I actually meant to write and publish this post six months ago when we hit upon the 20th Anniversary of the release of Trial by Fire, but as happens in life, I got busy with other things and forgot completely about it. With Journey's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now just days away, I thought it would be good to go back and revisit how that album kicked off a long strange trip down the highways and byways of Journeyland. No, this isn't about Journey's road to the Hall of Fame, it's about mine.
We actually start in late 1995 when I saw a blurb in the San Francisco Chronicle that Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain, and Neal Schon were talking about a Journey reunion. This was around the same time Steve Perry was out on tour supporting his solo album For the Love of Strange Medicine and I thought "well, that'd be cool if it happens" and then pretty much forgot about it. It had been 10 years since Journey was last together and I really didn't expect much to come of it. Come September, 1996 and I'm at work going through the day's mail. There was a new issue of Forbes magazine in the batch and one of my tasks was to review all the magazines for my boss and look for articles relevant to our research or, in the case of Forbes, our fundraising efforts. This particular issue had a photo of Kiss on the cover and a headline along the lines of "Rock Reunions" which caught my eye, so instead of just skimming through the issue as I normally would, I flipped through to the article on Kiss and read it on my lunch break. Most of the article was about Kiss's reunion with Ace Frehley and Peter Kriss, but made mention of a couple other reunions including a mention that Journey had reunited and there was a new album coming out in October. What?! Wait, what did I miss?! I spun in my chair, fired up Yahoo! to do an internet search (oh 1996!) on Journey. I immediately found three sites I devoured -- the first was the official Sony Music Journey site which was promoting the upcoming album release and had a series of message boards for fans to connect and chat about Journey. The next two were the great Journey Tribute Page run by Steve Lake (while it hasn't been updated in years, it still exists!) and the late great Journey Fans Network run by Jaspirina Mahyat (thanks Internet Archive.) Back in the days before official websites and social media these sites were where fans would go to get the latest and greatest info on Journey and connect with other fans. There were also the IRC chats, the Journey Digest mailing list, and the old tried and true newsgroups. Not having my own internet connection at home in 1996 (I don't think I even had a computer at home then, though it's close to when I got a laptop for work, so I might have) I couldn't participate in the chats and was wary of the newsgroup and mailing lists, especially since I only had my work email address at the time. So I devoured what I could from what I'd found and kept an eye on the message boards at the Sony site pretty regularly.
While I can't remember now exactly what was going on at work in October, 1996, I do remember that I was extremely stressed out and frustrated, in large part due to a senior manager who was making my life miserable despite the fact I didn't report to her. I had circled October 22 on my calendar -- the date Trial by Fire was due to be released. Since that was a Tuesday and back in a time when you couldn't order a new CD on Amazon and have it show up on your doorstep the day of release (forget downloading it!), I had planned to run to Tower Records some time that week. Sure, it meant maybe waiting a couple of days, but after 10 years, what's a few days? Silly me. Again, I don't remember exactly what happened that day, but I do remember leaving work and saying "I need that new Journey album RIGHT NOW!" I drove straight to Tower Records from the office then straight home where I immediately popped it in the stereo (not having a CD player in my 1991 Tercel.) Ahhhhh.... this is JUST what I needed.
In the weeks leading up to the release of Trial by Fire, I had actually been listening to a lot more Journey than I had in a while. In part this was due to being stressed out, which always and forever means pulling out Escape, and in part due to my upcoming 10-year high school reunion which meant pulling out Raised on Radio which came out right before graduation. Listening to Trial by Fire for the first time was special. Having that new CD after 10 years made me realize just how much I had missed listening to Journey. While I still had my LPs (from Captured to Raised on Radio) and the Greatest Hits CD and Time3 box set, I didn't listen to them regularly. Sure, pretty much every mix tape I made for my car had at least one Journey song on it, but I didn't sit and listen to Journey as often as I had in high school. I had started listening a bit more after Steve Perry's For the Love of Strange Medicine was released, but it really took Trial by Fire to reignite the passion I'd had for Journey 10 years earlier. I wrote a letter to my cousin Denise as I listened to Trial by Fire for the first time, giving my long-standing Journey compadre a blow by blow account of each song as I heard it for the first time. As I came to "Don't Be Down on Me Baby", I wrote "God, you don't hear stuff like this anymore. I forgot how much I missed Journey. I'm blissing out here." Then, after "It's Just the Rain" it was "God Steve Perry's got an amazing voice! I REALLY have to see this tour! I don't care what it costs!"
Listening to more Journey prior to the release of Trial by Fire was also partly due to connecting with other fans and talking about the love of this music that had meant so much to me since I was in junior high school. This was a new and amazing thing to me. Most of my close friends were, at best, casual/closet Journey fans. Other than my cousin Denise, I rarely talked to someone who loved Journey as much as I did. Now, I had found this whole group of people from all over the world who loved my favorite band as much as I did! Naturally, with the new album out, everyone was really excited and talking about their favorite tracks and oh when oh when will they announce the tour? Transcripts and links to interviews and press were passed around. And oh Steve, Jon, and Neal are going to be interviewed on my local classic rock station! We can't wait for more! Woo hoo! There was so much joy and buzzing excitement.
Well, time passed and as all Journey fans know by now, the Trial by Fire tour never materialized and it looked like Journey would be fading away into the sunset once again. The uncertainty and the rumors fed the on-line trolls as such things are wont to do, and it got to the point where Sony Music decided to shut down the message boards they had set up. Since there had been several different message boards on the Sony site, they were shut down slowly which allowed fans to set up their own message boards. One fellow, who went by the strange name "Skylord" had set up a message board. He was a fairly known entity in the Journey community at the time as he ran the IRC chat. So I migrated over there a bit and when the Sony boards were finally closed, that was my primary hang out. I was still leery of the mailing lists having heard that the Journey Digest was full of people arguing all the time and especially this one dude "Monker" who was particularly annoying and another dude "Meanie" who pretty much lived up to his handle. Not having a personal email address was also a factor -- I couldn't have all this Journey stuff coming to my work address if people were being rude and obnoxious. Somewhere in this time frame (mid-1997 or so), Jaspirina of the Journey Fans Network set up the Steve Perry Mailing List as a bit of a haven from the Journey Digest. That's when I decided I'd see what that group was like and signed up with my work address. Oh what a fateful decision!
The Perry List was seldom on topic (boy is that a huge understatement!), and every afternoon around 3:00 my inbox would start getting flooded with messages from the crew of Atlanta ladies who, now being off work, had hopped on line to chat. It wasn't so much that we didn't want to talk about Journey and Steve Perry, but that in mid- to late-1997 there just wasn't a whole lot to discuss beyond rumors and speculation and those subjects ran their course pretty quickly. So a community of mostly female Journey fans, along with a few brave male fans, grew into a community of friends who shared the ups and downs and ins and outs of daily life. It was kind of a weird way to make new friends, but it was fun, and several different groups would get together in the real world as there were clusters of fans in some areas.
By early 1998, it was clear there would be no more Steve Perry and Journey, but my oh my were there rumors about the band soldiering on without him. What?! That's impossible! No way no how, no no no no NO!
