June 21, 2003: Main Event in the Mid-West

Kansas City, MO
Kemper Arena

Another month and another road trip to catch "The Main Event." This trip started out just a little different than most. Meeting up with fellow JourneyDigest.com staff member Leslie White in Kansas City Friday night meant I would be on hand to assist in the interview of Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain. We spent an hour Saturday afternoon talking with Neal and Jonathan about a variety of subjects.*

*The interview was published some weeks later on the now defunct website, JourneyDigest.com. You can read it starting here.

Before the show Mark and Lorraine Naster (front)
hosted fans at their house for a wonderful pre-concert barbeque.

Meanwhile, on to the show. This being my fourth show of the tour, I pretty much knew what to expect, but there is always something a little different about every show in every town. It may be a subtle difference, but the differences are there. The Kemper Arena looked to be about 3/4 full, with mostly the high nosebleed seats being vacant. Overall I'd say the crowd was average, not wildly energetic for the entire four and a half hours, but not unenthused either.

REO was up first and went through the same set and the same stories as they've been doing all tour. Other than Kevin Cronin slightly modifying his "Playboy Mansion" story there was nothing new or particularly different in their set. I love their songs and the crowd did too, so the show kicked off in enthusiastic style.

The more I see Styx, the more I enjoy their show. I am extremely glad that they are out on the road with Journey this year and that I am getting the opportunity to see them so often. The energy those guys put out on stage is unbelievable and I have to remind myself I need to conserve some of my energy or by the time Journey hits the stage I will faint from exhaustion. As has been happening all along, the response to the tunes from Cyclorama get a fairly lackluster response since they are so unfamiliar (with the exception of Glen Burtnik's running through the audience "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" of course.) And for the second time in the four shows I've seen, Styx was joined for a few songs by original bassist Chuck Panazzo. (This puts Glen Burtnik on guitar and I tell ya, having 3 guitars going for a couple of songs is amazing.)

Time for Journey to come on stage. They've changed the opening and now instead of coming on stage to the Red 13 Intro, they are using the intro from the DVD. This works better going in to "Separate Ways" than Red 13 did, but it's a bit of a bummer that now there is nothing from the EP in the set at all. I was able to move up from my 12th row seat to the 4th row about halfway through the set and so experienced the phenomena of having totally different sound during one set. It may be a little easier to see in the fourth row, but it was definitely easier to hear in the twelfth! (Just a reminder for those who find the sound a problem -- take a note of where you are sitting and how it relates to the building and the set up, it DOES make a difference!)

There were a couple of treats for me in this set list -- all of "Dixie Highway" and "Where Were You" (woo hoo! more songs I've never heard live before!) both of which rocked! The only down point in the show was when Jonathan's monitor died right after he introduced "Feeling That Way/Anytime." The show came to a halt for about a minute while his rig was put back on line. (Yikes!) Ross, ever the clown stepped up to his mic and said "We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by." A good move to distract the audience momentarily while the road crew fixed the problem. Once back underway, the pace was quickly regained. During "Feeling That Way" I noticed someone was handing Steve a Bammies Walk of Fame pin -- since I had brought some of the extras I had from that weekend to the fan gathering before the concert I was amused to see it now pinned to Steve's jacket. (BTW ladies, white leather jacket, no shirt!)

The show ended all too quickly (even though Journey did run a little long due to the technical difficulty) and soon it was time to say good bye to most of the KC crowd I'd met during the day. This looks to be my last "regular" Main Event show... next stop, Chicago and Loopfest...

Set Lists:

REO:

Ridin' the Storm Out
Keep Pushin'
Can't Fight This Feeling
Don't Let Him Go
Keep on Lovin' You
In Your Letter
Take it on the Run
In My Dreams (acoustic)
Time for Me to Fly
Back on the Road Again
Roll with the Changes

Encore:
157 Riverside Avenue

STYX:

Too Much Time on My Hands
Grand Illusion
Waiting on Our Time To Come
Lady
These Are the Times
Blue Collar Man
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
Foolin' Yourself (w/ Chuck Panazzo)
Miss America
Come Sail Away (w/ Chuck Panazzo)

Encore:
Renegade (w/ Chuck Panazzo)

JOURNEY:

Separate Ways
Stone in Love
Wheel in the Sky
Star Spangled Banner (Neal solo)
Dixie Highway
Lights
-- Jonathan solo --
Open Arms
Where Were You
Feeling That Way
Anytime
Don't Stop Believin'
Ask the Lonely
Escape
Be Good to Yourself
Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
Faithfully

P.S. The video for "Faithfully" is fantastic -- they're using pix of the band's and crew's families. Wonderful!