June 25, 2017: Steve Augeri Comes to California (Finally!)

Plymouth, CA
Helwig Winery

1986: My aunt and uncle agreed to take my cousin Denise to see Journey open their Raised on Radio tour at Mountain Aire -- a concert held at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds. Denise invited me to join them. I said no -- Calaveras County is a good two and a half hour drive and in August temps would be in the high 90s/low 100s. Nope. Too far. Too hot. I'll wait until they come home to San Francisco.

2017: I get a message from Emerson -- Steve Augeri is playing in Plymouth, CA. My first thought was "Where in the hell is Plymouth, CA?!!" Took a quick look at the map and it's in California gold country -- or about 50 miles north of the Calaveras County Fairgrounds. So, yep, there I was yesterday driving two and a half hours from the comfortable mid-70s San Francisco Peninsula to the 98-degree who the heck knows where this place is?!! to see Steve Augeri perform for the first time in seven years.

I say it's been seven years since I'd seen him perform, which is true, but that was a 3-song appearance. The last time I saw him do a full set of songs was at the end of the Generations Tour in 2005! That was nearly TWELVE YEARS AGO! That is far too long! Steve's been performing off and on in the seven years (at least) since I actually last saw him, but most of the shows have been east of the Mississippi or out of the country. I have a vague recollection of seeing a mention of a show of his in San Diego a few years ago, but it was a mid-week show I learned about the day before (or possibly the day after!) and couldn't have made. It may have even been a private gig. So, yeah, seeing the man who took Journey back out on the road after Steve Perry left hasn't been easy for this West Coast kid!

We had a goodly collection of Journey folks meeting up in gold country. I booked a last minute hotel room for myself in Jackson (good idea!), Emerson and Nicole were staying in Sutter Creek, and Linda and Walt were staying at a B&B in Plymouth. The five of us met up at Linda and Walt's B&B to car pool to the winery. We weren't really sure what to expect. We had all gotten tickets for the pre-show barbecue dinner thinking there probably wasn't going to be much of any place nearby to get something to eat, so we were going in early. All the emails we'd received had me thinking this was a fairly new thing for the winery -- we'd be checked in from our car, no one would be allowed in before 5 unless they were going to the barbecue, please car pool due to limited parking, the show is sold out so be prepared to sit close to your neighbors, etc., etc. Things actually went pretty smoothly and they let everyone in and park whenever they arrived. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I had feared/expected. We were given our various wristbands in the car along with a plastic cup that would come in handy later for the free (warm) water.

We chatted briefly with Darryl and Jenny who had arrived just before us but didn't have barbecue tickets before we headed in where we immediately ran in to Debbie and Krystal. I hadn't seen them in about 5 years! We all staked out our places on the lawn near the stage (and in the shade!) then headed up to the barbecue. It was a pretty good dinner, but the pre-show dinner entertainment made it really hard to talk. The guy was good, just too loud. We did all manage to toss about our various thoughts on Neal's recent social media ramblings and concluded that things are as weird as ever in Journeyland.

We headed back down to the amphitheater to hang out and chat until the show started, which was great. Chris and her friend were sitting with Darryl and Jenny and we ran into Marcela and her daughter, so we all mixed and mingled around the floor of the amphitheater. Between going to New York earlier this year and getting together for this show, I really felt like I've gone back in time a bit in 2017. (Of course, Krystal made me all too aware that time has flown as the 11 year old kid I first met is now nearly 30 with a kid of her own! What the heck?! Ditto with Marcela's daughter who was there with her boyfriend.)

The venue was pretty small with no back stage to speak of, so we would know right away when the show was about to start and sure enough, just before 8:00 a golf cart carrying Steve and the band came cruising right in front of us from somewhere above at the winery. That was the signal for all of us to leave our blankets and chairs and stand dead center in front of the stage. I kind of laughed to myself as we were all standing there for a good 5 minutes (maybe more) before the band took the stage, but every single one of us was someone who'd been there when Steve first joined Journey and hit tons of shows while he was in the band.

It was still hotter than all heck and when the show started we were soon joined by other concert-goers which made the crowd around the stage warmer. We managed to keep a decent amount of space around us when the show first started, but as the evening progressed things got a little cozier and I did have to politely and firmly tell several people who cut in front of me to leave. Most were polite or just trying to get in a selfie and quickly left, but I did get called a bitch by one of them. Sorry lady, I spent a good 10 years of my life providing free-public relations for Journey while this guy was the lead singer, you are NOT getting in front of me.