With rumors abounding, Jonathan Cain released a new solo instrumental CD For a Lifetime, which I promptly picked up. Shortly after it was released, I learned Jonathan had done an in store appearance at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco about an hour after it ended. Dammit, missed opportunity number 9,648. A week or so later, I got a call from a good friend who alerted me to an ad she saw in that day's San Francisco Chronicle that Neal Schon would be performing with a band called Strictly Roots at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco. I talked her in to going to the show with me and made plans to get tickets. Back at work on Monday, ready to tell my friends on the Perry List about the show I came in to see a thread of messages with the subject line "Petaluma". I read through them all and discovered that Jonathan Cain would be performing a benefit show for his church the same weekend as Neal's show with Strictly Roots. Well, this was going to fun and make up for the unsettled state of Journey. Boy did it. Besides being a weekend with one of my most prized live music experiences, I had the opportunity to meet fellow Perry Listers "RknRlMom" and "The Great Demented One" (better known as Debbie S. & Liz.) Jonathan's show was the first time I got to meet other internet Journey fans in person, but it most certainly wouldn't be the last.
Not long after my first live Journey-related experience, it was officially announced that Steve Augeri and Deen Castronovo would be replacing Steve Perry and Steve Smith. My gut reaction -- forget it! No Steve Perry, no Journey. Oh silly me! I soon discovered my love for Journey transcended loyalty to any one member. Journey announced they would be performing a free show in San Rafael and all anyone needed to do to get tickets was to email road manager Rindell Ivers. The show was the day after I was to fly to Paris for a 3 week vacation. I wanted to throw myself on the floor and kick and scream like a two year old. That was the fateful straw that got me to finally subscribe to the Journey Digest so I could hear reports from those who attended the show. Those reports (along with a bootleg recording of the show) pushed me down a path I never expected.
Waiting out the summer between the free show in San Rafael and the official start of the first full blown Journey tour since 1986, I got to connect and meet with more Journey fans. First through the Journey Digest where folks mostly in the mid-western part of the US were catching Journey at one-off gigs at state fairs and the like and passing along reports of those shows. Then in person through a fan convention that was organized by folks mostly from the AOL forums but who also had some overlap on the Journey Digest. It was the first of several "what the heck, could be fun" decisions I would make over the coming months. I knew Debbie S. would be going and it would be fun to play tourist in my hometown of San Francisco. It was an interesting weekend that felt a bit cliquish to me, but I got to meet a few more Nor Cal Journey fans which would prove fruitful in the coming months as, holy smokes, I had people to go to a Journey concert with! Yay Kevin, Scott, and Janet! I did meet a few of the folks from the AOL group who made an effort to chat and visit with the broader group of fans at the show, so there was Carol from Buffalo and someone going by "Journeycat." The strangest highlight of the weekend though was meeting Neal Schon's mom and stepfather. Really? I'm meeting Neal's PARENTS? Too weird!
So fall rolls around and the "Vacation's Over" Tour was announced, and I find I have certifiably lost my mind. The tour is opening in Detroit a week after my 30th birthday, on a holiday weekend no less, and a group of folks on the Journey Digest decide to meet up for the first official show of the tour. Remember my comment about seeing the Trial by Fire Tour no matter the cost? Yeah, that kind of went in to over drive that fall. Buying a ticket for a concert in Detroit and flying most of the way across the country to meet a room full of complete strangers for dinner before a concert was WAY WAY out of the scale of normal behavior for me. I hate going into a room of complete strangers and make small talk for several hours. Only Deadheads travel around the country for concerts and I certainly am not a burned out hippie in a Volkswagon bus! I was so certain that what I was doing was insane, I was extremely cautious at work when talking about my plans for Columbus Day Weekend 1998 and made sure to schedule myself on a red-eye to Detroit so I wouldn't have to take any vacation time. I'm not some weirdo! At my birthday dinner the weekend before, several family members asked me multiple times what I was doing the following weekend. There were many strange looks and comments along the lines of "who are these people you're meeting? how do you know them?" Of course my thinking at the time was this is the first Journey tour in over 10 years, no way I'm gonna miss the first show, but this is just a one time thing. Oh my, how quaint!
I flew off to Detroit and met up with probably about 30 people from the Journey Digest before the show. I didn't mix and mingle much -- still the introvert doing something WAY out of her comfort zone -- but I did meet a few people including Journey Digest owner Dan Stacy and frequent commenter Moni. That happy circumstance led to getting an extra after show pass for the meet and greet in Grand Rapids. I've just seen Journey in concert for the second time in my life (the first being the night before in Detroit) and I got to meet the whole band?! This is not my life. I remember getting back to my hotel after all was said and done and being too wired to sleep. It was after midnight, but being in the eastern time zone it was still early enough to call my good friend Mary back home and tell her all about it. Mary's a casual fan of Journey (at best) but she's a big music fan in general and understood my lunacy. That she wasn't home when I called so all I could do was leave a message that said "Oh my god I met the whole band!" is one of my funnier memories of that memorable weekend.
I would hit six more shows that tour -- the entire California swing plus New Year's Eve in Reno. That show in Reno is still the biggest night out I've ever done on New Year's Eve. I usually have a quiet evening in with family and friends if I do anything at all, so to be in Reno at a concert and literally standing on my seat as midnight struck and then more or less sneaking back stage is way way over the top for me.
1999 rolled in and things really got moving. Several of the NorCal contingent of the Perry List managed to finally to meet up for lunch which led to semi-regular "grown up slumber parties" with Carla, Darla, and Ana Marie. Steve Smith was also doing a bunch of different local shows and so there would be nights out at a jazz club in North Beach including a couple where some out of town Perry Listers came in to hang with the rest of the crew. I still think Toni was nuts for driving all the way from Utah!
That summer, Journey went out on tour with Foreigner and there I was winging my way off again to a big fan gathering in Chicago. Moni and Dan Stacy had organized Journeyfest for the folks on the Digest. This included a night at a bar north of Chicago where Kevin Chalfant performed. By this time, I'd gotten familiar with the names of folks on the Journey Digest and had become a frequent poster so I wasn't my usual introverted self and actually mixed and chatted with a bunch of people and even volunteered to help check people in for soundcheck -- another perk the Journeyfest organizers had pulled off for us. That's how I got to meet Leslie F. who would go on to become one of my partners in crime for Journey Past & Present. The year ended with a benefit show in San Francisco and the soon-to-be usual preshow dinner rounded out the NorCal crew with finally meeting another Perry Lister in person as Cheryl was one of the new faces at the restaurant that night.
2000 was a pretty quiet year as fans waited in eager anticipation for Journey's new album, but one highlight was when a group from the Perry List decided to get together for a weekend in LA. It was a fun, if somewhat odd, weekend and a lot of us got to put faces to the names of people we'd gotten to know over the course of the previous few years. Deb A. flew in from New York, Leslie W. was there from Kansas City, Dale from Tampa, and so many more. The weirdness came with some discord among the organizing committee that the NorCal gang got roped in to due to some misinformation we were given. Fortunately, the fall out from that weekend resulted in something that would become so much bigger and beyond what most previous fan gatherings had been -- Journey Past and Present.
