Saw Journey in Concert last night

The boss and I went to see Journey & Def Leppard last night in
Milwaukee. Journey opened the show which was great, because we left
after DL's second song. But Journey was in-freakin-credible.

We had center seats in the 19th row, about 100 feet from the stage.
Jeff Scott Soto is still with them and he absolutely kicks ass; we
were thoroughly impressed with his axe. And Neal Schon is Neal
Schon...enough said.

But next to Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo got the biggest round of
applause of anyone in the band. The guy has really turned into a
superstar. He sang three tunes (Open Arms, Faithfully and Don't Stop
Believin', as I recall), and WOW what a great voice. I had heard that
about him, but I never heard him myself. They didn't do 'Mother,
Father' though; and I understand he sings that almost as well as Steve
Perry...so I was a little bummed. He was playing DW as usual, but he
now appears to have a 24" primary kick and a 22" secondary kick. I
could actually see the slave linkage rod moving from my seat because
of the stage lights flashing on it.

Deen was playing a gong bass drum which absolutely blew me away--that
thing was incredible. I really wasn't crazy about his cymbal sound
much though, especially his china cymbals--they didn't really have a
pleasant tone, IMO. And I didn't really like the sound of his drums
otherwise, though in all fairness I think we were almost *too* close
to the stage. I just don't think the sound had a chance to develop,
and I think it probably sounded much better 200-250 feet from the
stage.

But all-in-all a great show until Def Leppard took the stage--with all
due respect to the boys from England, they just aren't the same band
they once were. Journey isn't either for that matter but Deen
Castronovo plays the tunes every bit as good as Steve Smith ever did,
and Jeff Scott Soto is simply incredible. I can't believe I am saying
this, but I really didn't miss Steve Perry in several of those songs
because JSS sings them just as good. But Def Leppard just didn't make
us go 'wow!'... so we left.

But what is it about live music that makes people drink to excess,
howl at each other and act like total fucking morons? Idiots in a
bottle... Man, no wonder they recently named Milwaukee the drunkest
citiy in America. It was embarrassing, to be honest. And the scary
part is that those same people probably got behind the wheel of their
car afterwards, and drove home.

TB


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