So, all of this and I've yet to even mention the show! Well, it was fantastic! It was so good to see Steve out there on stage again. I kept finding myself smiling or laughing as I remembered some of his stage moves and thinking "oh yeah, this is why he was so good in Journey!" He recognized a lot of us in the front row and even gave Emerson a shout out from the stage (because of course he does!) and Linda and Walt got a fun selfie with Steve squatting down to get in the shot! We all got a lot of love and attention though, which was awesome. The set list was almost entirely Journey songs with only one original tune and a couple of covers, but it was great to hear a few songs that Journey hasn't done in a while themselves. Things seemed to be keyed down a bit, but otherwise sounded just like I remembered from my Journey journeys of 1998-2006. Steve introduced "When You Love a Woman" as one of his favorite songs and dedicated it to Steve Perry, which was great. I so loved hearing that song for the first time in I can't remember how long. The only non-Journey original song he performed was something called "Riverside" which was really good. The rest of the set list was mostly the songs you'd expect and want to hear at a Journey concert. No Arrival or Generations songs (alas), but all in all what you'd want to hear. Steve did break out the guitar for some soloing/dueling with his guitarist towards the end of "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" which was fun to see. It looked like he was going to play the guitar earlier in the show too, but there were technical difficulties with his guitar. He was pretty good! It was just so strange to see him playing a guitar. Another personal highlight was a cover of a bit of "People Get Ready" out of "Wheel in the Sky." I love that song and he sang the heck out of it!

There was a 9:45 curfew and Steve and his band played right up to the very last minute (actually went over by a couple of minutes) and included my personal favorite "you've gotta be kidding me" moment of the show. "Open Arms" was one of the last songs of the encore and one of the women behind me said "OH! I like this song!" I looked at Chris and we just laughed. It's always something.

The show ended much too soon and it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I made my way back to my hotel and was just blasting Arrival in the car. I've really missed seeing Steve perform and it had better not be another 7-12 years before I get to see him again! (There is a show in LA next month, but mid-week, so I don't know if that's doable. Will have to see.)

Set List:

Separate Ways
Stone in Love
Chain Reaction
Send Her My Love
Lights
Riverside (original)
When You Love a Woman
-- guitar solo --
Wheel in the Sky
-- a bit of People Get Ready
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Lovin', Touchin', Sqeezin'
-- Steve guitar solo/duel
-- a bit of Rocky Mountain Way
Any Way You Want It

Encore:
Simply the Best (cover)
Who's Crying Now
Open Arms
Be Good to Yourself
-- a bit of Whole Lotta Love
-- a bit of Won't Get Fooled Again

May 17, 2017: Joshua Tree at 30!

Santa Clara, CA
Levi's Stadium

 

I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long, how long must we sing this song?

...And that's how we began the 30th Anniversary of The Joshua Tree show. My first immediate thought was "my god, that's more true today than ever."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In 1987 when U2 released The Joshua Tree, I was already a fan of the band. In fact, U2 was one of just a handful of musicians my circle of friends all enjoyed. I'd been captivated by the video for "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and by the song "Pride (In the Name of Love)" a few years before the release of what would become U2s defining album. For a wide variety of reasons, I didn't see U2 in concert until 2005, but I do remember the first Joshua Tree tour. During that tour U2 did several spur of the moment free concerts and one of those shows was in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. I was in college at the time and knew about the concert in the city, but not having a drivers license at the time nor a way to get from CSM to downtown San Francisco in a timely manner (it would have required at least two buses and BART to make it from the hills of San Mateo to The Embarcadero) I wound up missing it completely. Well, not completely -- parts of it did show up a year or so later in the movie Rattle and Hum so I caught some of what I missed. Actually, watching Rattle and Hum was the closest I came to seeing U2 live in their prime and at least when the film was released I was working at a movie theater. That meant the staff could have one of our after hours showings playing the movie in a mostly empty theater with the volume turned up WAY louder than it could be for regular showings.

When the 30th Anniversary Tour was announced I was finally able to take advantage of being a Seat License Holder for the 49ers and Levi's Stadium -- early access to tickets for U2! Woo hoo! I picked up 3 tickets for me and a couple of friends and waited for the show. I will admit that this show did kind of sneak up on me. With all the excitement around the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last month, this concert that I normally would have been on pins and needles for kind of slipped my mind.

Still, with a few quick messages out to high school friend Mary and Journey buddy Ana Marie, we were able to coordinate meeting in Mountain View to catch the light rail to Levi's Stadium. Being a season ticket holder for the 49ers, I knew public transit is the best way to get in/out of the stadium and that the NFL bag policy is enforced for all events at Levi's, so we were able to arrive shortly after the gates opened and get through security fairly quickly despite the clearly new hire working the security gate.

We had arrived in enough time to grab something to eat and visit with Matt and Wendy before the openers Mumford and Sons took the stage about 7:00 (half an hour after the stated start time.) I'm reasonably familiar with Mumford and Sons and was looking forward to seeing them perform -- though "seeing" is defined in this case as "watching a giant video screen of the performance of those thumb-sized people on stage" -- but I was surprised at how many songs I recognized. They put on a really good 45 minute set and I wouldn't mind going to see them on their own in a more reasonably sized venue.

