Scranton, PA
September 5, 2004
Ok,
Scranton—
Easily the best of the four Journey shows I’ve seen this summer! And probably
the best I’ve seen so far ANY summer! I love being able to say that after
every show- but it is the truth. They get better and better all the time!
First, let me thank Jane for the wonderful job she did on the pre-show party! It
was great fun! We had a nice room (no, the walls were NOT padded! LOL) and a
really terrific waitress- she was all alone with about 25-ish Journey nuts and
she was really great. She handled all the cameras for the group picture and did
a fabulous job. It was great to meet more Journey fans and to put faces to some
of the names from the forums. Jane had a nice big poster for us all to sign for
the guys, and it did eventually make it onstage and into Steve’s hands. He was
looking at it and reading some of it with that wonderful Steve smile of his!
All the guys were dead on for the whole show and, again, having a whole lotta
fun up there. Same set as at Mohegan Sun, so we did get Higher Place again! Yay!
Ross started Walks Like A Lady without his bass- he pulled the mike off the
stand and did the intro, then he grabbed the bass and off they went! The sound
was waaaay better than any other show- my ears weren’t even ringing when we
left and it was still plenty loud! Very little of the problems I’ve been
hearing in the sound before this. There was a glitch in the equipment onstage,
tho. At one point, Neal turned and strolled over to Jon’s side of the stage,
and he must have said something (his back was to me so I couldn’t see exaclty)
and Jon pointed to his ear monitors and I saw him mouth to Neal: I can’t hear
you. Neal must have said something else, ‘cause Jon just shrugged. But you
wouldn’t know from the music that anything was wrong. Which brings me to what
I want to comment on this time: the musicianship on that stage. Tear your eyes
away from Steve for a bit sometime (ok, I KNOW that’s really, really tough,
but try….. LOL) and watch the interactions behind him. They are not only *
listening *to each other, they are watching, as well. Deen and Ross are in eye
contact a lot more than some people might think- it’s not always an obvious or
direct look, but they are staying aware of what the other is doing. And watch
Neal and Jon during the SSB- Jon never takes his eyes off Neal and Neal gives
Jon cues all the way thru it. Again, not always obvious, but it’s there. That
gives Neal the freedom to change things up and vary the music a bit here and
there, ‘cause he knows Jon will be right with him. It’s little things like
that which are the sign of not only really good musicians, but people that have
played together for a long time and are comfortable with each other.
Let’s see, fashion--- Steve in black jeans and the mostly black with white
print shirt. He started out with a black leather jacket on, and I’m sure all
the rest of the ladies were with me in appreciating it when he took it off!!!
LOL Neal in jeans, black shirt and denim jacket.. Ross all in black again. Deen
in black ss shirt with green flames on the sleeves and gray (I think) pants. Jon
wore jeans and a nice, tight shirt.
Once again, I had tears in my eyes during Faithfully, knowing it was the last
time I will hear it live for a whole year! All in all, it was a great show and a
great
way to end my Journey summer!