May 27, 2007: Police Fan Club Show

Vancouver, BC
GM Place

The first review I posted about this show was the one I sent to my Journey buddies and other friends. It wasn't until I returned home from Vancouver that I shared my full thoughts with the folks on the Police fan club message boards. Managed to dig it up too.

So we're now a good 3 days since the show and I think I can finally add my perspective. Like many here, I just missed being able to see the Police back in their hey day -- I was 15 when the last tour ended, not quite old enough to be allowed to go to shows. I've seen Sting three or four times at least -- pretty much whenever he's come through the Bay Area. Like many, I figured the odds of ever seeing the Police live and in person were beyond zero and that was just one of those things that happen in life. So the news of the reunion and tour came as a huge surprise and thrill.

For me, the trek to Vancouver was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of events that I just couldn't miss, but if the tickets had cost $225 instead of $50, I probably would have stayed home and thought "darn, that would have been cool." But things all work in the way they need to I suppose, and I got to take in a rare show.

Now, as I mentioned to a few people at Ceili's Sunday night I'm not "that way" about the Police. I've always enjoyed their music but don't have that deep emotional connection. I totally get that feeling, it's just a different group for me. Thus one of the things I really enjoyed Sunday night was watching all the other fans with various looks of excitement, shock, anticipation, awe, and all around joy as show time approached. Their excitement increased my own.

When I got to the arena and found my seat, I was just thrilled though with the location. Fourth row, Sting's side of center stage. My concern about having to see over the too-tall Muse and her husband was abated when we discovered they had seats 23 and 24 to my seat 22. Even better, there was NO ONE in seat 22 in front of me. Holy cow a totally clear view of the stage ALL NIGHT. I'm 5' 2" -- I never get a clear view! Woo hoo! Okay, so my excitement built rapidly from there. Especially since cameras were rampantly available and usable -- I pulled mine out of my purse before the show started and shot off about 250 pictures by the time the show ended.

Unfortunately, I was totally unprepared for the guys coming out on stage BEFORE the show started to say "hi." Ah well, can't anticipate everything. The show started and wow... I was just amazed. Many comments have been made already about the different arrangements, but to my ear most songs sounded more or less as I expected them too -- or at least nothing was changed so much that I couldn't identify it within a few notes (something I will admit I was worried about so spent time cramming with Message in a Box.)

My best description of the show was it was very loose and the pace more moderated than I expected -- kind of like they were feeling out the reaction. The thing that truly amazed me though, was just what astounding musicians these guys are. As I said, I've always liked their music, but I've never really paid deep serious attention to it. Don't get me wrong, I knew these guys had the chops, but seeing them live and in person put a WHOLE different perspective on their talents for me. I was beyond impressed.

The set list covered pretty much everything I expected and/or hoped it would, and I couldn't help remembering being 12 and hearing "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" for the first time when that popped up. Between shooting off the camera I danced and sung along and had a great ole time. The show was over much too fast, but two days driving home gave me plenty of time to reflect on the evening. I'm so glad I went and what a way to get to see the Police for the first time.

I've spent the better part of today putting the pictures I took together. I've got to say, I really impressed myself this time and got a lot of really good shots. (Usually, I figure I'm lucky if 25% of the shots are quality -- this time only about 25% were total crap!) There's always the microphones, cymbals, heads, and arms that get in the way, but I think I got a pretty good collection this time.

May 27, 2007: Special Police Edition: Fan Club Members Only!

Vancouver, BC
GM Place

Well I'm back from the show tonight. Totally sucked. I mean really, I had to sit in the FOURTH row... what's up with that?? Aren't I supposed to be in the FIRST row?? I mean I have standards!

I can not believe the show I just saw. I can not believe the seat I had. I can not WAIT for Oakland (though it's gonna be hard being so far away from the stage after tonight. Maybe I'll win the front row seats from the fan club...)


