Journey with Cheap Trick and Heart
Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey
Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek
Raleigh, NC 10 August 2008
People tend to be a bit wary of all the “packaged tours” that end up at the sheds each summer. And I totally understand it because typically they’re made up of has-been 80’s bands who are way past their prime. And I’m sure in some people’s minds, the Cheap Trick/Heart/Journey triple bill could be lumped with the rest of ‘em. Call it what you want – 80’s nostalgia, a blast from the past, whatever. But last night in Raleigh, the three bands truly rocked the lil’ ol’ amphitheater and the nearly sold out crowd (including me) enjoyed every minute of it.
Cheap Trick probably got the toughest job on the tour, playing to a half-filled house at 7pm each night. With the sun still blaring on their faces, the band blasted through their set just like they always do. Unfortunately their set was marred by a muddy sound mix. But Cheap Trick is a class act and they delighted their fans with stellar versions of “If You Want My Love”, “I Want You to Want Me”, “Surrender” and “Dream Police”. I always get a kick out of seeing Rick Neilsen’s unique collection of guitars. Felt a little sorry for his guitar tech though – tuning and maintaining all those guitars each and every night must be a bitch. Robin Zander’s vocals sounded strong for the most part but still has a tough time with “The Flame”. Even performing it tuned down a couple steps, Zander couldn’t cleanly hit that last high note in the song. It was spectacularly cringe-worthy. Other than that, CT’s set was pretty flawless. Oh, and Ross Valory (of Journey) came out in the middle of CT’s set to yell “these guys ROCK!” to an unsure crowd who were all probably wondering “who’s that old man?” heh.
Heart nailed their set last night. Definitely made them a HARD act to follow. By the time they got on stage, the place was pretty much full and raring to go. Ann and Nancy Wilson proved once again that they could rock just as good (or even better) as the rest of the boys on the bill. They played a nice mix of their 70’s and 80’s hits plus a Who and Led Zep cover. And yes, Ann Wilson is singing the songs in a lower key but it doesn’t really matter in this case because she belts these out like no one else can! If there were any wine glasses around that night, they would have been shattered by the time Ann hit that otherworldly vocal run in “Alone”. wow! She is amazing. Oh and Nancy got her time in the spotlight with a nice acoustic guitar solo before the start of “Crazy on You”. plus, she still does those high kicks that we all know and love.
And how do you follow that? It’d be tough for ANY band to keep that level of momentum going. Journey stumbles a bit at the beginning with singer Arnel Pineda not quite hitting the high notes on the set opener “Never Walk Away”. But the band quickly recovers and get things back up to fever pitch by the time they hit “Only the Young” and “Stone in Love”. I’m sure the band tries to keep things “fresh” for themselves by mixing up their setlist every night but at times the sequencing seems so random. There’s an art to building a setlist and last night’s set didn’t have that great of a flow. For example, they followed Separate Ways with Rubicon and then went straight into two new songs off of Revelation, “Change for the Better” and “Wildest Dreams”. Talk about a momentum killer. But odd sequencing choices aside, the band was phenomenal. Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Deen Castronovo and Jonathan Cain are spectacular players and all the musicians in the crowd were most likely slack-jawed in awe of their skill. Schon and Castronovo were especially amazing to watch.
Going into the show I was a bit worried that Pineda’s voice would show signs of the wear and tear of the road but Pineda was in fine form after the initial hiccup at the start of the set. Pineda was up and down the stage, dancing, jumping and shaking hands with those up in front. He was a bundle of energy and definitely brought new life into these old favorites. I’m not so sure performing “Escape” and “Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin” for the encore is the smartest choice in terms of keeping the interest of a huge crowd but all in all I had a blast seeing the newly reborn Journey with Pineda at the helm. It’s a strong show and definitely well worth seeing if it comes near your neck of the woods.
—
purchase Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey music on amazon:
—
Related posts:
Nice review. Caught the tour’s first show in Denver but had to leave after Trick, though I could hear Ann’s incredible voice blasting from the amphitheater as I headed toward my car. All of the singers in Trick, Heart and Journey are pretty amazing. It’s an interesting mixture of two seasoned veterans and one newby still learning the ropes. All in all, the bands still rock, and the crowds still love hearing the hits. Glad that after a month on the road, they’re still sounding great.
I’ve never been much of a fan of Cheap Trick or Journey, but this reminded me of seeing Heart back in…I think 1983, at the Spectrum in Philly double billed with Kansas. Kansas were pretty good, but pretty much got blown off the stage by Heart. Actually, I still remember the effect just watching Nancy Wilson play had on my 17 year old self…but you reeeeally don’t wanna hear about that….
Nice review… but you have a bit of wrong information. Ann Wilson still performs all of her songs in the original keys. She may take some embellishments down, but the keys are the same.
[...] it was the setting, the crowd or the band, it just felt a bit off. Don’t get me wrong, I saw Pineda with Journey over the summer and they rocked but this performance was just “meh”. — As for Bruce Springsteen – it’s too [...]
[...] of the woods this summer. Arnel Pineda and company did a phenomenal job in bringing in the numbers last summer (along with Cheap Trick and Heart), so expectations are high for this summer’s tour. As for the tour package this time around, [...]
[...] this past friday night. Honestly, I wasn’t that enthused about this show since I saw them last summer on a better bill (Cheap Trick & Heart). When they announced that Night Ranger was opening the show a couple months back, I was very [...]