After Mumford and Sons left, we had a bit of time to wait until it was dark enough for U2 to take the stage (which ultimately led to blowing past the official weeknight curfew for events at Levi's and has locals in a bit of an uproar) which meant a good opportunity to take in the stage setup from our vantage point in section 244. While we were pretty far from the stage, we actually had a good sight line and could take in the massive video screen that ran the width of the field and included a cutout/silhouette of a Joshua tree (I'm pretty sure it's the same image as on the back of the album) that rose a bit above the screen. There was a catwalk from the main stage out to a smaller, Joshua tree shaped stage where I could see the top of a drum kit at one side sunken below the stage. While we waited, the video screen had different poems and stories scrolling along one side that were somewhat bleak depictions of the greater American experience (though admittedly I didn't read all of any of them.)

By 9:00 it was finally full on dark and the lights went down as someone meandered from the main stage down to the secondary stage. While there was a bit of a cheer from the people standing near the stage, it wasn't until the first snap of the drums signalling the show opening with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" did I realize that it was Larry Mullen, Jr. and not a last minute roadie on stage. One by one the rest of the band walked down from the main stage and finally the song kicked in to full gear. As I said above, the opening words of the opening song hit me instantly. Beyond the actual news of the day, it spoke to how I've been feeling for a while now. Ana Marie and I just looked at each other and said "wow" -- both of us thinking and feeling the same thing.

The opening set continued and was entirely pre-Joshua Tree songs. These are the songs you would have heard back in 1987 when you went to a U2 concert. "New Year's Day", "A Sort of Homecoming", "Bad", and "Pride"... songs that you might hear in concert with newer material here in the 21st century, but saved for mid-set or later. To open with those classics -- each one bringing back a memory of a time and place that doesn't seem as long ago as it actually is -- was just what I wanted from this show. As "Pride" wound down, a scroll of a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. rolled on one side of the screen with key words pulled out and made larger on the rest of the screen. A potent reminder of the potential of America.

Then the video screen turned bright red with the Joshua tree outlined by red lights and the band made their way back to the main stage. It was time to play The Joshua Tree in full sequence. The video screen changed to a black and white film of a car driving down a desert road and "Where the Streets Have No Name" came up to resounding cheers. The images on the video screen were interesting through out the show and almost entirely in black and white and were thematically tied to the good and bad of the United States, much as the album is. There was a bit of a snafu during "With or Without You" which wound up causing Bono to skip singing the first verse and chorus and made the whole performance of that song a bit awkward. Other than that, it is really hard to pick a favorite moment from this part of the set. How do you choose a highlight when it's a performance of an album full of excellent songs? I'll probably go with "Running to Stand Still" as my favorite though -- I absolutely love that song and it's probably my favorite track from The Joshua Tree and Bono's performance was fantastic.

The band left the stage after "Mothers of the Disappeared" and it was time to speculate on what would be included in the encore. Beyond assuming "One" would appear it was hard to guess. Would they stay within the same general timeline or pull out more recent songs? Turned out to be a little bit of everything. The band came back out, walked back out to the secondary stage, and did a six-song encore which included two big highlights for me. The first was the dedication of "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" to the women of the world and had images of influential women and women's movements over time to highlight the impact women have on social, cultural, and political change. It was quite inspiring. This was followed by "One" and then a short video of a young Syrian girl in a refugee camp asked "If you could talk to a stadium full of people about America what would you say?" (rough paraphrase) She replied with what so many people have said about America -- or at least the dream of America and what it could be. A place of opportunity and beauty; the vision of America we all have but yet don't quite achieve. The video continued showing images of the refugee camp and following the girl around. Meanwhile on stage the band launched into "Miss Sarajevo" and a large banner with the face of the girl was unfurled and passed along the audience. It was really powerful and beautiful and sad all at the same time.

The encore closed out with a new song called "The Little Things That Give You Away" that was really good and fit well with the older songs of the Joshua Tree era. It was a bit weird to end the show on a new song, especially since it was the first time all night the crowd sat down. Ana Marie, Mary, and I kind of looked at each other for a minute and asked "Is that it?" The lights soon came up and yes, that was it.*

Back to the VTA and then the car for the ride home. Getting in at 1:00 a.m. on a weeknight makes for a rough morning at work, but it was so worth it.

Set list:

set 1/opening:
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
A Sort of Homecoming
-- a bit of Paul Simon's America --
Bad
-- a bit more of America --
Pride (In the Name of Love)

set 2/The Joshua Tree:
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With or Without You
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared

set 3/encore:
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
One
Miss Sarajevo
The Little Things That You Give Away (new song)

*I learned after this show, that most sets ended with "I Will Follow" after "The Little Things..." which makes much more sense then ending on a new song. I suspect the already way past curfew time for this show played a role in the slightly shortened end.

April 6-9, 2017: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Weekend

I'm still a bit amazed by all that happened last weekend in New York, it was a trip of a lifetime and I'll never forget it. Once it was announced in December that Journey would be among the 2017 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I started making plans to be there. I had joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when I saw Journey's name on the ballot on the likely chance that should they get in there would be a members only pre-sale for tickets to the show. Fortunately so did Cheryl and Mary Ann and between the three of us we figured we'd have a good chance of securing the seven tickets we needed for our group (with Leslie F., Jenn, Emerson, & Nicole.) Our group could have been even bigger, but alas, lots of our friends couldn't make the trip. We'd just have to celebrate on their behalf.

