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Journey Concert Review

By Chad Bowar

I've been to hundreds of concerts during the past 20 years and I've seen a wide variety of opening acts. Comedians, unknown bands, local bands, up and coming bands, acoustic sets, just about everything you could imagine. But until this concert, I had never seen a band's roadies open the show. That's what happened before the Journey concert in Rapid City, South Dakota. Members of Journey's road crew were the opening act, playing about 25 minutes of cover songs. The funny thing is they were better and more entertaining than many of the "real bands" I've seen open concerts. I wonder if they get paid extra the nights they open for the band.

After that very unusual opening act, Journey hit the stage with "Be Good To Yourself." The 2004 lineup of Journey includes Steve Augeri on lead vocals, drummer Deen Castronovo, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and founding members Neal Schon on guitar and Ross Valory on bass. This incarnation of the band has been together since 1997.

Fans in Rapid City were mesmerized for over 2 hours as the band ripped through 30 years of material, playing most of their big hits, some fairly obscure material, and a couple of cover songs. I was curious to see how Steve Augeri's vocals would sound, but if you closed your eyes you'd think that other guy was still there. Drummer Deen Castronovo also sang lead vocals on a few songs and has a really strong voice. Jonathan Cain was the most versatile band member during this concert as he sang lead vocals on one song and played several different instruments including keyboards, piano, guitar and harmonica. Ross Valory is the goofball of the group, and had a lot of fun doing lead vocals on "Walks Like A Lady."

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I'm not sure why the lady sitting next to us in the 7th row needed a giant pair of binoculars to see the band that was about 10 feet in front of us, but I digress. The one glaring omission from the show was "Who's Crying Now," which was their second biggest hit behind "Open Arms." I would also like to have heard "Girl Can't Help It," "Still They Ride," and "I'll Be Alright Without You," but those are just personal favorite of mine.

The crowd at the show was very eclectic as well. There was a lot of gray hair in the crowd, along with teenagers, biker dudes, soccer moms and a lot of families watching the show together. I grew up in the '80s and Journey was one of my favorite groups. 20 years later I finally got to see them live and was not disappointed.

Setlist From Rapid City, SD concert at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on 7/29/04:

Intro
Be Good To Yourself
Only The Young
Guitar Solo - Star Spangled Banner (Neal Schon)
Stone In Love
Wheel In The Sky
Higher Place
Suzanne (Deen Castronovo on vocals)
Lights
Walks Like A Lady (Ross Valory on vocals)
Chain Reaction
Voodoo Chile
Keep On Runnin' (Deen Castronovo on vocals)
Piano Solo (Jonathan Cain)
Send Her My Love
Open Arms
Mother, Father (Deen Castronovo on vocals)
Rubicon
Just The Same Way (Jonathan Cain on vocals)
Escape
Faithfully
Don't Stop Believin'
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Anyway You Want It
Encore
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
The Party's Over/Hopelessly In Love