Where to begin.... Got in early this afternoon, cleaned up and went and picked up my ticket at will call before heading over to meet up with the group of Police fans that had organized a little get together at a near by restaurant. It was fun watching all these seriously die-hard Police fans just being giddy with looks on their faces between "when does the show start" and "I can't believe this is happening!" Headed over to the venue about 6, doors opened at 6:30 and I got in pretty quickly. Everyone's concerns about cameras being confiscated was totally moot -- no one even did a search and when I walked in the door one of the vendors was taking a picture of a couple of fans. Picked up some swag and headed to my seat. About died from shock when I saw how close I was to the stage. Totally unreal. Even better, the seat in front of me was vacant as was one of the seats next to me, so lots of room to move and a great view of the stage! The arena was set up for most of the floor (I'd say about 25-30 rows) and about the first three sections of the lower bowl, and that was it. Maybe 4,000 people in an arena that probably holds 4 times that many. 

Sat and people watched for a while and it was great watching all these fans coming up to the stage and taking their picture with the mics and drum kit in the background. Saw my favorite t-shirt of the night that said "Pinch me I must be dreaming." Chatted some with the folks sitting around me, saw one woman in tears. This was a seriously big deal, and I totally got that and started getting goosebumps myself.
 

Show time was 7:30, which came and went with no show -- big surprise. About 7:40 with no warning Sting, Stewart, and Andy all walked out on stage and welcomed everyone to "the final dress rehearsal." About 5 minutes later this giant gong rises from behind the drum kit and the band takes the stage and kicked off with "Message in a Bottle." You know the saying "And the crowd goes wild"??? Well, let me tell you I've never heard such a roar and I swear every voice must have been singing the chorus at the top of their lungs -- if I didn't know better I would have said there were 16,000 people in the place! Kicked in to "Synchronicity II" next and the show rolled on from there. I don't have the set list since I was busily taking pictures* (and a little video sssshhhhh) but a couple of the people I was sitting with did so I'm sure it will be posted somewhere soon. They played everything you would expect them to and a couple of slightly more obscure songs, but nothing I had a problem recognizing after a few notes (or lines). Of course, it may have helped that I was listening to Message in a Box the last couple of weeks to remind myself of a few tunes, but really most of the stuff they played is stuff that's been on the radio since forever and I still hear on the radio today.

They changed a couple of songs around, mostly slowing the tempo on a couple of the faster ones ("Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" comes to mind off the top of my head) and a couple of tunes were a little "Stingified," but all in all the songs sounded like I expected them to and satisfied that little nagging thought I always get when I've seen Sting perform some of these tunes solo -- "That was great, but wish I could have heard the Police version."

Yeah, my seat didn't suck.

The show was a little loosey goosey with a fairly moderated pace and I suspect things will be a bit tighter for tomorrow's official opener and the rest of the tour, but the cool thing was that they all really looked like they were having fun. Stewart is definitely a drummer -- at one point he tossed one of his sticks and it nearly hit Andy and then later in the set he stood up and raced around the stage for no other reason than "I have to sit behind the kit all the time." Total goofball. He made a few other random comments through out the night, but I had a hard time hearing him (that darned fourth row!) Amazing drummer though -- wow. I was seriously impressed. Actually I was seriously impressed with the overall musicianship. I mean, it was just these three guys on stage -- no extra musicians, no back up singers -- and it was a HUGE sound. It was really spectacular. I knew these guys were good, but not THIS good.

I'm sure there are die hard fans who are going to nit pick on little things here and there, but for this casual observer you'd never know it's been 23 years since they last toured.

Can't really report much about the staging since, being in the fourth row (did I mention that?) the only "effects" I got to see was the lighting. Real simple stage though. There was no drape behind the stage so I don't know if that means there isn't going to be one at all and thus there is seating behind the stage for arena shows. The show in Oakland in a couple of weeks is going to be a totally different beast -- a huge stadium set up, so I'll be interested to compare the look and sound.

