This is a slight Departure from my photography blog, but I just wanted to share it.
In my formative years (the early 80’s!), there was no band bigger in my mind than Journey (Styx was a close second). On April 24, 1983 at the Miami Baseball Stadium (which is now long gone), my brother took me to my very first concert. The lineup in order:
* Bryan Adams – “Cuts Like a Knife” was his big hit. He’s actually a really good photographer now!
* Aerosmith – When they were going through a rough period.
* Sammy Hagar (BVH – Before Van Halen). His big hit was “I Can’t Drive 55.”
And, of course,
* JOURNEY
I was 13 and up until that point it was the greatest day of my life. I can’t remember if Frontiers had come out yet, but they were still riding high off the success of Escape.
Over the next few years, I pumped a lot of quarters into the Journey video game and Raised on Radio was the first CD I bought (along with Sting’s The Dream of the Blue Turtles). I’ve now seen them play live three or four times. I even watched three Michael Bolton sets at Grad Night in 1988 because Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory were playing in his band. I still have the autographs somewhere.
I just re-watched the Live from Houston 1981 DVD and those guys were awesome. I wish I had been a tour photographer back in those days but I don’t think my mother would have let me go out on the road at 13.
So now it’s 2008. The band is still touring (without Steve Perry and Steve Smith). Neal Schon found the new lead singer on youtube! Arnel Pineda is from the Philippines and sounds exactly like Steve Perry. It’s pretty incredible considering he has a thick accent when he speaks.
They just released a three-disc set called Revelations. It contains one CD of new material, one CD of re-recorded classic tracks, and a live DVD. I was bummed that they didn’t take the opportunity to play around with some of the arrangements on the classic songs. Those tracks are timeless, but the new versions sound exactly like the old versions. When they come up on my iPhone, it sometimes takes me a minute before I can figure out which recording it is.
Having said that, the new material sounds great and the live concert is awesome. It’s still fun to watch those guys play. And who knew Deen Castronovo could also sing like Steve Perry!
Their U.S. tour starts in a few weeks (co-headlining with Cheap Trick and Heart). I don’t have any connections to them but being their tour photographer would be a dream gig for me.
I think my mother would let me go this time.