The members-only pre-sale came up towards the end of January and it was off to pray to the Ticketmaster gods at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time. This was actually a pretty good thing as it meant most of us wouldn't have to try to get tickets while at work and could try our purchasing interruption free (no way would it be stress free!) We were a bit surprised that the ticket limit was 2 per member, which meant it was going to be challenging to get the needed 7 tickets, but at least the price range fell in line with what we were expecting with the top non-VIP tickets being around $500 (still, the most expensive single ticket I've purchased for a concert.) Ultimately though, whatever got all of us in the door was going to be the deal. We managed to have 4 of us available when the pre-sale started and away we went. After lots of texting back and forth, we wound up with 6 tickets before the pre-sale sold out. Four of the tickets were on the lower level and the other two were in the 200 section. We still needed 1 more ticket for our group, and so we planned to try again in a few days when the Citibank card pre-sale was scheduled. When that sale began, also at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, I wound up with the miracle luck and snagged a pair of lower level seats by 7:05! We now had 8 tickets for 7 people, but wanted to see if we could improve on the 200 level seats. That didn't happen with the pre-sale and attempts during the general public on sale also proved fruitless as no one could get in to even attempt to buy tickets. Mary Ann wound up with the 200 level seats, so it was her call as to who would buy the extra ticket (though we helped and let her know who we knew was looking for a ticket.) This was probably one of the most stressful ticket buying experiences of my life -- I could NOT fail at getting these tickets, it just wasn't an option, so to have managed to snag four was just a thrill.

February and March were spent coordinating with everyone on where to stay and what to do and, yes, plan a JPP-lite event. One of my cousins lived in New York for a while and met her husband there, so I asked them for a recommendation for a reasonably priced restaurant that was good for large groups. They recommended Tony's DiNapoli near Times Square, which turned out to be perfect. Good family style Italian and lots of it. I also went down to my storage locker and pulled out the box of JPP stuff left over from previous events and shipped most of it to myself at my hotel with the plan of not coming home with any of it!

Finally, it was time to hit the road. Things started out pretty rocky on Thursday morning, storms from Chicago eastward screwed up nearly everyone's travel plans. My flight was delayed leaving San Francisco for two hours, Jenn got delayed in Kansas City, Leslie and Cheryl were re-routed to Washington DC, the crew from Chicago sat at O'Hare for hours, and poor Mary Ann spent the night at the Atlanta airport and didn't land in New York until 4:45 Friday afternoon!!!! A few other people had cancelled and delayed flights, but eventually everyone made their way to New York.

Once I got to my hotel Thursday night around 9, I met up with Jenn, Leslie, and Cheryl, and we shared our travel woes and general excitement for Friday. It's always fun once the gang starts gathering and we chatted for a couple of hours before running out of gas and heading to bed. I woke up around 5:30 -- way too early -- only to discover that Mary Ann hadn't arrived in the night. I looked up the flight she said she was supposed to be arriving on and discovered it had been cancelled -- the third cancelled flight of her trip! I checked in with her stuck in Atlanta to see how she was doing and to give what moral support I could via text message then went back to sleep for about an hour. It was still too early to be awake and up, but there was just too much excitement and anticipation to really get more sleep. Morning was spent taking it easy, pulling things together for lunch, making plans for how to get to Brooklyn for the show, and what to do on Saturday.

Soon it was time to head over to Tony DiNapoli's in Times Square to meet up with a bunch of other crazies for a JPP-lite lunch. Cheryl, Leslie, Jenn, and I walked from our hotel to the restaurant with the intent of being a little early so we could set up and be there when everyone else arrived. Emerson and Nicole were already there when we arrived having had dinner there a couple of nights previously (they did the trip right -- a weekend in Cleveland and the RRHOF before spending the week in New York!) I went downstairs and set a few things up -- a little trivia quiz for the folks coming in which would result in prizes from the bag-o-JPP-stuff!

People started arriving not too long afterwards and it was time to catch up and visit. It was great seeing everyone who could make it for lunch. Unfortunately a few people, besides poor Mary Ann, got held up by travel snafus and missed lunch. We did meet a few other fans who hadn't RSVP'd for the lunch but stopped by the restaurant to say hello. Everyone was taking pictures and checking in with friends who couldn't join us when someone spotted a news alert from TMZ. They were reporting Steve Perry would be singing at the ceremonies Friday night! Well you can imagine the buzz among the group (including the fans who dropped in running downstairs to see if we'd seen the news) -- if this were true, it was going to be an even more memorable night than we were expecting. Fortunately, this was also a group of long-time fans who had heard rumors of all sorts before and knew to temper their expectations. While we all hoped Steve Perry would sing, we pretty much agreed that it probably wasn't going to happen. Still, he'd proven us wrong before, so we kept our fingers crossed that miracles would happen. Ever since the official split between Steve Perry and the rest of Journey I had felt if he were ever to sing with them again it would be at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, but twenty or so years of living in Journeyland (including about 10 pretty deeply involved beyond the level of normal fandom) had taught me to keep my expectations low.