All in all I am so glad I decided to ditch my "no traveling this year" policy for this show. It was definitely an opportunity I couldn't miss. I'm sorely tempted to delay my return tomorrow and try to score a ticket to the opener, but this treat is already more than I should have given myself so I'll hit the road back home tomorrow morning and be thrilled with having had such a cool opportunity.

I think I'm gonna like this year of concerts of acts I've never seen before!

Set List:

Intro
Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Voices Inside My Head/When the World Is Running Down
Spirits in the Material World
Driven to Tears
Walking on the Moon
Truth Hits Everybody
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Bed's Too Big Without You
Murder By Numbers
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking in Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne

Encore 1:
King of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take

Encore 2:
Next to You

*As you can see from the few pictures included here, I had a GREAT view and got a TON of fantastic photos. Most of the time when I take concert shots 1 out of 4 are decent. This time 3 of 4 were beyond decent. Will post some in a separate entry. Contrary to accusations I got on the Police message boards, I was not concentrating solely on Sting (I actually had more pictures of Andy and Stewart) but I was seated right in front of Sting so the pictures of him came out the best. Andy was furthest away and had to be shot through heads, so didn't turn out as well.

January 13, 2007: Return to the Fox

Redwood City, CA
Fox Theater

So, two weeks, two benefits, two reports! The Nor Cal gang came to MY part of the bay and took in another great show by Gregg and his band at the Fox Theater in Redwood City. Now, unfortunately, it wasn't like the LAST time Gregg played a Voices of Latin Rock Benefit at the Fox -- where he was joined by Neal and several fellow former Santana members. Okay, so now I'm REALLY bummed I didn't grab a ticket to the show at Bimbo's on Thursday. Siiighh... Oh well, maybe next time! The show opened with a band called La Ventana that most of us missed as we were hanging out in the lobby of the theater yammering away as we always do at one of these gigs. When Malo took the stage we decided to go inside where it was MUCH warmer than the lobby which had an icy wind blowing through. (And while I know most folks live in places where it routinely snows during this time of year, we NorCals are NOT used to temps in the 30s and 40s as it has been lately and was again last night -- BRRRRR!)

Malo put on a good show which had people dancing all around. And despite only knowing one song myself (their big hit "Suavacito") I found myself dancing along as well. There's just something to those Latin rhythms that make you just want to move!

Gregg hit the stage about 9:45 or so and by that time we'd all worked our way down front. Anyone who's seen Gregg's band play knows just how good they are and how much fun they always seem to have on stage. The set list wasn't all that much different than any other time I've seen him over the last 6 years or so. More Santana stuff this time than Roots stuff, plus one new tune that he really needs to get recorded.

While they were playing I had the same thought cross my mind that I often have when I see Gregg -- all of those songs are nearly as old as I am. Gregg's time in Santana began before I was born (sorry Gregg!) and lasted until I was about 3 years old, but all those songs still sound completely fresh and exciting. Sure, I have literally been hearing them all my life, but there is a LOT of music I've been hearing all my life that hasn't held up over time.

The only downer of the show was it was general admission which means invasion of your personal space and all the general stupidity that comes along. Even with a more mature crowd, it's still annoying.

After Gregg's show was done, a couple of folks hopped next door to the Little Fox to catch the last bit of Evolution's show. I wasn't one, but did catch the end of "Faithfully" through the windows as I headed back to my car. The folks who caught that show will have to fill us all in.*

*I should have stuck around outside to listen from the street. Gregg joined Evolution for a few songs later in their set, including "Just the Same Way." My excuse -- it was below 30 degrees out! Way cold for the Bay Area!

January 5, 2007: ARF (Arf.. Arf...)

