, would have been a massive hit had it been written and released six years earlier. It is more or less a re-writing of Photograph but it is catchy nonetheless. It becomes clear after three songs these guys can still replicate those FM harmonies.
As the piercing opening notes of early hit Bringin on the Heartbreak ring out, I shudder as I wonder how many of the younger members of the audience heard this first as a Mariah Carey song. Guitarist Phil Collen is still playing shows without a shirt something I could not dare try at present. Joe Elliott, while certainly not fat, looks softer than he did a few years ago.
He does, however, hit the high notes in Foolin better than I do these days. Hysteria, the title track to the monster album that introduced me to the band, sounds as anthemic as ever. The band is touring to promote a new album, , an album of covers.
Two songs from that album are performed back-to-back: No Matter What, the Badfinger classic and David Essex s Rock On. I have never liked this song much but Def Leppard s take is better than most certainly better than that abortion from Michael Damien. From Rock On we move to Rocket and the beginning of a mini-suite of the band s strongest material that takes us to the end of the evening.
Photograph is the song where the decades seem to have most caught up with Joe Co. s ability to hit the high notes. The band segues directly into Armageddon It and then into Animal followed by main set closer, Rock of Ages.
If you are recounting through the list of hits, the encore should be obvious. Love Bites used to bring out the cigarette lighters. Chalk one up for public health?
There were far fewer swaying cigarette lighters than what I remember from years past. Pour Some Sugar on Me was never my favorite Def Leppard song, even when it dominated MTV and radio. It still isn t but I am likely in the minority.
The crowd was completely energized by the song and it sent the band offstage with electricity still buzzing through the crowd always leave them wanting more. That, I suppose, is an interesting place to segue to Journey s preceding set. Over the course of the evening they played damn near every song a fan would want to hear.
The sequencing of the set list seemed a little odd. Lights, Open Arms, and Lovin , Touchin , Squeezin came in the middle of the set. That looks to me like the way to close the show (with L, T, S perhaps being replaced by a different uptempo, but still) and leave the crowd on their feet.
Journey, instead, opted to close with Be Good to Yourself and Separate Ways. The show opened unexpectedly with Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain performing The Star Spangled Banner. That led into Any Way You Want It and the introduction of the replacement for the replacement lead singer.
I was amused to find out some people in the audience did not know that Steve Perry has not been singing with the band for years now. Journey and Perry parted ways in 1997 and his clone, Steve Augeri, joined the band. Augeri bears some physical resemblance to Perry and a frightening vocal similarity.
Augeri and the band have been touring ever since. On the current tour, his voice gave out and rather than canceling the gigs they replaced Augeri with Jeff Scott Soto. Jeff Scott Soto, a former singer for Yngwie Malmsteen.
It s not as bad as you think. Soto has decent chops and the band has a secret weapon: ex-Bad English drummer Deen Castronovo. Soto handled the uptempo numbers and did a respectable job.
You have to hand it to the guy he has had no success as a solo artist and he is playing with (can you believe this) the 29th best-selling act of all time and he held his own. Some singers might have been intimidated by the prospect. Soto came out and put a lot of energy into his performance and seriously, he s not bad.
Like Augeri, he can sound quite Perry-esque at times. The real revelation of Journey s set is that the most Perry-esque voice in the band belongs to drummer Castronovo. Drummers are not supposed to sing and they are surely not supposed to be able to sing well.
It s in the rulebook somewhere! Only a handful of them are audacious enough to test this rule and you may count Castronovo among them. You might hear about Journey hiring a new drummer and moving Deen to the front if Augeri s voice does not mend soon.
Other than the rotation of lead vocalists, the rest of the show is pretty much what you would expect, Cain alternating between keyboards and rhythm guitar and Neal Schon s searing guitar work. Schon, a terrific guitarist who was sometimes held back by the poppier leanings of the band, flashed his skills and re-created some of the most (over)played guitar moments in FM rock radio history. The solo at the end of Who s Crying Now?
(with Castronovo handling lead vocal) sounded perfect in tone and note. Everyone knows Lights which means the entire audience sang along. Half of them thought they were singing harmony.
They weren t, but that didn t stop them from trying or enjoying the experience. Open Arms was greeted even more enthusiastically. Unfortunately, the power ballad was an invitation for the old folks to make out.
, would have been a massive hit had it been written and released six years earlier.
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