New singer's good, but we miss cartoonish, iconic Steve Perry
By Kevin W. Smith
KSMITH@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.17.2008
You have two kinds of entertainment choices this weekend when it comes to journeys.
There's a 3-D movie in which you can journey to the center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser.
Or you may be one of the many travelling to the center of cheese with Journey for its sold-out show at Casino del Sol's AVA on Saturday night.
While the Fraser flick has gotten mixed reviews, you pretty much know you're getting a jukebox marathon with Journey.
Although band members weren't available to talk before our deadline, Journey will no doubt play crowd pleasers like "Wheel In The Sky," "Any Way You Want It," "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," "Open Arms" "Faithfully" and, of course, the immortal and unkillable "Don't Stop Believin'."
Still, it's tough to not feel a bit disappointed in advance hanging with Journey without Steve Perry.
Yeah, the band has a new singer, Arnel Pineda, who sounds a lot like Perry — the band's most famous frontman who last departed in 1997.
And with Pineda, the band is trying to make a run at relevancy with a three-disc CD/DVD package called "Revelation." Released in June, it includes 11 new songs.
We didn't get a copy of "Revelation," but The New York Times did, and their reviewer liked it. . . even the new stuff:
"Mr. Pineda, who sings hard and with the appropriate vulnerability, gives it some distinction. Beyond that, the band seems to have taken rock vitamins: it feels alive."
That quote from the Times alone should give Journey enough confidence to let fly with some new stuff in between the hits, which could be, well, kind of strange.
It also begs the question: if you're committed to making new music, why hire someone who sounds like a relic?
The band found Pineda on YouTube and he sounds so much like Perry, there's no reason to worry about the music.
It's just . . . Perry was so much more than the music.
Perry is an ironic cult figure who casts a large shadow.
With a mullet, a sleeveless leopard-print shirt, tight acid-washed jeans and, at times, a totally sincere but completely ridiculous mustache, Perry was the living, cartoonish embodiment of everything of the late '70s and early '80s we now laugh at. He was a superhero of stereotypes.
Journey would have probably stayed in the joke-rock bin, along with other generational rock corpses like Twisted Sister and Limp Bizkit, if it weren't for "Don't Stop Believin'."
The 1981 hit has somehow risen to become a tongue-in-cheek pop culture touchstone this decade. It's referenced everywhere from the snark of "Family Guy" and "South Park" to the stirring finale of "The Sopranos."
The song is sure to be the highlight at AVA, one fans will be waiting to toast with their beer-filled plastic cups; but won't it feel a little empty?
So even though Journey's band members have done an excellent job replicating Perry's pipes, you just can't manufacture his Camaro-driving, denim-jacket magic.
Until we can rock out with Perry and his backing band proper, we won't stop . . . well, you know.
44 Comments on this story