Soon it was time to hand out prizes (and no the trivia wasn't too hard -- I said you could collaborate/cheat!) and everyone went home with some kind of goodie. This included Amanda winning an Evolution-era head shot of Steve Perry. This would prove quite important as the day progressed. Lunch wrapped up about 2:30 and it was time to head back to the hotel and freshen up for the evening. Since we were staying right next to Grand Central Station, we stopped in there first to pick up our Metro Cards for the subway including getting one for Mary Ann who, per her most recent text, was due to arrive around 4:00. Since we were planning to get to Barclays about 5:15 or so for the 5:45 doors, we didn't think we'd have time to connect with her before the show so wanted to make sure she had everything she needed to meet us when she finally arrived.

A group of us met in the lobby to caravan over to Barclays via subway. I had done some research on which trains would go where we needed and was fairly confident I could get us there safely, but it was great to have a local in Amanda to truly help everyone get through the subway. So as to not to lose people from one point to another, Amanda eventually pulled out her Steve Perry head shot and held it up over her head like a tour guide would as she led us through the tunnels. This was probably one of those "you had to be there" moments, but it was one of the funnier parts of the day. About a dozen of us arrived at the Barclays Center about a half an hour before the doors opened where we promptly ran into a few more of the Journey faithful we knew. As it was chilly and windy, some of us ducked across the street to a small mall to grab a quick drink and sit and chat.

Back across to Barclays to go through security, which was quite quick -- I had really expected much longer lines even that early, but there were almost no lines at all when we arrived. There was a DJ just past security blasting all kinds of classic rock. "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" was blaring as I passed through the security gate and I thought "Oh man, too bad it's Friday, this would be perfect!" Then it was off to find the swag. We were directed to where the swag was supposed to be only to find everything shuttered. Nothing. No swag anywhere! Well, that was quite disappointing. None of us could figure out why there were no t-shirts or any other memorabilia available for sale. Missed opportunity for sure. With no shopping to do, we all mixed and mingled and found our other friends coming to the show. I think I managed to at least say a quick hello to everyone I knew in advance would be attending (we did run in to a couple of other old time Back Talkers on our way out after it was over that I don't think anyone knew would be there.) It was fantastic seeing everyone, even if briefly.

While chatting with Deb, Lori, Teresa, and Barb, one of them mentioned Journey would be on first. I was hoping very hard that would not be the case. I had gotten a text from Mary Ann at 4:45 that she had landed, but she still needed to drop her suitcase at the hotel, pick up the Metro Card, and get to Barclays by the 7:00 start time. Who knew if she'd make it on time, and if Journey were on first, that would be a nightmare!

Soon it was off to our seats and time to get settled in for the show. I knew beforehand that Janice and Randal would be sitting next to Leslie and me, but had to laugh when we got in and they were sitting in the wrong seats! Once everyone got settled, we chatted and visited while waiting for the show to start and just before things got started I got a text from Mary Ann -- she'd made it! Thank God!

My previous two posts describe the show, so I'll skip over all of that except to say it was so much fun keeping up with the folks who couldn't make it via Facebook. The way the show was set up with videos and speeches meant there were lulls where it was easy to make a quick post about what was going on and check on responses without missing much of the action (and if I missed a random member of ELO or Yes thanking their wives and children, well it wasn't a big deal.) When Journey (or "Journry" as I posted) hit the stage, it got a little crazier trying to take pictures, snag a little video, and make a couple of concert calls while in a state of complete excitement and lunacy. I'm still shocked I didn't actually cry, and maybe that's because I was looking for Steve to come up from the floor with the rest of the guys when he came in from the wings so I didn't actually see him take the stage. I just heard this huge roar from the crowd and I knew what had happened even while I was thinking "Where the hell is Steve in that bunch?!" I'm really curious why he spent the whole show backstage instead of on the floor with everyone else. And from pictures I've seen since, he didn't stick around to chat with the press afterwards. He seems to just want to isolate himself from everything and that makes me sad. I do hope Neal's post-induction comments that he's going to try to reconnect with Steve come to fruition, and not in the sense of them making music together, but to rekindle a friendship. If something beyond that comes out of it, terrific, but those guys did so much together when they were younger it would be nice to see the bad feelings put in the past. It's reminded me of the conversation I had with Jon in Hollywood at the luncheon after the star ceremony. He made a comment to me about how nice it was that Steve had shown up for it, which none of them knew about until they saw him, and the way he said it was touched with the same kind of nostalgia that the fans were feeling. Hopefully some fences can be mended.

