🎶 2022-03-15 05:19:01 – Paris/France.
Tony Soprano made sure we never hesitated about Journey.
Literally overnight, the San Francisco rockers became massive stars again in 2007 when their song "Don't Stop Believin'" aired at the end of HBO's "The Sopranos," nearly 20 years after the last group tube.
This 1981 smash has gone from an oldie to karaoke gold, a favorite of TV's 'Glee', the closing number of the Broadway musical 'Rock of Ages' and a standard for gyms. .
As the band nears its 50th anniversary next year, Journey is so confident that in concert they are no longer waiting for the encore to deliver their signature song. On Monday at the Xcel Energy Center, after two laborious 1980s plays, it was time for the knockout blow just 13 minutes into the show.
With Jonathan Cain's upbeat piano intro and Arnel Pineda's soaring vocals, "Believin'" became a gigantic kumbaya chant like "Sweet Caroline." Everyone feels so good, so good, so good singing about this small-town girl who takes the midnight train anywhere.
It was the emotional high point of the evening – and perhaps also the musical high point, as the rest of the concert was problematic. In short, Deen Castronovo's bass drum was so loud that it drowned out many of Neal Schon's guitar solos, which is one of the attractions of a Journey gig.
Power ballads including "Lights," "Faithfully," and "Lovin, 'Touchin, 'Squeezin'" fared better. But still, the bass drum put more power than necessary into these quieter and more sensitive selections.
For a band that had more personnel changes than the Minnesota Twins this weekend, Journey probably has to do one more – replace the sound engineer. Maybe a repairman from the Soprano family could, uh, make arrangements.
Fans – all 14 in St. Paul – continue to believe in Journey even though the band hasn't released an album in 000 years.
A viewer needs a program to find out who is in this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band. Of course, there's the 68-year-old Schon, who founded the band in 1973 with other former Santana members. On Monday, he managed to shine with alternately fast and moving passages on "Lights", jazz-fusion flavored on "Who's Crying Now" and triumphantly soaring on "Any Way You Want It".
Cain has been on board since 1980. But there was an acrimonious split recently, leaving co-founding bassist Ross Valory and longtime drummer Steve Smith on the outside. Castronovo, a former replacement who spent 17 years with Journey, has joined the drums while Todd Jensen (Ozzy Osbourne, David Lee Roth) replaces bassist Randy Jackson, the former 'American Idol' judge who underwent back surgery . Jason Derlatka joins on keyboards and occasional vocals.
Then there's Pineda - the number 4 singer - who was discovered in 2007 on YouTube singing in a Filipino Journey tribute band. Heyday singer Steve Perry, 73, who left Journey for the second time in 1998, is semi-retired, although he released a solo album in 2018 and a Christmas record last year.
Pineda, 54, has a similar adenoidal voice, but much more energy and movement than Perry. On Monday, he was jumping, kicking, clapping, slapping, doing air guitar, rarely standing still. And he's got the right voice for Journey, evoking Perry perfectly with a hint of smoke on "Lights" and "Open Arms."
The new song Monday is from 1986, which marked the end of Journey's golden age. But hits like "Wheel in the Sky" and "Any Way You Want It" kept coming for 95 minutes.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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