On Saturday night I took my sister out for the full rock and roll experience via one of the best tours of the summer – Journey with special guests Heart and Cheap Trick. This was her first time seeing Heart and Cheap Trick, and as she reminded me, she had seen Journey (with Steve Augeri on vocals) prior to tonight via a previous concert experience with me.

“Thanks for remembering,” she said.

Ouch.

After I got home, she called me to let me know that I had officially received full justice – she had vomited in her own brand new car shortly after I dropped her off. She’s prone to extreme and sudden carsick moments. This is kind of a running not-so-funny-at-the-time-yet-funny-now joke in our family. A few years back, I had just purchased my first-ever brand new car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser. My sister and I were driving to South Carolina for my grandmother’s funeral, and before we even left Ohio, she got sick in my new car. All over my new car.

We’re now in a 24 hour Wal-Mart, frantically (I’m frantic at least) looking for cleaning supplies to clean up the mess. While in Wal-Mart, I run into some fans that recognize me from the radio station, so as I am internally freaking out about my car, I also have to be cool to these folks that have decided to come up to me to let me know how much they like my radio show. As I recall, I don’t think I was very happy with my sister over the next 9 hours of driving.

And then, as we were driving back from South Carolina, we were in the mountains of West Virginia, middle of nowhere, with pouring rain and winding roads far, far away from Windshield Replacements by Ready AutoGlass or anything similar – the perfect time for one of my windshield wipers to break. It was a great trip anyway you want to slice it!

But the story doesn’t quite end there, because when I was 17, I had been saddled with dropping my sister off at the mall. Later, I would learn it was for a date, which I didn’t know at the time. Right as we pull up to Parmatown Mall, you guessed it – sick all over my car. As she recovers, she looks at me, looks at the mess, and says “Sorry, I have to go!”

And off she went.

Teenage me is about as mad as I’ve ever been, as she walks away from my 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. I call my parents from a pay phone, as if my sister is their pet, to let them know that they will be cleaning up the mess in my car, caused by them making me drive her somewhere. No one is home, so I get the machine, and as you can guess, this is family legend as well – Lucky for me, they didn’t save the tape.

“Mom….Dad……ANYONE? ANYONE at ALL?”

“Melanie kind of, barfed in my car.”

My sister and I fought like cats and dogs throughout our entire childhood and teenage years, to the point that it made our friends uncomfortable – you know that things have gone too far at that point.

Time brought us closer together, and as she got more into music than she ever was in those early years, she started to call me on rare occasions when a show would come along that she would want to go see.

For tonight’s show, I got the following phone call at the beginning of the summer:

“Hey Matt, did you hear that Journey is coming?”

This is code for “I would like to go to this show.”

So plans were made, and a couple of months later it was showtime!

Cheap Trick:

Yeah, they played this one…

Knowing that Cheap Trick was the first band on deck, we made sure to get there early so that we wouldn’t miss a moment of their set. They had about the same amount of stage time tonight that they had when I saw them last summer at Virgin Festival.

In last summer’s performance, Cheap Trick featured a good amount of newer material from their latest album Rockford. This time around, the band wisely stuck with the hits and a few choice album cuts. Vocalist Robin Zander, still wearing what appeared to be the same straw hat from the last time that I saw him, has one of the most amazing voices in rock and roll – he still sounds great after all of these years. You can of course still depend on CT guitarist Rick Nielsen to change guitars at least once every song, including his famous 5-neck guitar!

Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain came out to add keys to a few songs, and Journey drummer Deen Castronovo joined Cain to add background vocals on the set-closing “Dream Police.”

Setlist:

Oh Claire
Big Eyes intro / In The Street (That 70’s song)
California Man
If You Want My Love
I Know What I Want
I Want You To Want Me
Tonight It’s You (w/ Jonathan Cain)
The Flame (w/ Jonathan Cain)
Surrender
Goodnight Now
Dream Police (w/ Jonathan Cain and Deen Castronovo)

I CAN’T believe that Cheap Trick and Heart are on tour together this summer, and they’re NOT taking advantage of the opportunity to roll out Zander and Ann Wilson for their soundtrack smash “Surrender To Me.” (listen)

What a HUGE missed opportunity on this summer package tour loaded with so many hits that people know and love.

Heart:

It had been five years since I saw Heart in Chicago at the annual Loopfest, and they were the band that I was really excited for my sister to see. They’ve mixed in more 80s/90s Heart material for this summer’s tour, which was a smart move, and a dream come true for me, since that is the Heart that I grew up with. I wasn’t surprised to hear them open with Brigade track “Wild Child,” which is something they’ve opened with in the past, but I was floored when I realized they were playing “Never.” “Wild Child” is a cool ballsy pick – great album track, but not a hit, and one of my favorites from Brigade. By the end of their set, I had heard a total of four of my absolute favorites from the era. I could have gone home after “Alone!” Ann Wilson was vocally stunning as always – Seriously, if you’re even a slight Heart fan and haven’t seen Heart, what are you doing? Go see Heart!

