Happy But Wet

A few months ago we saw a bit on TV about how Journey found their new lead singer on You Tube. Almost instantly I was on the internet buying tickets to see them when the tour hit our area. Last night was the night and wouldn't you know it, it rained lightly but steadily all night, which made our lawn seats a little soggy. No worries though, we had a blast.

One big distraction from the rain (note the umbrellas in the picture) was a woman who was sitting just a bit in front of us. You can see her and a friend in the picture. She danced through the whole concert. Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey - she shimmied, swayed and acted out the lyrics through it all. At one point a guy between her and us got up and imitated her. He also mooned her. She never noticed but the rest of us laughed out loud.

The crowd was like nothing I'd seen before. Not just because the fans covered a whole spectrum of ages from kids like Stinkerbelle to folks decades beyond retirement. Another unusual thing about the crowd was the high number of Filipino fans. Arnel Pineda, the new lead singer is from the Philippines and I guess it's a big deal for members of that community. Whatever the reason, it was noticeable and kind of interesting.

We met up with close friends during the intermissions and the first thing one of them asked me was if I was knitting or crocheting during the concert. They know me so well. The answer was crochet - Kippot of course but only for a little while. The keyboardist for Heart was actually wearing a neat crochet top (and pigtails).

This was the first really big concert for the girls and they loved it. (Ignore the pained look on DQ's face - she had a blast) One of DQ's best friends sat with us during Heart and they had so much fun sharing it. They enjoyed every minute of the set but I was a little disappointed because they didn't do some of their biggest hits. The ones they did rocked! Nancy looked older but great and Ann looked, ummm, let's just say that the years haven't been kind. She sounded fabulous though.

Journey also sounded great once they warmed up a bit. They did all of their greatest hits and I sang along with most of them. One of the coolest things was the logog that flashed on the screen after Don't Stop Believing. It was made up like the Sopranos logo in black and red with a gun for the "r". Very cool. so how did they sound with the new lead - close your eyes and it could be Steve Perry. Really. They sounded great.