2008 Journey Revelation U.S. Tour in Irvine July 16

Photos by Albert Vargas, PinoyWired.com. All rights reserved.

Journey played to another sold out concert at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre in Irvine, CA last Wednesday night on the fifth city in their 2008 Revelation U.S. Tour. Congratulations to Arnel Pineda, Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, Deen Castronovo and Ross Valory for another successful and pure energy night! Full report to follow. In the meantime, enjoy the slideshow with some 47 photos!!!

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In this post-
A. Review of Journey’s July 16 Concert in Irvine
B. Petition to NFL to have Journey at Half-Time
C. Journey MP3 Player – Now On Sale
D. Journey’s Revelation CD on Billboard Charts

A) DON’T STOP BELIEVING … JOURNEY’S BACK!

IRVINE, CA July 16 — Journey struck gold again as 16,085 fans were treated to the electrifying performance of the group at their sold-out concert last Wednesday night at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre. The band was fired up 100% and running on pure energy, considering they performed the night before to another sold-out concert of 19,492 at San Diego’s Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre. There’s no doubt that Journey is back BIG TIME!

The concert started off at 7:30 p.m. with first act CheapTrick who sang for about an hour. A pity only half of the seats were occupied at that time; many were still parking their cars, walking up the hill or at food and gift concession stands. Then Hearts came on and the Wilson sisters warmed up the audience pretty good for another hour with their hits like “Barracuda,” “These Dreams” and “Alone.” The place was packed solid and starting to rock.

After the two bands, the stage crew prepared the set up for the Main Event. Anticipation built up and many started to chant and cheer at the sound of Journey’s background music. Then the crowd exploded with a wild welcome when Schon, Cain, Malory and Castronovo came on stage and started playing the Revelation instrumental intro. When Pineda came onstage in black jacket with red grunge design and tight white pants, everyone was pumped up, on their feet screaming, yelling, dancing and singing “Never Walk Away” with Arnel. A great start to an awesome night with Journey.

Looking around the ampitheatre, there were fans from different generations. A grandpa was dancing to the music with his grandchild in his arms during “Separate Ways.” A couple started slow dancing at the aisle during “After All These Years.” I would venture to say that around 50% of the audience were Filipinos. And yes Maria Clara, there were some Philippine flags waving at different points in time and in different parts of the ampitheatre. Woo-hoo!

Arnel just kept going and going and going for two hours. His awesome tenor voice was in perfect pitch, hitting all the high notes and delivered powerful renditions of the Journey classics and their new songs. Couple that with his fist pumps to 10-foot jumps, high kicks, spinning, twirling and running from stage left to stage right and back, Arnel never let up to the end, completely at ease and more confident than ever before.

Journey played solidly and were totally in sync throughout the concert. Neil Schon’s sensational guitar solos segued to Jonathan Cain’s magnificent keyboard solos onto Deen Castronovo’s incredible metal drums sessions. Of course, wonderman Ross Valory kept it up with his spectacular bass playing. There’s just not enough superlatives to describe the talented members of this group. Each one was a master technician of their instruments – from voice to drums to guitars and keyboards – and all of that translated to a grand explosion of powerful talent on that stage – a Rockin’ and Rollin’ Symphony!

The crowd loved every minute of the show. There was magic in the air and Journey bonded so well with their audience, it was uncanny. The people were mostly standing throughout their performance except during the ballads and special numbers. The special numbers were Neal Schon’s with solo guitar, Jonathan Cain’s keyboard solo then later, a showdown between Schon playing the mandolin and Cain with his harmonica. It was fantastic to see them on unfamiliar instruments. Those specials also allowed Pineda to chill out and come back re-energized for the succeeding sets.

And yes, there were many crowd-roaring moments in the show like “Open Arms,” “Lights,” “Loving’ Squeezing,” and of course, “Don’t Stop Believing.” Then just after “Anyway You Want It” the lights dimmed and all together the crowd chanted and screamed “More! More! More!…” The band encored with “Just the Same Way,” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” and finally with “Faithfully.”

To the end, Arnel’s powerful voice with the instrumentals of Schon, Malory, Cain and Castronovo were still at 100% full force. By the time Arnel was singing the final refrains of “Faithfully” – “ooohhh .. ooohh … oooohh” with the audience in chorus – one by one, Cain, Schon, Malory, and Castronovo joined Pineda to front of stage and gave their final bow and left the stage. One lucky guy got Castronovo’s drumsticks when he asked for it.

And as always, Arnel acknowledged the support of his many fans. Just before he left the stage, he waved to the crowd and shouted “MGA KABABAYAN!!!”

The Playlist for the night:
1. Intro (The Revelation)
2. Never Walk Away
3. Only the Young
* “Amazing Grace” – solo guitar by Neal Schon
4. Stone in Love
5. Ask the Lonely
6. After All these Years
7. Separate Ways
8. Change for the Better
9. Who’s Crying Now
10. Chain Reaction
11. Lights
* Keyboards solo by Jonathan Cain
12. Open Arms
13. Don’t Stop Believin’
14. Wildest Dreams
* Showdown: Neil Schon on the mandolin and Jonathan Cain playing the harmonica
15. Wheel in the Sky
16. Be Good to Yourself
17. Any Way You Want It
Encore:
18. Escape
19. Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
20. Faithfully

For more information about Journey, please go to http://journeymusic.com/

B) JOURNEY IN SUPER BOWL HALF-TIME – ONLINE PETITION

There’s an online petition right now created by David Weiner “To Let Journey play the Half Time show at Super Bowl XLIII.” The cover letter reads:

To: NFL headquarters

The honor of performing at the Super Bowl halftime show is a very important one for the culture of American Popular music. Legendary performers such as Sir Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, U2, Aerosmith, Sting, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block have had the distinction of entertaining millions of fans on the Super Bowl Halftime stage.

When Super Bowl XLIII rolls into the party capital of the world, Tampa, Florida on February 1, 2009 there is only one musical act that should be given the honor of entertaining the masses. The great and legendary rock band Journey is really the only proper choice to perform at the Half Time show at Super Bowl XLIII.

Journey is pure, unadulterated awesome and never has such a perfect choice been selected to entertain America, or the WORLD, at a Super Bowl Halftime show.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

If you want to sign the petition, go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/SB43HT/petition.html

After that, you can also send your request through NFL Contact us Form here.

C) JOURNEY’S MP3 PLAYER ON SALE

A new Journey-branded MP3 player pre-loaded with 22 tracks from Journey’s new double CDs, Revelation, will be available exclusively at all 3,600 Wal-Mart stores nationwide beginning July 22. The Journey MP3 player will retail for $39.88 and presented in gift-box packaging designed to feature Journey with their new lead singer Arnel Pineda.

The Journey-branded MP3 player comes with high-quality ZVUE Sound Headphones, 3 ft. USB Cable and 1 GB of built-in memory, which will allow customers to augment the Journey music with several hundred additional tracks of their choosing.

Check it out!

D) JOURNEY’S REVELATION CD/DVD

Journey’s Revelation CD/DVD goes back to the #1 Independent Album spot on the BillBoard Chart this week since its release a little bit more than six weeks ago at #1. I added the Revelation CD cover to the Billboard Chart screenshot. For some reason, it didn’t have the cover

Go, go Journey!

Billboard Times graphics

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