Journey, Steve Miller Band -- Live Review
Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 08:45AM Editor's note: today's show review comes to us from longtime poster Bob. If you have a show review to share, email me at allyson@bringbackglam.com.
On Thursday, May 15, my wife and I went to the Journey, Steve Miller and Tower of Power concert at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, CA. On the day of the show, we had lots of questions. The biggest one was if the show would even happen because Southern California had been hit pretty hard by wildfires that week, and many events were canceled. The second was if we would make it to the show on time. Since this is a triple bill that needed to be over by 11:00, the concert was starting promptly at 6:45 which is a little too early for working people who have to battle traffic to get there. The last question was how the bands would sound. This was the first date of the tour which could mean that the bands were either well-rested and ready to rock, or a little rusty from time off.
As it turns out, we did not make it there on time. By the time we fought through the traffic, and walked about ten minutes to the venue, Tower of Power was already playing their last song: the always show stopping, "What is Hip." I was really bummed that we missed most of TOP's 45-minute set, but we did catch most of "What is Hip." TOP has been doing it since 1968, and with four of the founding members still in the band, they still bring it at an extremely high level: funky, tight, and completely in your face horn-driven soul -- just the way you want it. If you see this tour, do whatever you can to be in your seat before TOP hits the stage.
Next up, after what was only about a 15-minute break was the Steve Miller Band. They opened up with "Jungle Love." The song sounded decent, but they played it several keys lower than the original which made me wonder if Miller's voice was still up to the task of performing. Fortunately, Miller and crew picked up steam as the night went on, and by about the fourth song, they had blown the dust off and were sounding great. they played pretty much every hit you'd want to hear, along with some pleasant surprises. Stevie Guitar showed off
his impressive chops with a great version of "Gangster of Love" with just him and his acoustic guitar. While he had his acoustic out, he did a simply gorgeous version of "Wild Mountain Honey." by this point, his voice was fully warmed up and he actually sang the keyboard parts himself. Hopefully he'll keep this as part of the set for the rest of the tour -- it was truly a highlight. Overall, Miller's set was really good -- a tight band playing lots of timeless tunes that had the crowd on their feet and singing along. Honestly, I think they'll get even better as the tour goes along. they were just a little rusty at the beginning, but they got noticeably better as the night went on. Steve Miller definitely can still make a guitar sing. he plays with taste, not flash: a lesson that the next guitarist who took the stage that night could benefit from learning.
So, at about 9:20 Journey hit the stage and the crowd went crazy. They opened up with "Be Good to Yourself." After about two vocal lines out of Arnel Pineda's impressive pipes, some drunk girl behind us shrieked, "He
sounds just like their old singer!!!" The dude's been in the band for six years already.
You'd think everybody would know by now that Pineda can out-Perry Perry at this point, but that'll teach me to over-estimate the masses, I guess. They played right up until 11:00 doing mostly their 80s-era hits while sprinkling in a few of their newer tunes. As you might imagine, everybody stood, cheered and sang
for the 80s tunes, then sat right back down when they'd play a newer song.
How did they sound? In a word...awesome...And I don't even really like Journey all that much. Pineda's vocals were particularly impressive, although his stage banter could use some improvement. Understandably, he still
speaks with a thick Filipino accent so the crowd couldn't always understand what he was saying. The crowd would just kind of nervously cheer whenever he'd yell something. Only when he yelled "San Diego!!!" into the mic would the crowd completely know it was okay to cheer back. Speaking of vocals, I had no idea that
Deen Castronovo had such a strong voice. I've been a huge fan of his drumming prowess since his days playing sessions for Shrapnel Records in the 80s, but he absolutely blew me away when he sang lead on "Mother, Father" which got a hugereaction from the crowd. By contrast, Jonathan Cain's turn at lead
vocals on "Any time That You Want Me" was underwhelming at best. Cain's keyboard solo was decent though -- more of a nice montage of melodies strung together by brief flourishes. At one point, he hinted at "Who's Crying Now" which started with a big cheer from the crowd then almost a sound of immediate letdown when
he moved onto something else.
And now, let's turn to Mr. Ego himself, Neil Schon. Don't get me wrong, I love guitar solos. One of the things I miss most about today's hard rock is guitar solos. I also freely acknowledge that Neil Schon has chops and
technique to burn. What he clearly doesn't have is the ability to edit himself. These days he seems to be more concerned with showing how fast he can play, or how high of a note he can squeeze out of his guitar than putting together an interesting solo. It really got old after about four songs. also, why do so many
guitarists these days feel the need to play "The Star Spangled Banner?" Hendrix at Woodstock set the bar so high that when I see any other guitarist do it, it almost seems like a waste of time. that said, the crowd loved
it, so clearly my opinion on the subject is in the minority. :)
"But Bob", I hear you say, "You said Journey sounded awesome, then went on to complain about a bunch of things." Well my friends, that's because I'm nit-picking like I always do. Overall, Journey really did
put on a great show. They are playing in top form these days, and they absolutely had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Listening to them play, and marveling at how good they sounded, i turned to my wife and
said, "If I was about 80 pounds lighter, and still had big poofy hair, it could easily be 1983 right now."
If this tour comes to your area, I highly recommend going. Not only are all three bands playing well, but the diversity of musical styles is what makes this tour so great. The blistering soul of Tower of Power, the timeless classic rock and tasty guitar of the Steve Miller Band, and the anthemic arena rock of Journey all work together
brilliantly as a single night of music.
