of the eighth inning took me straight back to Friday night and I rather ignored my friend for the duration of the song while I sat there listening and looking out at the Bay Bridge. My favorite band was playing, it was time to bliss out.
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