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.
Monday, January 2, 2017
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'
Friday, July 15, 2016
July 14, 2016: Sting. Peter Gabriel. HOLY CRAP!
San Jose, CA
SAP Center
SAP Center
I so totally don't have time to write anything big up tonight as I've really got to get to bed since I'm on a plane to Denver in the morning, but OH MY GOD I had to write SOMETHING about this show tonight. I've seen both Sting and Peter Gabriel solo a few times each (though many more Sting shows than Peter's) and was going to pass on this show, but my good friend Emerson talked me into it and I am so glad he did!
As we were walking to the show, we were speculating on how it might go -- who's on first, who's closing, what songs might they both perform. What we did not expect as we rushed into our seats with minutes to spare was that BOTH Sting and Peter Gabriel would perform at the same time! MASSIVE band on stage since it was essentially two solo bands blended together. Three drummers, two keyboard players (not counting PG) a violin, a cello, back up singers, guitars, bass. Peter opened the show then Sting came on for the second song and that's pretty much how the show went all night back and forth. Sting sang some PG songs, Peter sang some Sting songs. Loads and loads of fun.
My personal highlights: early on "Invisible Sun" and "Games Without Frontiers" played back to back; "Don't Give Up" -- the female lead on this was fantastic and that's not an easy part to cover since Kate Bush has such a unique sounding voice; "Fragile" dedicated to the people of France and all the recent tragedies.
I could probably go on and on, but it's past midnight and I really need to get a couple of things done before I get on that plane tomorrow. Definitely an excellent way to start my vacation!
I didn't write down a set list and it's too early for one to be posted online it seems. Did find this set list from Denver a couple of nights ago and it looks to be the same. [Update: San Jose set list.]
And in light of recent events let's include this here.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
May 12, 2016: Steve! Smith! On! DRUMS!!!!
Irvine, CA
Irvine Meadows
Irvine Meadows
At the end of the 2006 Journey tour with Def Leppard, I decided I was done with road trips away from Northern California. I said to a couple of friends at the time "I'm not traveling unless someone named Steve is singing. Hell, it could be Steve Smith!" A joke to be sure, but also one that reflected my thought that Steve Smith returning to perform with Journey a decade after he last recorded with them and over two decades since he had last toured with them was just too unlikely. Well, here we are another decade after THAT and Steve Smith is back out on the road with Journey playing drums. Never say never I guess.
When the "San Francisco Fest" tour was announced back in December, I was a bit perturbed that there wasn't a show listed for the Bay Area. The closest show was for Fresno in August (since canceled) - nearly 200 miles away from San Francisco! I figured a show would eventually be added, and boy was it, but I also didn't want to wait all summer for a show since I really wanted to see Steve Smith back in Journey. So it was that I decided to make a road trip to Irvine for the tour opener -- two things I hadn't done in 10 years! (In fact, I think the last tour opener I went to was in 2004!)
So there I was on Wednesday, tooling down I-5 from the Bay Area to SoCal. It's a long and boring ride, but with good tunes and cruise control it went by pretty swiftly and I arrived safely late Wednesday afternoon. I'd be meeting up with Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose on Thursday for the show, which was something else I was looking forward to -- hanging with some Journey buddies I don't get to see much any more (especially since Cheryl went and moved to SoCal from NorCal like a crazy person!) My favorite part of all those road trips I did over about 10 years was always hanging out with all the friends I'd met and made along the way.
Thursday arrived soon enough and I met Jenn and Cheryl at their hotel for lunch. Rose would be picking them up later as all three had VIP seats and thus would be heading over to the show earlier than I was. Closer to show time I drove over to Irvine Meadows for one last time -- this is apparently the last season for the venue, and honestly it probably is a good thing. This was probably my 4th time seeing a show there (under various names) and it's got to be one of the most inconvenient venues I've ever been to. Parking is a nightmare (and I learned even buying the premier parking didn't help with the nightmare exit) and the way the crowd has to go in and out of the amphitheater is supremely stupid.
I got in about 6:15 or so for the 7:00 start. Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose were still in their VIP party, so I just grabbed a drink, found my seat, and waited for the show to start. About 15 minutes before the show started, Rose came out and found me and we had a nice little chat. Just before the show started, I saw Cheryl and Jenn make their way to their front row seats. I was pretty much directly behind them, just a couple of sections back.