Walnut Creek, CA
Dean Lesher Center for the Arts
Benefit for the Animal Rescue Foundation

November 2014: I attended this benefit show for the Animal Rescue Foundation that was to feature "Neal Schon and Friends" as part of a multi act bill a few weeks after the formal announcement that Steve Augeri would no longer be the lead singer for Journey and he would be replaced by Jeff Scott Soto who had "filled in" during the 2006 tour. As with all things lead-singer-related in Journeyland, there was lots of hubbub and arguments, debates, and general uproar among the Journey fans, especially after a lot of the rumors, innuendo and general upheaval surrounding the 2006 tour. Personally, I was not thrilled with the choice and that influenced some of the comments that follow. Jeff was to be one of the "friends" at this show, so I went with some trepidation.

Well here we are with the first Rockin' Road Report for 2007 and I'm finding it difficult to put into words exactly what to say about last night's show. I mean, there's the general detail about the show, but there's also all the other stuff swirling around it. What should I say? What shouldn't I say? How does it all fit? I've been keeping fairly quiet these past few weeks, other than a few posts on the Journey Digest, I've not said much publicly about all that's transpired.

As with anything, it's probably best to look at the whole picture, so we'll start with recognizing that I've been a bit burnt out on Journey since even before this summer and all the drama and this past year only made things toastier. So, when I heard about this show in late November/early December I wasn't entirely sure I really wanted to go, but when I factored in the friends that were coming to see the show I figured that, at worst, I'd have a pleasant evening spent in the company of people I truly like and had missed seeing in 2006. What the hell, get me a ticket. Leslie made the trip over to Walnut Creek and scored 8 second row seats -- all right not bad at all.

And then The News, and here we go again. Now, I'm even less enthusiastic about going to the show than I was before and really don't know how I am going to respond to the show. But after having a wide variety of imaginary scenarios of how I could publicly express my disappointment in everything, I again focused on just going and having a good time with my friends.

So, last night I ducked out of work early and drove out to Walnut Creek to meet up with everyone for dinner before the show. Surprisingly while a lot of the conversation was about everyone's take on the current state of Journey and how we all feel about it, it was not ALL we talked about. That, more than anything, reassured me that I had made the right decision to come to the show.

Over to the show at the Dean Lescher Center, a small local theater. I'd been there once before when Jon performed solo at a previous ARF benefit, and I expected last night's show to be similar to the one I had seen then -- several acts before intermission and then Neal, Jon and Jeff in whatever combination they were going to do. That was mostly the case as the evening started off with the "All Star Band" headed up by Marc Russo and featuring Stef Burns on the guitar. They played a variety of tunes including a good cover of the Beatles "I Want You" and an odd cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice" which had me commenting to Cheryl "Well, at least we'll hear this played right next weekend at Gregg's show!"

They were followed by a comedian named Dennis Blair who started doing a bit on old rock bands that had all of us laughing, but when he went off on a riff about bands that are changing members and touring with out key members (e.g. the Doors) well, we all looked at each other and laughed about 10 times as hard. I mean, it was just too easy to start applying the jokes to what we'd all been talking about at dinner.

He was followed by Marty Casey and the Lovehammers. Since I do not watch any reality television if I can possibly avoid it, I didn't know until we got to the show that Marty Casey was the runner up for Rock Star: INXS. He and his band came out on stage and suddenly the area between the front row and stage is filled with little girls -- if any of them were over 16 I'd be shocked -- jumping up and down and dancing and just having the time of their lives. I stayed sitting in my 2nd row seat and enjoyed their enthusiasm, and when Marty pulled one little girl up on stage to dance with him well, I thought how cool that had to be for her and flashed on what I would have thought at that age to get pulled up on stage. The Lovehammers were pretty good despite not being a style I generally listen to. It did take me about half of the song to recognize their cover of "I Walk the Line," but only took about a verse of "Paint It Black" for me to recognize that cover.