Somewhere in the 1999-2000 time frame I became much more involved in the on line Journey community. Jaspirina gave up running the Perry List in mid-1999, so a group of list members decided to take on the task and start a new list and I got invited to be one of the list moderators. By late 2000, Journey Digest list owner Dan Stacy invited me to be a moderator for the Digest and a contributing author to the JourneyDigest.com website. Meanwhile, Skylord's forum had gotten him an opportunity to run Journey's official website and his message board became the official message board for the band -- Back Talk -- and many more people joined the community. Somehow, in my 30s, I had become much more extroverted than I had ever been even if it was mostly in the virtual world of internet message boards and mailing lists.
Journey's first album with Steve Augeri, Arrival, would be released in Japan in late 2000 leading to all kinds of craziness with Napster that led to a revised version being released in the US (and globally) in early 2001. By this point, I had given in and realized I had become one of "those people" and planned to spend my vacation seeing Journey on the first week of their Arrival Tour regardless of where it may be. This led to two things -- me spending a week driving through New Mexico and Texas (NEVER AGAIN) and in my new role as a JourneyDigest.com contributor, promising to post the set lists to the Journey Digest for everyone to see. The Rockin' Road Report was born.
I traveled a lot in the summer of 2001. A good friend from high school had moved to the wilds of West Virginia and was feeling so isolated she sent me a list of Journey shows within driving distance of where she lived to entice me to visit. Feeling guilty that I had to be so bribed, I set off for West Virginia and a show in Pittsburgh. I also booked myself for every single show in California while ALSO helping to organize the first Journey Past & Present event in San Francisco. My assignment was working with the attendees because I was the one who'd traveled the most and had met most of the people we invited to this first little event. There were only about 15 of us, but we managed to pack a lot in to one weekend. We took some people down to Hanford, the central valley town where Steve Perry grew up on one day, toured The Plant studios in Sausalito the next, and managed to fit in two Journey concerts in Mountain View and Sacramento. That was the last simple JPP.
Things went so well with our first JPP event, that we decided to expand it in 2002 when we had about 40 people tour Fantasy Studios in Berkeley then trek up to Clear Lake for a luncheon and concert at Konocti Harbor Resort. It was during the planning for JPP2002 that we got the idea for Bammies Walk of Fame (after setting aside the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the moment.) Darla, Cheryl, Emerson, Mary Ann, Leslie F. & I had completely fallen into the role of part-time Journey PR/Fan Club operators and that was really only the beginning. It was an insane amount of work we were doing in our free time out of our sheer love for the band that had given us so much through their music.
In my role of fan contact point, my on-line presence in Journey-land grew even more and led to some interesting experiences. One I'll never forget is being at a pre-show barbeque at someone's house outside of Chicago with a large group of Back Talkers, some I knew, some I didn't. While chatting with one of the folks I knew, one of the other guests walked up to me and said "Oh YOU'RE MNM! So nice to meet you!" I'm pretty sure I responded politely with a similar greeting, but in my head I'm thinking "Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know who I am?!" My small community notoriety taught me quickly -- I'm glad I never had any desire to be famous! It was a very weird feeling, especially since by this time I had met so many people across the country at various Journey shows I was having a hard time remembering everyone's name and face. Still, it was nice to know that, should I so desire, I could probably find a place to crash in every major city in the country! The internet can be a weird place, but it was also a place I was able to find so many new friends it was worth some of the weirdness.
When the hordes of fans descended on San Francisco in April 2003 for JPP2003 and the Bammies Walk of Fame I got to experience one of my favorite moments in my Journey journeys. Beyond the feeling of accomplishment it took to get it done after a year's hard work and seeing the general joy the other fans were having, I got my biggest kick during the post-show/event hang outs in the JPP hotel suites. It was then that I actually got time to sit down and relax and talk with people instead of running around making sure things ran smoothly. There was the night with the crew from Kansas City hanging out into the wee hours of the morning and the following night with some local Bay Area fans. Those are memories that are burned into my brain.
JPP2005 in Hollywood was another crazy crazy weekend with now about 150 people in attendance (double JPP2003) and it got impossible to see and chat and visit with everyone that I would have liked. There was just so much going on with so many people that when I recently re-watched the DVD from that weekend I had a hard time putting names to faces. I did get to visit some with some people, but no where near as much as I would have liked and that is still one of the things I wish could have gone differently that weekend.
Things changed a bit after Hollywood. A combination of Journey burnout from six straight years of planning fan conventions, changes in the band, changes in online communications, and the growing expense of traveling saw me pull back a lot from the Journey community. I still see my local friends, but losing Darla in 2008 was an emotional blow that still leaves a big hole, especially when I'm at a Journey related event.
So now Journey is finally getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- yet another project that I spent some time on in the early 2000s -- and I'm flying off to New York for the ceremony. Not going was not an option. And with all of that the thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing some of those friends I met along the way. There's about 20 of us getting together for lunch before the ceremonies and at least another half dozen folks who will be in town for the show that I hope I can meet up with during the weekend.
There were a lot of adventures and experiences criss-crossing the backroads of Journeyland between the fateful day Trial by Fire was released and when I stopped my Journey journeys after the 2006 tour. The thing I still value above it all isn't the opportunities I got to meet and get to know the band a bit but the opportunities I got to meet and get to know so many of my fellow fans. It's a truly great bunch of people I've gotten to know over the years. Even if we don't see each other or even stay in touch as much as we once did, I will always cherish the times spent with everyone I met (even some of the odd ones.) So, to my Journey fan friends around the globe I say:
Don't stop believin'...
We Will Meet Again.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Saturday, March 4, 2017
March 1, 2017: 2017 Kickoff Concert -- Bon Jovi
San Jose, CA
SAP Center
SAP Center
So my 2017 Concert Season kicked off last night with yet another trek down to San Jose to see Bon Jovi out in support of their new album This House Is Not For Sale. When the tickets first went on sale, it was a bit uncertain if I was going to go as I didn't have anyone to go with. While I've long since gotten over going to shows by myself, some shows are just more fun with friends. Fortunately Emerson and Nicole decided to go a few weeks after the tickets first went on sale and were able to snag us some pretty decent seats right before Christmas.
Apparently Bon Jovi is hiring local acts to open for them around the country, and last night's show kicked off with a 20 minute set by Thadeus Gonzalez and his band from Oakland. They weren't exactly my thing -- a rather hard rock band that just bombarded my ears. Thank goodness Nicole had a spare pair of earplugs I was able to borrow or I don't know if I could have sat through their whole set. I'll just leave it at that it's pretty cool for Bon Jovi to bring on small local acts to their massive arena show and that it's nice to see that there are still some younger long hair rock bands out in the world!
Bon Jovi took the stage around 8:15 and opened up behind a curtain/screen thing that had the album cover projected on it which appeared after a fun video of "arriving" in San Jose. It was a pretty cool look. They kicked off the show with "This House Is Not For Sale" and followed up with another new track before hitting "You Give Love a Bad Name." On my way into the show, I chatted with the people behind me in line (having gotten separated from Emerson, Nicole, and a few other friends), one of whom was a little boy about 9 or 10 years old. He was really excited since this was his first concert and he told me "My mom's been playing their music for me. I hope they play 'You Give Love a Bad Name', that's my favorite!" I told them they probably would, so I was happy for him that he got to hear it early in the set. I love it when kids get really excited about music!