RE: Nancy Wilson – my sister says I have a thing for redheads – I say that redheads like me, and I like the occasional redhead. Stop buggin’ me!

When you talk about underrated guitar players, throw Nancy Wilson into that mix – she is such an amazing guitar player and vocalist. The Wilson sisters love to make music, and play live, and it is a feeling that radiates from the stage throughout the entire audience. A Heart show is such an amazing and energizing experience – I wish they would have gotten 75 to 90 minutes instead of the 60 minutes they had on stage.

Setlist:

Wild Child
Magic Man
Never
Straight On
These Dreams
Alone
Love Reign O’er Me
Barracuda

encore

Band intros
Going To California
Crazy On You

Ann Wilson hits a lot of really high notes, and here is your proof

Journey:

It’s hard to believe that I have now seen Journey with three different replacement vocalists for Steve Perry. You’ll recall that despite huge reservations about new vocalist Arnel Pineda, I really enjoyed the new album Revelation. Now, I needed Pineda to sell me in the live setting, and after Journey cancelled a show earlier this week to give Pineda a rest because of bronchitis, I wasn’t sure that I was going to get that.

Imagine having bronchitis, and part of your prescription meds involve going out to sing the Journey catalog several days later – ouch, good luck with that! To his credit, if Pineda was struggling with any lingering effects of bronchitis on Saturday night, I didn’t pick up on it. Pineda sounded nearly perfect vocally with only a couple of spots where it seemed like he might have backed off a bit vocally.

I walked away from Saturday’s show realizing that as long as the singer can handle the songs, Journey can put anyone on the stage to sing them. The Blossom crowd sang along with and ate up every single moment that Journey was on stage even though someone besides Steve Perry was delivering their classic favorites.

RE: Setlist – How about a few random Journey cuts besides the hits? Sure, you played “Chain Reaction” and “Escape” last night, and “Edge of the Blade” has been known to find its way into the setlist, but I’ve got a few additional suggestions. Since Journey returned to live duty with Steve Augeri/Jeff Scott Soto/Arnel Pineda, I haven’t seen songs like “After The Fall” or “The Party’s Over” (video) on the setlist of shows that I’ve seen. Either of those or BOTH would be killer!

I see that both songs popped up at least a couple of times in the Augeri era – Bring ’em back out!

Journey – After The Fall (live 2003 w/ Deen on vocals)

The above picture is a cool nod to The Sopranos usage of “Don’t Stop Believin'” which came up on the video screens at the conclusion of the song.

Sopranos style Journey logo= Very cool!

Special mention to Neal Schon – when talking about how much I enjoy watching Heart lead vocalist Ann Wilson belt ’em out, the same can be said for how much I enjoy watching Schon play guitar. Schon has unmistakable tone and a playing style that flies right on the edge of being cool without seeming pretentious.

Setlist:

Intro
Never Walk Away
Only The Young
Schon Solo – Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Send Her My Love
After All These Years
Change For The Better
Separate Ways
Lights
Cain Solo
Open Arms
Don’t Stop Believin’
Faithfully
Chain Reaction
Escape
Wheel In The SKy
Anyway You Want It
Be Good To Yourself

encore

Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’

All you need to know:

Overall, it was a great night of music from three of the finest names in classic rock. As much as I like Cheap Trick, I’d love to see a return bill of Journey and Heart co-headlining. Both bands were so great, and as expressed above, I really would have enjoyed seeing a full set from Heart. Even if you subtract the Who and Zeppelin covers and replace them with a couple more Heart originals, a 10 song setlist is just not enough time to cover the extensive catalog of Heart.

What made the show great was that all three bands were so solid – not a weak band on the bill – three bands, and tons of hits was a good recipe for a great night of rock and roll. The Journey catalog is a tough catalog for any singer to sing on a nightly basis – Pineda certainly has the voice and stage presence to go the distance. Assuming that his voice can withstand the rigors of the road, I think that he will have a bright future touring and recording with Journey.

More stuff to check out:

Check out John Soeder’s review of the show for the Plain Dealer right here.

If you missed it, check out my previous posting here that features information on a great new book from Heart, and also a smokin’ live show from 1987!

Relevant Links:

Journey’s official website

Heart’s official website

Cheap Trick’s official website

Purchase Essential Heart – CD

Purchase the Heart album Brigade – CD

Purchase Heart – Alive in Seattle – DVD

Purchase – Essential Journey – CD

Purchase Essential Cheap Trick – CD