I remember the night of Oct. 21, 2011 like it was yesterday.
Wait, it was yesterday. Almost four years ago? Are you kidding?
That was the night I walked from my hotel in Seattle to the nearby KeyArena with my chums, Jason Peters and his most excellent lady Jana, for our evening with Journey.
First, some back story, friends.
Jason and Jana are children of the 1980s like me and Journey figures prominently in the soundtrack of our teens and early 20s. Same for the two opening bands that night - Foreigner and Night Ranger.
Now some folks are a little hard on Night Ranger. Did they do any other songs besides Sister Christian? Those are fighting words to Jason, the world's single greatest Night Ranger fan. While Jana and I were strolling to the arena that beautiful fall night, Jason was setting the pace and it was fast. Night Ranger would be first on and Jason didn't want to miss a note. Thankfully, he didn't or we never would have heard the end of it.
They did seven songs. Don't lie - you've heard You Can Still Rock In America, When You Close Your Eyes, Don't Tell Me You Love Me and Sing Me Away. Ok, maybe if you heard them, you'd remember.
Anyhow, it was magic for Jason, especially when Deen Castronovo, Journey's drummer (well, he's not Journey's original drummer - all those great 70s and 80s Journey songs were actually played by the amazing Steve Smith but only the purists care) came out to play Sister Christian on the drums for Night Ranger so the band's drummer, Kelly Keagy, who handles lead vocal on the band's greatest hit, could work the crowd without being tied to his drum set.
Foreigner was up next that night, to warm up the fans for Journey, but the purist in me wasn't pleased because it was a hand-picked cover band. Mick Jones, the guitarist and sole remaining original member (I know, Foreigner without vocalist Lou Gramm just isn't Foreigner), decided to take the night off so it was 10 classic Foreigner songs played by a group of talented guys and a fine Gramm-like vocalist but it wasn't "true" Foreigner.
Still, they sounded great and members of both Night Ranger and Journey came out on stage during I Want To Know What Love Is to help out with the anthemic chorus. It was awesome.
Then the main act...who were less than awesome. It wasn't their fault, however. The sound engineer decided the guitar and drums were more important than anything else and since the crowd knew all the words, why would they want to hear Arnel Pineda, the more-than-able replacement for Steve Perry, one of rock's great lead singers? Sound mixing aside, it was still a great show - 16 songs, only two from the new album that nobody really wanted to hear but everyone listened to politely before they got back to the songs that everybody wanted to hear.
Journey is the band everyone loves and the ridiculous few, such as the voting members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, love to hate. The band has sold nearly 100 million records over the past 40 years and continues to be a top touring act speaks to the connection the group's songs have across multiple generations.
The band's signature song, Don't Stop Believin,' is a beautiful song of overcoming life adversities but it's also one of the cleverest songs in rock, since it dispenses with the introduction-lyric-chorus-lyric-chorus-bridge/solo-chorus-fade format of most pop songs. Rather, it starts with that instantly recognizable piano and gradually builds. The guitar only comes at the one-minute mark, a sonic imitation of the "midnight train going anywhere." The images in the lyrics are vivid - "a singer in a smoky room, the smell of wine and sweet perfume" and Ross Valory's bass drives the song forward once the rhythm section comes in at nearly the halfway point.
Finally, more than three minutes into a four minute song, the chorus finally arrives, a short and sweet Neal Schon guitar solo serving as the bridge to it, delivering the emotional payoff for the patient listener.
And here's some fun to have with your American friends. Ask them where the "boy born and raised in South Detroit" is really from.
The answer is Canada.
There is no South Detroit and the city south of Detroit is Windsor, Ontario.
Hold on to that feeling.