The set list was filled with a lot of new tracks and several from Lost Highway which had me pleasantly surprised. I'm enjoying the new album, so didn't mind the set list being top heavy with new tunes. The crowd was generally into them too as people were on their feet for most of the show, but the set list probably could have been mixed up a little differently so there were more classic songs surrounding the newer ones. I think I've mentioned this before, but Jon Bon Jovi definitely studied at the School of Springsteen with the way he exhorts the audience to participate in the show and keeping the energy level up high enough to keep people on their feet for most of the night, even when playing mostly new material. It's a skill not every performer has. And, as always, I do get a kick out of his whole "I AM A ROCK STAR!" shtick. He's well aware of his magnetism and works it for all he's got while also being aware that the audience knows that's what he's doing. I will say though it's still weird seeing him with grey hair. I've seen the DirecTV ads enough so it's not like it was some kind of shock and surprise, but damn it does make me feel old seeing Jon Bon Jovi with totally grey hair! (I do give him all kinds of kudos for it though -- there are a LOT of rock stars out there who really need to give up the bad dye jobs and just let it go!)
Keeping with the grey hair theme -- Jon seems to be feeling his age a bit these days, or maybe it was just due to his birthday coming up the following day. He gave a long introduction to "God Bless This Mess" that generally covered the ups and downs of 30 plus years in the limelight. While he didn't overtly mention Richie Sambora, he alluded to their long partnership and the good and bad times that came along with it. "God Bless This Mess" was followed by "Scars on This Guitar" and kept the world-weary feel. "Scars on This Guitar" is one of my favorite tracks from This House Is Not For Sale (just behind "Reunion" which I LOVE, but was not played at the show) and the slow ballad allowed fans to light up their phones for a field of stars. Jon commented on how cool the lights looked and said something to the effect of "back in my day it was lighters" (uh, Jon, your audience is in your peer-group, it was back in everyone's day!) at which point a few Bics were flicked and caused him to say "put those out, I'll get arrested!" Not in California you won't!
The set wound down with a bunch of the hits before the four song encore that included, of course, "Dead or Alive" and "Livin' on a Prayer." Having seen Bon Jovi on the last tour after Richie quit, it wasn't AS odd to not have him singing on "Dead or Alive" and the audience pretty much drowned out Phil X who handled Richie's usual vocal, but it was still a little weird. Actually, that's one thing I forgot to mention about the crowd -- wow whenever there was a sing along bit the crowd really took it. Good and loud.
Next road report -- coming to ya from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies in New York City! Woooo! (Okay, no, I'm not excited at all. Nope, not one bit!)
Set list (courtesy of setlist.fm)
This House Is Not for Sale
Knockout
You Give Love a Bad Name
Lost Highway
Whole Lot of Leavin'
Roller Coaster
We Weren't Born to Follow
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
We Got It Goin' On
Who Says You Can't Go Home
It's My Life
We Don't Run
God Bless This Mess
Scars on This Guitar
The Devil's in the Temple
Lay Your Hands on Me
Born to Be My Baby
Have a Nice Day
Bad Medicine
Keep the Faith
Encore:
Living with the Ghost
Because We Can
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer
Monday, January 2, 2017
2016: The Year the Music Died
Here we are at the start of 2017, a brand new year, and the foremost thought on my mind is good riddance to 2016. While I've experienced years with far worse personal happenings than 2016 had, I can't remember a year with so many external happenings that bummed me out so much. A large factor in that was the many musicians lost in 2016, especially ones that I vividly remember from my high school days. David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, George Michael. While there were many more than just those four, those were the ones that hit me the most as they really took me back to a particular place and time. This even though I wouldn't characterize any of them as my musical heroes. In short, teen-aged me had a pretty crappy year.
David Bowie was the first shocker -- I saw the news of his passing late on the evening of January 10 on Facebook. I was doing one last check before bedtime and, wham, there it was. My first thought was of my cousin Laura, a huge Bowie fan, and how she'd be waking up to some lousy news. I was surprised by just how much his death impacted me. He was not one of my musical heroes -- I'm more of a "greatest hits" fan -- but I felt his loss deeply. In talking with Laura about this some time later, she said something along the lines of "well, you know how much he meant to me", and while that is certainly true, I don't think it's the whole thing. As I said, I'm more of a "greatest hits" fan, and I found a lot of his music to be somewhat esoteric for my tastes, but I also recognized his supreme talent. He was a unique creative force for his time and being able to witness it was something to appreciate. Losing that kind of creativity makes things a little less bright, and that's what I think had me feeling such loss.
Then a week later, news came of Glenn Frey's death, and this time I was more than a "greatest hits" fan. The Eagles were the first band whose album I wanted to buy for the music and not the teeny-bop idol of the day (sorry Journey!) While his death reminded me of some solo work from the '80s I had totally forgotten about, it was more losing half of the creative team of a band I'd enjoyed since I was 10 years old that hit me. Even with that though, I wasn't as sad as I was about Bowie, and I think that's in part due to being a bigger fan of the other half of that creative team -- Don Henley. Still, I knew before it was even announced that Glenn's death was the end of the Eagles. I'm so glad I got to see them several times over the years after they reunited in the early '90s.
Hop ahead in time to April when I overhear a couple of my co-workers talking. All I hear is one (in his late 20s) say "Well, he was kind of old." and the other (in her early 30s) reply "Yeah, I guess so." When I ask who they're talking about and they say "Prince." I look at them incredulously and say "He's not old! He's in his 50s, what's going on?!" Well, that was another wasted work day. As with Bowie, I'm a casual fan of Prince's; pretty much the early part of his career from 1980-ish to 1986-ish, what I described to my mom as "peak Prince." Purple Rain will always and forever remind me of high school, and if you were a teenager in the '80s and can't recite the opening of "Let's Go Crazy" upon request you've lost your '80s cred. Again, as with Bowie, I recognized the loss of a great creative talent and far far too young. That it was due to a drug overdose made me sadder -- I thought I had managed to get past the losing musicians to "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" a while ago and had moved on to the "age and illness" phase. While Prince's death was due to an addiction to prescription medications rather than the stereotypical hedonistic drug abuse cycle, it's still a loss that could have been prevented.
And now we've come to Christmas day and the loss of George Michael. This is the one that's hit me the hardest and had me thinking of a lot of different things over the past week or so. I recognize part of that is due to timing. With his death on Christmas and subsequently having the following week off from work, it's allowed me to stew on it more and with fewer distractions than the others I've mentioned. Would I have reacted the same way if he died next week once I got back to work? Who knows, but I do know that this past week I've listened to a lot of his music on repeat. I did the same with Bowie, Prince, and Glenn Frey too, but it was mostly while commuting to and from work rather than sitting in my living room reading a book or newspaper where I could stop what I was doing and listen to a song or two. It's a little weird to be listening to the peppy pop of Wham! and suddenly start crying.
So I've been thinking about why "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" puts a lump in my throat. I've figured out a couple of things. As I said at the beginning, none of these losses were of personal musical heroes (though they've definitely got me thinking about how I'll react when I DO lose a musical hero), George Michael definitely had a pretty significant role to play in my overall musical fandom. Add in three very vivid memories of him and his music, and it makes more sense.