After five hours of a huge spectrum of music, we all gathered outside Barclays for the subway ride back -- again led by Amanda and her photo of Steve Perry, which was much more important for the return trip as subway construction required us to find a completely different platform than expected. We said goodbye to Amanda at Grand Central Station as she had to run to catch her train home and headed back to the hotel. My traveling companions all called it a night (especially poor Mary Ann who hadn't slept since Wednesday night!) but I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the lobby to meet a few folks for what was supposed to be a quick after-show drink. My plan was to have a quick drink and say good bye/good night to everyone as they headed off to their respective hotels/rooms and then work on the first report. A little proscecco and a lot of chat meant reporting was delayed, but it was great being able to visit with folks a while longer. Everyone started to fade around 2:00, so it was off to bed and farewell to most of the Journey-ers who'd joined us.

A quick wrap for the rest of the weekend. Cheryl, Leslie, Jenn, Mary Ann, and I set out Saturday morning to meet Deb A. and a friend at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Debbie is someone I've known from the Perry List since the late 1990s and was in the South Tower on 9/11, so going to the museum with her was special. I will say it was a complete 180 degrees opposite from the emotions of the night before, and being completely exhausted meant getting overwhelmed once or twice. If you ever get a chance to go to the museum I would say do it, but bring Kleenex and be prepared to be a bit emotionally wrung out when you're through.

We said our goodbyes to Deb and headed back to the hotel for a late lunch and a nap before grabbing a car from the hotel to go see the musical Beautiful which is about Carole King and features a lot of her music. Jenn managed to snag us 5 dead center orchestra seats and it was a fantastic show. I grew up on Carole King and just absolutely loved the show. It was a perfect addition to the theme of the weekend.

Mary Ann had an early-ish flight out Sunday, so we had a nice farewell breakfast at the hotel before she had to head off to the airport. My flight wasn't until 6 that evening, so I had half a day to spend with Cheryl, Leslie, and Jenn before heading home. We hopped on the subway up to Central Park to visit Strawberry Fields and then walked around the park a bit before hopping into a cab to Rockefeller Center. We grabbed mimosas at a wine bar at Rockefeller Center then walked down Fifth Avenue back to the hotel where I was to grab my shuttle to the airport.

I still can't quite believe I actually was in New York for Journey's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Part of that is due to thinking it would never happen and part of it is due to it just being such an exciting and whirlwind of a weekend. Attending the Giants home opener on Monday and getting to hear "Lights" play in the middle of the eighth inning took me straight back to Friday night and I rather ignored my friend for the duration of the song while I sat there listening and looking out at the Bay Bridge. My favorite band was playing, it was time to bliss out.

April 7, 2017: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Part 2

Brooklyn, NY
Barclays Center

So, as promised, I'm sitting at 25,000 feet working away at trying to describe everything that happened on Friday night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Know now that this is likely to get long and I'm also likely to forget a few things. It was such an incredible night of music and stories and the energy of the whole event just was one I'll never forget.

I was going to open with some of the pre-show festivities, but this post should be long enough with out them, so they'll be saved for the next installment. Get to the meat of the matter. Leslie and I were in our seats by 6:45 (right next to Janice and Randal in a happy coincidence!) as we had received an email prior to leaving that everyone MUST be in their seat by 7:00 because the show was being filmed for HBO (to air April 29.) Looking around the arena I instantly knew there would be no way that would happen. The place was still mostly empty, including all the tables on the main floor. About 7:00 we started getting announcements that the show would be starting soon and would everyone please take their seats. That's really when things filled in and the floor quickly filled up with the variety of celebrities and friends and families of the bands being inducted (as of course were the inductees.) We saw several members of Yes pass by our seats near the back of the arena. About 7:15 the lights went down, the music came up and the show was on.

The show opened with Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone and the man behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, welcoming one and all to the show and listing off the names of those being inducted. As each performer was announced roars would rise up from the crowd. When he got to Journey, a good size cheer went up that was soon challenged by the introduction of Yes. The final act mentioned was Pearl Jam and the place went absolutely nuts. They were definitely the top dog Friday night by way of response. I wasn't particularly surprised by that. When the ballot was announced and I saw Pearl Jam among the nominees beside making me feel old, I knew they would breeze their way in the door. The introduction ended with Jann paying tribute to Chuck Berry and off it went into a memorial tribute to the founder of rock and roll.

While the tribute played, we studied the happenings on the stage below the screen. A performer was set up to open the show, but we weren't sure who it would be. We had heard a rumor that Journey was going to open the show, but looking at the set up that was on the stage as the show started it was clearly not part of Journey's gear. ...

{pause for stupid guy in seat in front of me leaning back making it impossible to read what I'm typing.}

{delay for SF Giants Opening day}

... We could see people coming on stage and one was a violin player. Ok, definitely not Journey. As the tribute ended, I noticed a silhouette of someone standing at the front of the stage and I said "that looks like Jeff Lynne." The lights came up, and ELO is on stage and launches into Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven". They followed with two of their own songs, "Evil Woman" and "Mr. Blue Sky." ELO isn't a band I'm hugely familiar with and generally falls into the "oh yeah, I like that song, I forgot about that one" category. They left the stage and the screen behind the stage showed the tribute clip about the history of ELO. While this was happening, down on the stage, there was a scramble as the road crew for the show pulled off all of ELOs gear. Dhani Harrison came out at the end of the video and began the induction speech for ELO. It was a fairly long speech as much of it was about the family relationship between the Harrisons and Jeff Lynne. There was a good deal of humor and it was clear how close of a friend Jeff Lynne was to George Harrison. My favorite part was Dhani talking about how Jeff Lynne was an alien from another planet and that, really, all of his father's friends were aliens who were sensitive to Earth's sun and up popped a photo of the Traveling Wilburys all decked out in sunglasses. Then the members of ELO came up and gave their speeches with Jeff Lynne closing out the speeches.

