Well, what can I say? Another wonderful show! But do we expect less? Of course not!
We arrived at our hotel about 4:30 (nice place- we have a very nice little suite!). Changed clothes and headed out to find the theater and some dinner. There was an Italian place essentially across the street from the Oakdale, so we ate there. Went over to the theater, and Mike gave me the camera to hide, because they were doing pat downs at the door. He had to check his pocketknife, but I did get the camera in! We got to our seats, and a few minutes later, Greg and Maureen came in. They were sitting in the row behind us, so we had the chance to chat a few minutes before the show started.
And when the lights went down- we got a very nice surprise! We got the Moon Crickets! And let me tell you, those guys aren’t half bad! They ought to take that show on the road! LOL Jim- really great to get to hear YOU play! They did four songs and then got off the stage, asking us to “not tell the band that they had played!”
Then the “real” band came on and it was rock and roll all nite! The set list was the same as last Thursday in NH, so I won’t relist it all. The piano solo was a bit shorter tonite. A bit disappointing for this piano fan. There was a bit of “emergency surgery” necessary on one of Deen’s bass drums. We saw a rather large drumhead being delivered from backstage to the drum set, then Jim came out and took off one of the bass drums and a short bit later, brought it back and replaced it. And Deen never missed a beat! It was fun, fun, fun! Again, I was on my feet from note one, but a lot of the crowd was pretty lame. Whole sections would sit whenever something was going on that did not involve the whole band- Ross’s solo, Jon’s piano solo, etc. One of the worst crowds I’ve seen as far as that goes.
Fashion update: Steve- black and white shirt, black jeans. Lookin’ mighty fine! Ross was rather subdued tonite- dark blue shirt and black jeans. No fancy shirt tonite! Neal all in black. Deen- orange shirt and those baggy shorts he seems to like so much! Jon in the patched jeans (nice flares!) and the same shirt as Thursday.
It was a great concert, I don’t want to give the impression that it wasn’t, but I have a bit of a rant to add. As some of you know, my husband was with me, and he is not nearly the Journey fan that I am. From his perspective, the concert was a disappointment. He actually enjoys the newer music and to not hear any of it left him a bit cold. He is not a fan of a lot of the older stuff and he felt they were “digging” too far into the past. To some extent, I agree. While I certainly enjoyed hearing the songs from Frontiers and Escape, I really, really want to hear more Arrival and Red-13!! C’mon, guys- you’ll NEVER get the more casual fans to know it and appreciate it if you don’t play it!! If they do come out with new music next year, are they going to ignore that, too? And now the bigger problem- the sound!!! I’ve been complaining about it for a few years now and it ain’t getting any better. What’s up? There is no reason a professional set-up like Journey has should be distorting so much that a good portion of Neal’s fabulous playing gets lost. And the piano sounded horrible when Jon started his solo. Even Deen’s drums were breaking up at times, and his vocals got lost a lot. Back it down just a bit, huh, guys? I mean, loud is one thing, but it CAN be done without killing the music. I know we tend to be a bit fussy about stuff like that, but it really does take something away from the experience when the sound makes you cringe at times. Ok, rant mode off!
On to Mohegan……..