We'll start with the memories. Back in 1984 this pop band from England appeared -- Wham! -- featuring catchy pop tunes and an absolute heartthrob on lead vocals. I, along with many of my friends and classmates at my all-girls high school, had discovered George Michael. Wham! was really my teen-heartthrob band. While many of my friends were also huge fans of Duran Duran, I passed on them for Wham! Now, generally, my music tastes (especially at that time) lean to mainstream rock and roll -- Journey, Huey Lewis, Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, with a dash of alternative in the guise of the Police and U2 (remember, we're talking 1984.) But oh those songs were so catchy and George Michael so cute! So, I had my teen-aged obsessive musical crush. I was completely jealous of friends who got to go to the Wham! concert at the Henry J. Kaiser center in Oakland on the Fantastic tour. (The fact I can remember it was at the Henry J. Kaiser center 30+ years later despite NOT going should say it all.) In my bedroom at home, I had very little wall space for posters due to the configuration of the room. I managed to hang a Wham! poster on my closet door (which was NOT an easy thing) and it stayed up through the end of high school. So, with all of this, you can imagine how excited I was when one of my friends decided she didn't want to attend the Day on the Green concert labor day weekend 1985 that featured Wham! as the headliners. She'd had a falling out with one of our other friends and rather than go to the show with her, offered to sell me her ticket. I begged my mom, promising we'd be chaperoned by another friend's older sister, and Mom relented, giving me the $20 for the ticket. My first concert! It's Wham! Woo hoo! (As I got older, it was a little more embarrassing to say Wham! was my first concert rather than Journey or Huey Lewis or pretty much anybody more "rock".) The chaperone fell through, so I made my friends swear that if my mom asked later to say that yes, we were chaperoned. Forget the fact that I'm a month from my 17th birthday and days from starting my senior year of high school. Parents, what can you do?
We had a great time at the show and got to hear a couple of new tunes that were due to be released on Wham!'s upcoming album. Of course, it was only a few months later that Wham! broke up and their final album, Music From the Edge of Heaven, was released. It was strange timing as about the same time this all came about I had a falling out with one of the friends I'd gone to the show with (the same friend the friend who'd sold me the ticket had a problem with) and other fractures and fissures among my group of friends had popped up. My senior year of high school was strange and as a result I didn't listen to Wham! much after then as there were so many conflicting memories.
Fast forward in time, and it's now early 1988, and I'm going up to Lake Tahoe with my friend Ana Gloria and her family. Our friend Mary is also coming along, so we pile in a car with Ana and her sisters for the drive up to Tahoe. Someone has a copy of George Michael's first solo album Faith on cassette. It'd been out for a few months at that point, but I hadn't bought it yet. A combination of the Wham! hangover, lack of funds, and that fewer and fewer albums were being released on vinyl conspired against me. If I wanted to buy Faith it was going to have to be on cassette (which I considered a waste of money) or CD (which besides being expensive required a CD player which I didn't have.) But we played the tape in the car on the ride up to Tahoe and I finally got to hear the whole thing. As a result, I finally scrape up a few bucks for the cassette (to eventually be replaced by the CD once I get a player about a year later.) That's a particularly memorable weekend full of laughs and listening to Faith reminds me of that fun time.
Fast forward even more now, and it's 2008. George Michael has more or less faded from popular view in the US, and the last album of his I purchased was 1990's Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1. I probably haven't listened to it or Faith in ten years, but when George announces his first US tour since 1991, I decide it would be fun to go. 2008 had started off kind of rocky and a fun pop concert seemed to be just the thing, little did I know what was in store. On June 1, I woke up to a phone call that my good friend, and Journey partner in crime, Darla had died from a cerebral hemorrhage. That this knocked me for a loop is a severe understatement. The only thing that kept me together was trying to be there to support her husband and daughter who were, naturally, even more devastated than I was. So it was on June 19, 10 days after burying my friend, I'm at the HP Pavilion in San Jose seeing George Michael live in concert. It was a fun, joyous night of music and the first time I'd felt even close to normal in three weeks. I thought of Darla often during the show, but the healing power of music was really what I needed. I will be forever grateful for that.
So, with those memories, and my teen-idolatry, I've begun to realize why George Michael's death has impacted me differently from the others. There's a very different connection going on with this one. But that's not all. Remember way back up there I mentioned he also influenced my overall music fandom? Well, there's that too.
Back in high school when I would devour as much information on Wham! and George Michael as I could, I knew he was a huge fan of Elton John. Well, that definitely made him cooler in my book as I thought Elton John was fantastic. Bonus points for the cute guy with good music taste! In the early '90s there was a tribute album put together for Elton John and Bernie Taupin with a variety of performers covering different Elton John tunes. I was already on a bit of an Elton John kick at that point, so when I noticed that George Michael was the only performer not to cover a known hit, but a lesser known album track called "Tonight" I was curious. The liner notes had comments by each performer about the song they covered, and the ones for "Tonight" told of George buying the album Blue Moves and instantly falling in love with the song. Hearing his gorgeous rendition sent me on a mission to find a copy of Blue Moves and some other lesser known (at least to me) Elton John albums, making me an even bigger fan of the legend that is Elton John. His duet with Elton on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is another all time favorite.
Around this same time Freddie Mercury of Queen died and there was a massive tribute concert a few months after his death. I never had an opinion one way or the other about Queen -- they were a band that people about 5-6 years older than me were in to (people about George's age.) To me, they were a band that had a few hits in the '70s and '80s that I remembered and kind of liked, but beyond that I didn't know much. The concert was huge with all sorts off performers playing in tribute and/or taking turns singing lead vocals with the surviving members of Queen playing. George Michael joined for "Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives." Those recordings, along with a couple of other live tunes, were released on an EP that I picked up and led me to eventually purchase Queen's two greatest hits CDs, thus ensuring I discovered a legendary band. That I was far too late to the party to ever see Freddie perform is a disappointment, but I can at least enjoy that I have seen Queen twice and hear those legendary songs performed live. Thanks for the introduction George.
So 2016 was a disappointing year for all the brilliance that was lost. That we still have the music left behind to enjoy and remember is a comfort. I still think I'm going to be listening to more George Michael and Wham! than I have in a few years though, at least for the near term.
In closing, one of the things that happens when you have a lot of free time to go delving into the memory bank is getting stuck in the YouTube rabbit hole. I was looking for some old Wham! videos (specifically "Young Guns") when I stumbled on a video I had completely forgotten. Enjoy "Club Tropicana" and see why 15 year old me had a huge crush on 20 year old George.
David Bowie was the first shocker -- I saw the news of his passing late on the evening of January 10 on Facebook. I was doing one last check before bedtime and, wham, there it was. My first thought was of my cousin Laura, a huge Bowie fan, and how she'd be waking up to some lousy news. I was surprised by just how much his death impacted me. He was not one of my musical heroes -- I'm more of a "greatest hits" fan -- but I felt his loss deeply. In talking with Laura about this some time later, she said something along the lines of "well, you know how much he meant to me", and while that is certainly true, I don't think it's the whole thing. As I said, I'm more of a "greatest hits" fan, and I found a lot of his music to be somewhat esoteric for my tastes, but I also recognized his supreme talent. He was a unique creative force for his time and being able to witness it was something to appreciate. Losing that kind of creativity makes things a little less bright, and that's what I think had me feeling such loss.
