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Journey
| September 9 @ 1st Mariner Arena |
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by Courtney Campbell
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Many times when bands have been around a long time, they begin to lose the energy they had in earlier years; that is definitely not the case with Journey. Playing all their fan favorites, Journey made a stop in Baltimore, MD on the 9th of September.
Watching and listening to this band perform, it's hard to believe that their first single was back in the mid-70s. with a career that has spanned three decades, they have had 18 Top 40 singles and have sold 47 million albums. Add in their new singer Arnel Pineda who is like a kid who drank a case of Red Bull and you have a band that has the energy to last another three decades.
This was a straight up rock show. There wasn't any pyrotechnics or strange items on stage; none of that was needed. The songs of Journey have stood the test of time and are able to stand on their own without the added hoopla. As the band made their way through the set list, which of course was full of all those fan favorites we have learned to love such as "Stone In Love", "Open Arms", "Separate Ways" and my all time favorite "Lights", if you closed your eyes and just listened, it was very close to Journey back in the day with Steve Perry. Having heard complaints from some fans regarding Pineda and his "lack of knowing the words", I can only address this by saying it's a pronunciation problem, not a knowing the words problem. There are differences in pronunciation between English and Tagalog. English is not his native language but he does a great job with it.
The opener for the night was Night Ranger and they definitely got the crowd going even throughing in a Damn Yankees song into the mix. Night Ranger is a band that has has more energy than most younger bands out there and they honestly look like they are having fun up on the stage.
The only real downside of this night was the crowd, or lack of one. The arena only looked about half full which was a disappointment.
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