This was the only induction that went by this pattern of having the band perform first. The rest all had the pattern of a video introduction that ran about 3-5 minutes covering the career and history of the inductee including interviews with the inductees. The video would be followed by the person presenting the inductee by giving a speech highlighting the accomplishments and influences of the whoever was being inducted. While this was going on the stage would get switched out for the next performance. Then the performer would come up and give their speeches and when that was done off to get set up to perform two or three songs. For the most part the speeches were very similar across the performers, so I'll only mention a few highlights that stood out especially since many of them are already appearing on line for folks to read and see.

ELO was followed by Jackson Browne taking the stage to induct Joan Baez, who I was shocked to learn hadn't been inducted before now. While even she admitted it was an odd choice since her background is folk music not rock and roll, her influence on the music and politics of the 1960s can't be overlooked. Additionally rock and roll isn't just one thing -- as just this class of inductees shows -- its origins include folk, blues, and jazz influences. It is the music of the people and that's where Joan Baez fits in to this. She was one of just a few of the inductees who had clearly practiced her speech. The best part was how she said this induction made young people find out who she was and that her granddaughter didn't know who she was until she was able to bring her backstage at a Taylor Swift concert. I laughed and even remembered that concert since it was the Taylor Swift show here in the Bay Area at Levi's Stadium. No, I didn't go, but Joan Baez strutting down the stage with Taylor Swift is going to make the local entertainment section of the paper every time. I remember thinking at the time how cool that was that a young star was recognizing her predecessors and someone who knocked down doors for her to reach the success that she has today.

Joan then did her performance center stage with just herself and a guitar for "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". She then introduced a few guests to come on stage and perform with her and out came the Indigo Girls and Mary Chapin Carpenter. They performed "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon)" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" together with the crowd joining in on the chorus of the latter. The simplicity of their performances was what made it most memorable, just a couple of acoustic guitars and vocals. When I got home, I had time to catch up on a backload of newspapers I hadn't had time to read and discovered that she is planning to retire from touring and recording after this year, so if she's coming to town near you this year make a chance to go see her.

Yes came up next and were inducted by Neil Peart Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush. I can't say that I'm a huge Yes fan, and the one time I've seen them I found myself dozing off in my seat. I'm only passingly familiar with the members of the band, so putting names to faces was a little challenging. The highlight of their speeches came from Rick Wakeman who was cracking jokes throughout and got lots of laughs from the audience. They only played two songs, "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart", and holy smokes were they good. Geddy Lee joined them on bass for "Roundabout" (at least, I don't remember if he stayed on stage for "Owner of a Lonely Heart") and was also quite impressive (not a huge Rush fan either.)

The induction of Tupac Shakur followed and that's when a lot of folks left their seats for a break. I know a lot of people don't feel that rap should be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but I'm not of that mind. Inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame include blues, jazz, folk, R&B, and soul music. Like Joan Baez and her folk background, Tupac and rap is a natural progression of the music of the people. I don't know a whole lot about Tupac, but I do know much of what he sang about was from a socio-political perspective. Snoop Dogg gave a great induction speech and accepted on behalf of Tupac. Alicia Keys then came out with her band and performed in tribute. I won't pretend to know what she performed -- I was never the target audience for Tupac's music and couldn't name one of his songs to save my life. The only thing I recognized was a bit of Bruce Hornsby's "That's Just the Way It Is", which I assume was sampled for one of Tupac's songs and got me perked up as I am a fan of Bruce Hornsby. Snoop Dogg and a couple of other rappers then came out to perform a couple of songs. As I posted on Facebook, I didn't know what I was seeing but it was a really good performance and the crowd really got into it.

Journey's induction followed Tupac and since I've already covered that in my previous post I'll move along to Nile Rodgers who was being inducted by Pharrell for musical excellence. When his introduction video played there were snips of some of the many songs he has performed on and/or produced and showed many of the people he's worked with over the years. I knew he had worked with almost everybody, but had forgotten some of the specific songs/albums he was involved with. His speech was quite good and he got very emotional at one point saying something along the lines of he just wanted to be a background session guy and never expected to be where he was. There wasn't any performance associated with his induction since he wasn't going in as a performer.

The In Memoriam segment came up next and the video screens showed a bunch of musicians and music industry people who had died since last year's induction ceremonies, much like you'd see at the Grammys or Oscars. I didn't watch the whole video as I took that moment to catch up a bit on Facebook, but two of the faces that popped up and got me were George Michael (for some reason I really didn't expect to see him in that segment, denial perhaps?) and Benny Collins aka "Wolfman Black" of Journey's original road crew. That one I thought was a really nice touch. The last face on the screen though was Prince, and as the lights came back up on the stage it was time for Lenny Kravitz's tribute performance.

