July 30th, 2008
Last Night my wife, son, and brother all loaded up for a road trip to Tampa after winning tickets to one of the hottest tours on the circuit this summer. This was the fifth time I'd seen HEART, and the third time both for JOURNEY and CHEAP TRICK. I've been a longtime fan of Heart, and always enjoyed Cheap Trick, but I've never been a huge Journey fan - but I must say they rocked pretty hard last night, and their new singer, Arnel Pineda was pretty awesome, a dead ringer for Steve Perry (read below).
Info About Arnel Pineda from Wikipedia:
Videos of (Arnel's band) The Zoo performing cover songs by Journey, Survivor, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Air Supply, The Eagles, Kenny Loggins and other popular acts from the 70s, 80s and 90s, began appearing on YouTube.com in February 2007. On June 28, 2007, Neal Schon of Journey contacted Noel Gomez, a longtime fan and friend of Pineda who uploaded many of these videos, to ask for Pineda's contact information. Schon sent an e-mail to Pineda inviting the latter to audition for Journey. Pineda initially dismissed the e-mail as a hoax, but after being persuaded by Gomez, he finally replied to Schon's e-mail. Ten minutes later, Pineda received a phone call from Schon. On August 12, Pineda, along with his manager Bert de Leon, flew to Marin County, just north of San Francisco, for a two-day audition. The star-struck Pineda was welcomed warmly but he described the audition as "nerve-wracking, tense".
On December 5, 2007, Pineda was announced as the lead singer of Journey. CNN Headline News ran the story as part of their "News to Me" segment.
Pineda debuted as the lead singer of Journey on February 21, 2008 at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival held at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater in Viña del Mar, Chile. Videos of the Vina del Mar performance are available at the Festival's home page and on YouTube.
Chilean media acclaimed Pineda's performance (translated to English): "The new vocalist fit very well with the band, his vocal aptitudes shining through, which are very similar to the legendary musician of the band, Steve Perry." Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain described Pineda's performance in a radio interview: "We went to Chile just recently, where we had never played and they went crazy, they absolutely went nuts...Arnel's first show - talk about a stressful thing - we had a televised concert for 25 million people...Is the guy a winner? Yeah, he's a winner. He's a clutch player."
Journey returned to the US for a private Remax Convention event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on March 6, 2008, then performed at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood on March 8, 2008 (this concert was recorded and used, in part, for the Revelation DVD).
After Cheap Trick's set, just after Heart started, I asked my boy if he wanted to roam around and see if we could get some good pictures. As we rounded the left side of the stage a security guard said we should not block the aisle, then motioned to the front of the stage, he said he could let Dylan go to the front/center of the stage to take pictures for a few minutes if he liked - SURE! we said.
We he was done he ran back up to me, gave the guard a high-five and we both said thanks. The guard pulled me aside and said he could come back to shoot a few of Journey later if we liked. Kool!
All in all it was a hot show, and we all had a great time, and my wife loves her favorite band agian!
Below are some the photos our budding young rock photographer took! Enjoy.
MORE TOUR DATES
08/02/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, NC
08/03/08 Chastain Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA
08/04/08 Chastain Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA
08/06/08 The Amphitheatre @ The Wharf Orange Beach, AL
08/10/08 Walnut Creek Amphitheatre Raleigh, NC
08/12/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Virginia Beach, VA
08/14/08 Nikon at Jones Beach Jones Beach, NY
08/16/08 Toyota Amphitheatre Scranton, PA
08/17/08 Mohegan Sun Casino Uncasville, CT
08/19/08 Comcast Center Mansfield, MA
08/21/08 PNC Bank Arts Center Holmdel, NJ
08/23/08 New York State Fair Syracuse, NY
08/24/08 Saratoga PAC Saratoga, NY
08/26/08 Susquehanna Bank Center Camden, NJ
08/27/08 Nissan Pavilion Washington, DC
08/28/08 HERSHEYPARK Stadium Hershey, PA
08/30/08 Center for the Arts Bethel Woods, NY
09/03/08 Verizon Wireless Arena Manchester, NH
09/05/08 Molson Amphitheatre Toronto, ONT
09/06/08 Blossom Amphitheatre Cleveland, OH
09/07/08 Riverbend Music Center Cincinnati, OH
09/09/08 DTE Energy Music Theatre Detroit, MI
09/10/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Indianapolis, IN
09/12/08 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Chicago, IL
09/13/08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St. Louis, MO
09/19/08 White River Amphitheatre Seattle, WA
09/21/08 Clark County Amphitheatre Portland, OR
09/24/08 Sleep Train Pavilion at Concord Concord, CA
09/26/08 Sleep Train Pavilion at Sacramento Sacramento, CA
09/27/08 Shoreline Amphitheatre Mountain View, CA
09/30/08 Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA
JOURNEY
HEART
CHEAP TRICK