Then a week later, news came of Glenn Frey's death, and this time I was more than a "greatest hits" fan. The Eagles were the first band whose album I wanted to buy for the music and not the teeny-bop idol of the day (sorry Journey!) While his death reminded me of some solo work from the '80s I had totally forgotten about, it was more losing half of the creative team of a band I'd enjoyed since I was 10 years old that hit me. Even with that though, I wasn't as sad as I was about Bowie, and I think that's in part due to being a bigger fan of the other half of that creative team -- Don Henley. Still, I knew before it was even announced that Glenn's death was the end of the Eagles. I'm so glad I got to see them several times over the years after they reunited in the early '90s.
Hop ahead in time to April when I overhear a couple of my co-workers talking. All I hear is one (in his late 20s) say "Well, he was kind of old." and the other (in her early 30s) reply "Yeah, I guess so." When I ask who they're talking about and they say "Prince." I look at them incredulously and say "He's not old! He's in his 50s, what's going on?!" Well, that was another wasted work day. As with Bowie, I'm a casual fan of Prince's; pretty much the early part of his career from 1980-ish to 1986-ish, what I described to my mom as "peak Prince." Purple Rain will always and forever remind me of high school, and if you were a teenager in the '80s and can't recite the opening of "Let's Go Crazy" upon request you've lost your '80s cred. Again, as with Bowie, I recognized the loss of a great creative talent and far far too young. That it was due to a drug overdose made me sadder -- I thought I had managed to get past the losing musicians to "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" a while ago and had moved on to the "age and illness" phase. While Prince's death was due to an addiction to prescription medications rather than the stereotypical hedonistic drug abuse cycle, it's still a loss that could have been prevented.
And now we've come to Christmas day and the loss of George Michael. This is the one that's hit me the hardest and had me thinking of a lot of different things over the past week or so. I recognize part of that is due to timing. With his death on Christmas and subsequently having the following week off from work, it's allowed me to stew on it more and with fewer distractions than the others I've mentioned. Would I have reacted the same way if he died next week once I got back to work? Who knows, but I do know that this past week I've listened to a lot of his music on repeat. I did the same with Bowie, Prince, and Glenn Frey too, but it was mostly while commuting to and from work rather than sitting in my living room reading a book or newspaper where I could stop what I was doing and listen to a song or two. It's a little weird to be listening to the peppy pop of Wham! and suddenly start crying.
So I've been thinking about why "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" puts a lump in my throat. I've figured out a couple of things. As I said at the beginning, none of these losses were of personal musical heroes (though they've definitely got me thinking about how I'll react when I DO lose a musical hero), George Michael definitely had a pretty significant role to play in my overall musical fandom. Add in three very vivid memories of him and his music, and it makes more sense.
We'll start with the memories. Back in 1984 this pop band from England appeared -- Wham! -- featuring catchy pop tunes and an absolute heartthrob on lead vocals. I, along with many of my friends and classmates at my all-girls high school, had discovered George Michael. Wham! was really my teen-heartthrob band. While many of my friends were also huge fans of Duran Duran, I passed on them for Wham! Now, generally, my music tastes (especially at that time) lean to mainstream rock and roll -- Journey, Huey Lewis, Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, with a dash of alternative in the guise of the Police and U2 (remember, we're talking 1984.) But oh those songs were so catchy and George Michael so cute! So, I had my teen-aged obsessive musical crush. I was completely jealous of friends who got to go to the Wham! concert at the Henry J. Kaiser center in Oakland on the Fantastic tour. (The fact I can remember it was at the Henry J. Kaiser center 30+ years later despite NOT going should say it all.) In my bedroom at home, I had very little wall space for posters due to the configuration of the room. I managed to hang a Wham! poster on my closet door (which was NOT an easy thing) and it stayed up through the end of high school. So, with all of this, you can imagine how excited I was when one of my friends decided she didn't want to attend the Day on the Green concert labor day weekend 1985 that featured Wham! as the headliners. She'd had a falling out with one of our other friends and rather than go to the show with her, offered to sell me her ticket. I begged my mom, promising we'd be chaperoned by another friend's older sister, and Mom relented, giving me the $20 for the ticket. My first concert! It's Wham! Woo hoo! (As I got older, it was a little more embarrassing to say Wham! was my first concert rather than Journey or Huey Lewis or pretty much anybody more "rock".) The chaperone fell through, so I made my friends swear that if my mom asked later to say that yes, we were chaperoned. Forget the fact that I'm a month from my 17th birthday and days from starting my senior year of high school. Parents, what can you do?
We had a great time at the show and got to hear a couple of new tunes that were due to be released on Wham!'s upcoming album. Of course, it was only a few months later that Wham! broke up and their final album, Music From the Edge of Heaven, was released. It was strange timing as about the same time this all came about I had a falling out with one of the friends I'd gone to the show with (the same friend the friend who'd sold me the ticket had a problem with) and other fractures and fissures among my group of friends had popped up. My senior year of high school was strange and as a result I didn't listen to Wham! much after then as there were so many conflicting memories.
Fast forward in time, and it's now early 1988, and I'm going up to Lake Tahoe with my friend Ana Gloria and her family. Our friend Mary is also coming along, so we pile in a car with Ana and her sisters for the drive up to Tahoe. Someone has a copy of George Michael's first solo album Faith on cassette. It'd been out for a few months at that point, but I hadn't bought it yet. A combination of the Wham! hangover, lack of funds, and that fewer and fewer albums were being released on vinyl conspired against me. If I wanted to buy Faith it was going to have to be on cassette (which I considered a waste of money) or CD (which besides being expensive required a CD player which I didn't have.) But we played the tape in the car on the ride up to Tahoe and I finally got to hear the whole thing. As a result, I finally scrape up a few bucks for the cassette (to eventually be replaced by the CD once I get a player about a year later.) That's a particularly memorable weekend full of laughs and listening to Faith reminds me of that fun time.
Fast forward even more now, and it's 2008. George Michael has more or less faded from popular view in the US, and the last album of his I purchased was 1990's Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1. I probably haven't listened to it or Faith in ten years, but when George announces his first US tour since 1991, I decide it would be fun to go. 2008 had started off kind of rocky and a fun pop concert seemed to be just the thing, little did I know what was in store. On June 1, I woke up to a phone call that my good friend, and Journey partner in crime, Darla had died from a cerebral hemorrhage. That this knocked me for a loop is a severe understatement. The only thing that kept me together was trying to be there to support her husband and daughter who were, naturally, even more devastated than I was. So it was on June 19, 10 days after burying my friend, I'm at the HP Pavilion in San Jose seeing George Michael live in concert. It was a fun, joyous night of music and the first time I'd felt even close to normal in three weeks. I thought of Darla often during the show, but the healing power of music was really what I needed. I will be forever grateful for that.
So, with those memories, and my teen-idolatry, I've begun to realize why George Michael's death has impacted me differently from the others. There's a very different connection going on with this one. But that's not all. Remember way back up there I mentioned he also influenced my overall music fandom? Well, there's that too.
Back in high school when I would devour as much information on Wham! and George Michael as I could, I knew he was a huge fan of Elton John. Well, that definitely made him cooler in my book as I thought Elton John was fantastic. Bonus points for the cute guy with good music taste! In the early '90s there was a tribute album put together for Elton John and Bernie Taupin with a variety of performers covering different Elton John tunes. I was already on a bit of an Elton John kick at that point, so when I noticed that George Michael was the only performer not to cover a known hit, but a lesser known album track called "Tonight" I was curious. The liner notes had comments by each performer about the song they covered, and the ones for "Tonight" told of George buying the album Blue Moves and instantly falling in love with the song. Hearing his gorgeous rendition sent me on a mission to find a copy of Blue Moves and some other lesser known (at least to me) Elton John albums, making me an even bigger fan of the legend that is Elton John. His duet with Elton on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is another all time favorite.