Lenny opened with a really interesting interpretation of "When Doves Cry" complete with a gospel choir. It was quite different from the original, but really well done. He followed it with "The Cross" which was a song I wasn't that familiar with but was also very well done. I've seen Lenny a couple of times in the past and he's just an excellent performer.

And finally it was time for the "headliners" of this induction ceremony. While everyone being inducted was more than deserving, Pearl Jam was clearly the biggest act going in based on the overall response of the audience and their position as the final act of the night. In addition to seeing Joan Baez going in, Pearl Jam was another of the class of 2017 I really wanted to see beyond the induction of my all time favorite band. I've referred to Pearl Jam as my "college band" -- when they hit the scene in the early 90s, I really enjoyed their stuff (and, okay, I was just out of college when they hit.) I think Ten is a brilliant album and I followed them fairly closely the first few years of their career. For some reason though, I never saw them live -- probably for lack of someone to go with as it was definitely before I'd go to shows on my own. Having them inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame really made me feel my age. These guys are my contemporaries, that they've been around for 25 years is just stunning.

David Letterman inducted them as a last minute replacement for Neil Young who had to cancel due to illness. He's looking an awful lot like Santa Claus these days. He gave a nice speech and included a story about having the riff from "Black" stuck in his head for months and another about Eddie Vedder giving his son a guitar after appearing on one of his last shows. When the band made their way to the stage, the entire arena went nuts. By far this was the loudest ovation anyone had received all night. I was on my feet cheering as well. As I looked at the band on stage, I kind of chuckled to myself as I thought "when the heck did Pearl Jam become a bunch of middle aged accountants?" Most of the guys looked way too straight laced to be rock stars, much less part of the grunge movement of the 1990s! (I had a similar thought a few months ago when they appeared on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, though that time it was "My God! Pearl Jam is a middle age dad band now!") I certainly have a hard time remembering I'm in my late 40s now, so seeing these guys who are also now in their late 40s is a little jarring. We're all supposed to still be in our 20s!

Anyway, the various members of Pearl Jam gave their speeches and they wrapped up with Eddie Vedder. His speech was a bit rambling and jumped all over the place, but it did weirdly flow from one part to the next. He did have to add his side of the tale about Letterman's bit about "Black." He led into it by talking about how he watched a lot of Letterman's show before making it big, so it was a regular thing for him to keep doing after success came. He then told a story about getting really stoned one night and watching the show when Letterman was going through the "Black" riff and then looked directly into the camera and said "Eddie? Eddie? You need to come on the show Eddie." Naturally in his state, Eddie thought he was imagining things and "that it might be time for rehab."

Pearl Jam's performance closed out the show with "Alive", "Given to Fly" which was dedicated to Michael J. Fox who was in the audience, and "Better Man" which is probably my favorite Pearl Jam song. They were absolutely amazing. I've always known Pearl Jam was a great live band and this short three song set totally lived up to their reputation. A very brief break followed to allow time for other inductees and presenters to join them on stage for the close out jam song. Neal and Jon were representatives from Journey, Dhani Harrison and Geddy Lee were among the presenters to join, and there were a couple of guys from Yes on stage. I'm not sure if there was anyone from ELO since the only one I know/recognize is Jeff Lynne and I don't remember seeing him on stage. They closed out the show with Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World." SO. MUCH. ENERGY! Everyone in the place was totally rocking out and even the celebrities in the front rows on the floor were up on their feet and fist pumping along. Since Neil Young wasn't in attendance, Neal Schon go to take on the guitar solo and he killed it.

The show wrapped up about midnight and I'll be really curious how it gets edited down for HBO. The running time was nearly 5 hours and the transitions from one thing to the next were a lot shorter than I expected them to be. I imagine a couple of songs will get cut and maybe some of the induction speeches from the bands (I could see Aynsley Dunbar's speech falling on the cutting room floor for example), but there wasn't a whole lot of filler in the show that you could really trim down.

All in all, this was a great night and a totally memorable experience. I'm actually looking forward to watching it all again in a couple of weeks on HBO* and being able to relive it all. I particularly look forward to seeing Journey again because I was so hyped up when they came out it's really kind of a blur in my mind. It was so completely worth all the hassle and expense it took to get to and see this show. I knew if this day ever came I wasn't going to miss it for anything, and it all lived up to my expectations and more. (Or almost more, there's just one small thing that would have made it perfect....)

*Edit: The HBO broadcast of this show really chopped it to bits. Both Journey and Joan Baez had songs edited out. All of the speeches were edited, with several dropped from the larger inductee groups. The broadcast really had a hard time capturing the energy of the event and it felt much more staid than it was in person. The most criminal thing however, was running the closing credits over the finale and not showing the whole thing. All in all a record of the event, but not in line with being there in person.