When the tour was announced, I tried to think of a couple of Dave Mason songs, but nothing came immediately to mind. Fortunately, when he took the stage for his set he launched into a bunch of familiar tunes from both his solo career and time in Traffic and I recognized most of them. I didn't write down a set list for his part of the show, but I enjoyed it.
The Doobie Brothers were up next (again I didn't write down a set list, but you can find one here) and I was curious what their set would be like. Unlike Dave Mason, I could name a bunch of their songs off the top of my head and was interested in what their show would be like. Now, I can't say I'm a HUGE fan of the Doobies and probably wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but I wasn't put off by having them on the bill with Journey. They came out and did a great set of their hits, with a few more obscure songs thrown in. The crowd down in front was up for a lot of their set, but most of the rest of the folks were doing a lot of chair dancing. It really wasn't until the encore of "Listen to the Music" that everyone was up on their feet dancing along. I will point out one annoying thing about their set, or more accurately their set design. The backdrop they use shows the Golden Gate Bridge and a city skyline. The skyline didn't look at all like San Francisco, but even worse, you can't see downtown San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge as depicted on the banner! It looked more like the view you would see from the Bay Bridge. Just a native grumble.
Journey took the stage about 9:30 and by that time the crowd had filled in and was buzzing. Where I was sitting it was about half sitting/half standing, but the lower section and the pit where Cheryl, Jenn, and Rose were was on their feet. Early on in the set list, they played "Be Good to Yourself" (with Jenn, Cheryl, and Rose appearing on the big video screen) and I definitely missed Deen's backing vocals on that one. They've brought on a guy playing keyboards and doing some of the background vocals, but he definitely didn't hit the notes Deen did. They never introduced him and he was kind of hidden behind Jon all night.
Between Dave Mason and the Doobies, Jenn had come up to visit me and insisted that I use her ticket for a couple of songs during the Journey set, so we coordinated that I would head down and meet her after "Any Way You Want It" (about 6 songs in) and hang out for a couple of songs. My seat was in the lower rows of the Loge section -- about 5 or 6 rows up from the aisle between the Loge and Orchestra seats, but in order to get over to the restroom area to meet Jenn, I had to walk all the way to the top of the Loge section, over 2 sections, and then back down. That meant leaving my seat pretty much as AWYWI started. I met up with Jenn and swapped tickets then headed down to the front row for "Lights" and "Open Arms" I headed back up to swap back during "Line of Fire" -- Jenn scolded me for not staying through that song too, but it's not one of my favorites, so I'd rather wander up and back during that than another song I like more.
For most of the show, I really focused on watching Steve Smith. I've seen him numerous times on his own or with Vital Information, so I know what an amazing drummer he is, but to see him back with Journey was something special. It occurred to me that this was as close as I was ever going to get to seeing the classic Escape line up perform, and I really loved that. (Okay, sure, never say never, hell could freeze over, pigs could fly, and Perry could rejoin for a gig or two, but if I held my breath on that one I would have passed out a long time ago!) Perhaps having Steve Smith back was part of the reason for the Escape heavy set list. It was great to hear "Who's Crying Now" in the set and fun to watch Jenn jumping up and down during "Dead or Alive." (Yes, I saw you Jenn!) Near the end of the set, they launched in to "La Do Da" and towards the end of the song the rest of the band stepped off stage while Smitty went off on a solo. It was fantastic and very similar to some of the things I've seen him do during his own shows. Arms and legs in constant motion. Amazing!
One of the unexpected bits of the show was the full on cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," once again proving to me that I like Led Zeppelin songs so long as Robert Plant isn't singing them.
The show was over much too quickly and I worked my way through the throngs of people to meet up with Cheryl and Jenn to give them a ride back to their hotel. Taking forever to get out of the parking lot does have one advantage in that it allowed us to visit a bit more before all was said and done. We met up again Friday morning for a quick breakfast before we headed our separate ways -- Cheryl and Jenn to Phoenix for the next show, me to visit a cousin near LA (where we wound up watching the Journey episode of "Behind the Music" and clips of Perry's 1994 Beacon Theater show thanks to You Tube.) As always, time flew by much too fast, but it was great hanging with my Journey buddies again. See you all in San Francisco!
Set List:
Separate Ways
Be Good to Yourself
Only the Young
- Neal solo -
Stone in Love
Any Way You Want It
Lights
Open Arms
Line of Fire
Dead or Alive
Rock and Roll
- Jon solo -
Who's Crying Now
Escape
La Do Da
- Drum solo -
- Neal solo 2 -
Wheel in the Sky
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Encore:
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
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