Around this same time Freddie Mercury of Queen died and there was a massive tribute concert a few months after his death. I never had an opinion one way or the other about Queen -- they were a band that people about 5-6 years older than me were in to (people about George's age.) To me, they were a band that had a few hits in the '70s and '80s that I remembered and kind of liked, but beyond that I didn't know much. The concert was huge with all sorts off performers playing in tribute and/or taking turns singing lead vocals with the surviving members of Queen playing. George Michael joined for "Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives." Those recordings, along with a couple of other live tunes, were released on an EP that I picked up and led me to eventually purchase Queen's two greatest hits CDs, thus ensuring I discovered a legendary band. That I was far too late to the party to ever see Freddie perform is a disappointment, but I can at least enjoy that I have seen Queen twice and hear those legendary songs performed live. Thanks for the introduction George.
So 2016 was a disappointing year for all the brilliance that was lost. That we still have the music left behind to enjoy and remember is a comfort. I still think I'm going to be listening to more George Michael and Wham! than I have in a few years though, at least for the near term.
In closing, one of the things that happens when you have a lot of free time to go delving into the memory bank is getting stuck in the YouTube rabbit hole. I was looking for some old Wham! videos (specifically "Young Guns") when I stumbled on a video I had completely forgotten. Enjoy "Club Tropicana" and see why 15 year old me had a huge crush on 20 year old George.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
September 4, 2016: San Francisco Fest on the Green
San Francisco, CA
AT&T Park
AT&T Park
Wow.... Just, wow. What a great weekend. It was as trip back in time on so many different levels. Things started out on Saturday night when we managed to get a group of 13 Journey fans together for a night-before dinner at Rosa Mexicano in San Francisco. We had a pretty good mix of locals and out of towners and it was go great to spend time talking and laughing with friends. Once I stopped road-tripping for Journey after 2006, this was the thing I missed the most. Sure, I had a ridiculous number of opportunities to meet, talk, and visit with the various members of my favorite band, but that was never my goal -- it was the frosting. The cake was meeting and making new friends who had the same love for Journey that I did and along the way we were able to have so many happy times and make lasting friendships.
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| The gang at Rosa Mexicana |
When Journey announced their tour plans for 2016 back in November, the original schedule didn't have a San Francisco date. A bit annoying and with Steve Smith back touring with the band for the first time since 1983, I wasn't going to wait to find out when a San Francisco date would be added and hit the road for the tour opener in Irvine in May. Then March rolled around and WOW what a way to end the tour -- a Day on the Green-like show at AT&T Park with Tower of Power, the Steve Miller Band, the Doobie Brothers, Santana, and Journey! This was going to be one epic night of Bay Area legends! Especially since I was too young to go to the original Days on the Green shows featuring Journey in the early 80s.
So, Sunday rolled around and Ana Marie made the trek down from Sacramento to join me for the show. We met at my place and headed out to grab a quick lunch before getting on CalTrain to meet people at AT&T. I had suggested a meet-up at the Willie Mays statue in front of the park at 2:00 for a quick group photo and chat before the show started, so I wanted to be sure to be on the 12:48 train that arrived in San Francisco at 1:38, especially since when I'd checked the schedule for Sunday there weren't any plans for extra trains and the next train would be at 1:48 (arriving at 2:38.) We got to the train station a couple of minutes before the train was due and as we were walking to the platform I noticed my phone was missing! Ack! Quick jog back to the car to see if it had fallen out of my bag and not left at home. Yep, there was my phone sitting on the back seat. Run back to the station and get up to the platform and see that the train is running about 10 minutes late. Not a huge surprise, it tends to run behind when there are large crowds. There were a lot more people at the station than I had anticipated and when the train pulled in, we were all in for a surprise. The train was PACKED! They let about half of the people on the platform on the train before the conductor said the train was full! Fortunately she also let us know another added train was coming about 20 minutes behind.
We finally got on the train about 1:20 -- it was crowded, but not full and Ana and I were able to get a couple of seats -- and off to San Francisco. We got to the city about 2:10 and headed up to the ballpark and I could not believe the number of people everywhere! I've been to Opening Day and playoff games at AT&T a bunch of times and those were the only times I could compare it to. Maybe a bobblehead day back when the Giants only gave away 20,000 instead of 40,000. Lines everywhere! People everywhere! I knew immediately there would be no way we could meet up with people at Willie Mays in the masses of people. Ana and I did a quick circuit around the statue to make sure no one was waiting on us then headed over to the merch booth to pick up some swag. I spent too much money, but it was worth it! We got in line and waited to get through security. The lines were pretty long, but moved at a pretty good pace. Usually before baseball games they open the gates two hours before the scheduled first pitch, but on Sunday there was only an hour between the opening of the gates and the start of the show which explains why the lines were so crazy.
We were probably in our seats by 2:45 for the 3:00 start. Tower of Power was up first and put on a great set of soul and R&B with fantastic harmonies and their amazing horn section. They didn't have a very long set list, but covered the big hits which I always forget just how well I know them. They closed out with "You're Still a Young Man" and "What Is Hip," but I think my favorite tune is still "So Very Hard to Go."
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| Hail Hail the gang's mostly here! (photo courtesy Darryl Croffoot) |
After TOP, it was a dash up to the World Series trophy case to see if we could meet up with some friends (and no, Darryl, it wasn't to rub into the face of Dodger fans!) I had inadvertently picked the absolutely perfect spot as right next to the trophy case (with the beautiful triplets in their full glory on display) was a big back drop for group photos! Leslie F. was there when we arrived as were Matt, Wendy, Darryl, and Jenny. Eventually Cheryl, Scott, Adriana, and Jenn joined us and we all got in line to get our picture taken. We all chatted for a bit and then the Doobie Brothers took the stage, so we all dashed off to our seats.
We missed the first song or two, but Ana and I kicked back and enjoyed some more classics. Like in Irvine, the crowd wasn't completely up on their feet until the end of the set with "China Grove" and "Listen to the Music." I actually spent part of this set texting with a few people, but most importantly with Darla's daughter Telysa. If there was anyone at the show I absolutely HAD to connect with it was Telysa and her husband Rob. We've done a pretty good job at staying in touch via Facebook since Darla died, but an absolutely miserable job of seeing each other in person. We agreed to meet back at the trophy case between the Doobies and Steve Miller, so once the Doobies' set was done, off Ana and I went to meet Telysa and Rob.
We had a really nice visit and wound up missing most of Steve Miller's set, which was fine by pretty much all of us. I'm not a huge Steve Miller fan and I saw him a couple of years ago (last year?) with Journey so I was good. We took this break to grab a bite to eat before we headed back to our respective seats for the last few songs of the set. What I really wanted was to be set and ready to go for the next two acts -- Santana and Journey!