Time for intermission and next up "Neal Schon and Friends" (as it was billed in the program.) Most of the crew I was sitting with (Cheryl, Leslie and her husband Todd, Darryl and Jenny, Barb, Jenn, Matt, and Kim) headed out to the lobby to get drinks and such, but I decided to stay in the theater. I'm glad I did as I ran into more of the local Journey crowd that I forgot (or didn't realize) would also be at the show and got to visit with them all a bit. Yes, this is what Journey and related events has really come to be about -- the many many friends I've made over the past 8 years. That's too valuable to give up for anything.

Intermission ended and we all made sure we were up at the stage to watch the show up close. After showing highlights from the 2006 World Series up on the screen, Tony LaRussa came out to make a small award presentation and then announce Neal and Friends. Out walk Neal, Jon, Marco Mendoza and a drummer I don't recognize. Hmmm... interesting. I'd seen Ross in the balcony earlier and the production schedule I happened to grab to write my notes on clearly said "9:40 pm Journey." I could see Jeff standing on the side of the stage, so we'll see what happens.

The guys kick off with an instrumental tune that I recognized as one of Neal's solo tunes but for the life of me couldn't identify. Thankfully, Neal back-announced it so I can report it was "Boulevard of Dreams" from Beyond the Thunder. Jeff came out after being introduced as "our new lead singer" and the guys launched into a string of cover tunes. It was amusing watching Jeff fiddle with his laptop that was sitting at his feet as he was using it as a TelePrompter for the lyrics to "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and a handful of tunes by Sly & the Family Stone for the medley they did of those songs. I had to laugh at just how technology has changed things as Jeff used his cordless mouse to scroll down the lines.

Since the guys were doing covers, I was really able to relax and enjoy the show. The sound wasn't that great, as it was a really low budget production (it is a fundraiser after all) but I enjoyed hearing the tunes. It reminded me of the Soul SirkUs gig a couple of years ago and how I enjoyed that. When "Purple Rain" morphed into the end of "Faithfully" though, I had to forcibly focus on the show and not my feeling that Jeff's the wrong fit. It did at least allow me to finally connect a comment I remember Jon making in some interview about Prince telling him "oh man I totally ripped you off" (or something like that) about a song of his. I could never figure out what song he was referring to -- either the Journey tune or the Prince tune -- and hearing the transition was such a "d'oh" moment that I'm shocked I didn't realize ages ago.

After closing the covers out with a tribute to James Brown with "I Feel Good", Jeff introduced the drummer as David something from his solo band and welcomed Ross to the stage. Marco headed off stage and 4/5ths of what is now Journey launched into "Don't Stop Believin'," and then things went seriously down hill. Ironically, I'm not saying this out of any displeasure, but out of actual disaster. Jeff couldn't hear and kept pointing off stage to turn on/up his monitors. Jon's rig went haywire about halfway through. From where I was standing (in front of Jon) it sounded like Jon's mic went goofy as his backing vocal was far too loud and didn't even sound right. There was all kinds of flurry as Jim and a couple of other techs tried to fix things. When the guys launched into "Separate Ways" the keyboards were completely out and Banana Alan came down from his seat in the balcony to try to help. That resulted in a loud pop that had me jumping back and Jon putting his hands on his ears. All in all, not so good. They struggled through it and then took their final bow.

After the show, it was more time to visit with friends and discuss all that went on. That was when more of the Journey talk that I had anticipated at dinner took place, but even then it eventually morphed into other subjects.

After all is said and done, while the music may not be connecting to me as it once did, the personal connections I've made are still there and will hopefully remain for a long time. Over the years, Journey's music has given me a lot, but the friends that it has given me trumps it all.

Shew... this is longer than I had expected and took me longer to write than I would have thought, but there's been a lot in my head of late and trying to express it properly is complex. Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Happy New Year!

Set List:

Boulevard of Dreams
Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Sly Stone medley ("I Want to take You Higher," "Dance to the Music," and one other I can't remember)
Purple Rain
I Feel Good
Don't Stop Believin'
Separate Ways