Before I get to the two headliners, a bit about the crowd. This was definitely an older crowd -- many of whom I'm sure attended those great Day on the Green shows back in the day -- but wow what a lot of energy. People were dancing and singing all over the place. It was clear everyone was having a fantastic time with all these local legends. I'm pretty sure that I saw a post on Twitter or Facebook after the show was over that there were 50,000 people at the show making it the largest crowd in AT&T Park's history (since baseball seating is about 42,000, that would be impressive.) I know I was amazed seeing people sitting in the far left field seats on the main and club levels -- those seats are totally angled the wrong way for the stage set up. And there were a smattering of people in the left field seats in the upper deck too -- though I suspect they may have been staff and/or folks wanting to get away from the crowd a bit. Still, those seats face home plate, not center field where the stage was. The field was completely filled (sorry Giants! I hope it's not too wrecked when you get back from this road trip!) and about half of the arcade seats above the right field wall were filled in too. Only the bleachers behind the stage in center field were completely empty! And with all those people at an all day concert, I didn't notice one bit of trouble. I'm sure there probably was some, but for the most part, it was just a great night out listening to great music
While waiting for Santana to come on stage I noticed the set up -- even from a distance it didn't look like a Hammond B3 was set up anywhere. That's strange, I thought, aren't Gregg and Neal and some (all?) of the other original members going to join the show? That was the implication I got when the show was announced shortly after the dual headlining Journey/Santana shows in New York this spring. Well, I figured, you're sitting pretty far from the stage, maybe you just can't see the organ.
Alas, my first instinct was right, and Gregg and Neal didn't join Carlos and the current line up of Santana for the show. Once I got over that little disappointment, I was able to really enjoy the set. Carlos has two guys on vocals and they did an amazing job harmonizing and trading lead on a variety of songs. Most of the set list was either stuff from the multi-platinum Supernatural album ("Maria, Maria", "Corazón Espinado", "Smooth") or classic original Santana ("Jingo", "Evil Ways", "Soul Sacrifice", "Black Magic Woman", "Oye Como Va".) Carlos's brother Jorge joined in mid-set and played the Malo hit "Suavecito" which was absolutely fantastic! I did rather laugh to myself whenever one of the classic-era songs was played -- I've never heard anyone but Gregg Rolie sing those tunes! And they sounded just a bit off with the programmed keyboard rather than the original Hammond B3 organ. One of the closing highlights of the set was the amazing drum solo by Cindy Blackman Santana. She is one bad ass drummer!
The show was running pretty smoothly and more or less on time until a couple of people came out to speak between Santana and Journey. The long and the short of it -- this show was a memorial/tribute to the late Bill Graham who had orchestrated so many great shows back in the day and most memorably the Days on the Green, some of the money from the ticket sales was going to the Bill Graham Foundation which supports local art and music programs, and that the show sold out completely in ONE DAY! Go old people music!
Journey came out to close out the epic evening of music and played a condensed version of the set list they played in Irvine back in May. As I let the music wash over me, I felt a lot of stress and tension leave my body. It had been a particularly stressful week at work leading up to the show and I needed a night like this more than ever. A couple of poignant moments came with Neal's two solos. His first, early in the set, was "Taps" followed by the "Star Spangled Banner" (most everyone was standing) which I'm sure was a partial tribute to his mom who passed away a couple of weeks ago and whose memorial service had been on Saturday. The second solo was definitely a tribute to his mom with "Amazing Grace" and I'm pretty sure a chunk of "Beyond the Clouds" from the Generations album. It was pretty powerful. Another highlight came fairly early in the set when Neal stepped up to the mic to introduce "Lights" which he said was a song he wrote with "Steven Perry" and then cracked "Steve are you here tonight? He's here a lot you know. Steve, if you're here, come on up!" (For those unaware, Steve Perry is a big Giants fan and has been in attendance pretty frequently over the last 5-6 years.) I laughed and leaned over to Ana and said "He usually sits up there" and pointed to the club level section next to the broadcast booth. Yeah, this Journey/Giants fan knows where Steve Perry usually sits (and hell, nearly ran smack dab in to the man back in 2010!) Neal also encouraged folks to light up their phones and wow... the stadium looked AMAZING with all the phones waving through out the song about our beloved home town. "Lights" is always the best when played at home in the Bay Area. To be in the city proper, sitting on the shore of the bay... couldn't get any better. I know I'll be picturing that scene every time the Giants play "Lights" during the 8th inning (of course, they need to start winning a few games for that to happen! ARGH are they frustrating right now!)
I ran out to the restroom during "La Do Da" so I wound up missing about half of Steve Smith's solo, but the part I did catch was amazing. As the set was winding down, the lady behind me started getting very worried, they hadn't played "Don't Stop Believin'" yet. I turned around and said "Don't worry, they will." And blammo, right on the heels of "Faithfully" there it was. The crowd went nuts -- or at least as much of the crowd as was left. Lots of folks headed out early for one reason or another. I'll never understand that, especially when the next day is a holiday that most people have off.
The show wrapped up with "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" and then it was the mad dash back to the train station to catch the express to Belmont. We made it in plenty of time and even managed to grab a couple of seats. Ana and I rehashed the show all the way home (and even a bit afterwards before Ana made the trek back to Sac.) This was such a fun and amazing weekend that was so reminiscent of all those shows I took in over a decade ago now. I've said all along that the thing I miss most about my Journey journeys is getting to hang with all the amazing people I've met over the years. This weekend just reinforced that feeling. It was SO great to catch up with people I haven't seen in a while and a big bummer to not get to see everyone. Journey peeps -- you rock!
Set lists (all but Journey's courtesy of Setlist.fm, so any errors are not mine)
Tower of Power
We Came to Play
Soul With a Capital "S"
You Ought to Be Havin' Fun
Get Yo' Feet Back on the Ground
So Very Hard to Go
Soul Vaccination
You're Still a Young Man
What Is Hip?
Doobie Brothers
Jesus Is Just Alright
Rockin' Down the Highway
Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)
Dark Eyed Cajun Woman
Spirit
Sweet Maxine
Eyes of Silver
Clear as the Driven Snow
Bill Payne keyboard solo
Takin' It to the Streets
The Doctor
Black Water
Long Train Runnin'
China Grove
Encore:
Without You (I'm not sure this was played as I only remember one song in the encore)
Listen to the Music
Steve Miller
I Want to Make the World Turn Around
Serenade
Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma
Winter Time
Jungle Love
Take the Money and Run
Abracadabra
Dance Dance Dance
The Stake
Fly Like an Eagle
Swingtown
Jet Airliner
Rock'n Me
Encore:
Space Cowboy / The Joker
Santana
Toussaint L'Ouverture
Foo Foo
Maria Maria
Corazón Espinado
Jingo
Evil Ways
Soul Sacrifice
Suavecito (Malo cover) (with Jorge Santana)
Crystal Blue Persuasion (with Jorge Santana)
Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen (I don't remember hearing Gypsy Queen)
Oye Como Va
Smooth (with Jorge Santana)
Band introductions -- "Roxanne" (Police cover) sung by one of the guitarists, was quite fun!
Love, Peace and Happiness
Journey
Intro
Separate Ways
Be Good to Yourself
Only the Young
- Neal solo 1 - Taps/Star Spangled Banner
Stone in Love
Any Way You Want It
Lights
- Jon solo -
Open Arms
Who's Crying Now
Escape
La Do Da
- Smitty solo -
- Neal solo 2 - Amazing Grace/Beyond the Clouds
Wheel in the Sky
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Encore:
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
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