To
start with there is some bad blood between Steve Perry and his old
band mates. There is no mention of this DVD/cd on Journey's official
website. Live In Houston was originally filmed by MTV when they
were just a few months old. Journey with their spirited blend of
soulful ballads and anthemic driven heavy rock captured the 80's
perfectly, other bands with a similar musical out-put paling in
comparison. Out of Santana and the Steve Miller Band came the ethereal
but somehow powerful and passionate musical journey, which ultimately
became one of Americas biggest bands Journey. Let’s get it
out of the way, most people when they hear the name Journey, they
think of the wimpiest, radio friendly band, anchored by 1 or 2 well
known ballads. Although not entirely off the mark Journey are so
much more than that.Between the 70's and early 80's Journey churned
out perhaps 5 of the greatest melodic rock albums of that time (Infinity
'78, Evolution '79, Departure '80 Escape '81 and Frontiers '83).Not
to take anything away from their first 3 albums, Journey '75, Look
Into the Future '76 and Next '77 and with their mixture of prog,
jazz fusion, blues and heavy rock, bloody good albums. 5 years after
the Houston gig Journey would be putting out their last cd before
a 10 year hiatus. Valory and Smith would have been gone, and over
the top pop shit would be flowing from the very below par Raised
on Radio album.
The DVD captures Journey at their sublime best with this tour in
support of their landmark album Escape. The DVD brings the band
to a creative turning point.Greg Rolie and his Hammond B3 had left
and in comes Jon Cain (The Babys) and his piano, which would bring
them their most notable commercial success. The gig kicks off with
‘Escape’, an often overlooked rocker which has a definite
prog feel to it. It was
the perfect opener. They keep the crowd baying for more with ‘Line
of Fire’, an out and out hard rock tune from their magnificent
Departure album with the pyrotechnics replacing a gun shot in the
mid section of the track. This is followed by three of Journeys
biggest ballads, Lights, Stay Awhile and Open Arms, filling the
air with the lighter wielding masses. Then comes the prog influenced
‘Mother’ Father a song about alcoholism, which has some
amazingly intricate time changes and voicings. The song shifts from
the classically flavoured intro to some dark exquisite heavy guitar
moments beautifully. Neal Schon's father was responsible for the
classic parts of the song. He was a music teacher. This is one of
the heavier songs from the album. The power and the passion of Steve
Perry's voice literally kicks the shit out of you, dressed in his
obligatory black tuxedo jacket. For anyone interested in a great
singing talent, you could do worse than check this mans voice out.
I had almost forgotten how good this man could sing live.Left out
of MTV's 25 greatest voices in favour of (the mind numbingly boring,
over-rated Kurt Cobain, a Smack addict with a gun). Now where's
the justice in that.This is my opinion of Kurt Cobain, who had the
musical talents and acumen of a deaf Walrus, but I digress. Up next
was ‘Who's Cryin' Now’. This song features one of Neal
Schon's most exquisite solos, simple, but, effective with great
meaningfulness and expression.Maybe they wanted to get all of the
ballads out of the way. Up till then Schon was Suspiciously restrained,
he went up quite a few gears with this solo, showing that he is
definitely one of the best guitarists in rock music.
Then there's the delightful AC/DC influenced riffing of’ Where
Were You’, a great heavy rock song, which reminds me of ‘Sin
City’. We move into Steve Smith’s drums solo, I would
not be surprised if he was Animal's (The Muppets) technical adviser.
‘Dead or Alive’ is a song that would
grace any good heavy metal album with its seriously heavy riff.
After that the classic ‘Don't Stop Believin' was played with
superb technical ability, it was fanfuckintastic. ’Stone in
Love’ saw Jon Cain on Rhythm guitar which is an excellent
mid tempo rocker.Then we get back into why I love this band so much
namely ‘Keep on Running’, when Journey rock they go
for the throat as is the case with this number.Neal Schon goes for
his usual manic soloing which pleased the crowd and me no end.
Amidst a blaze of pyrotechnics Schon opened up this section of the
gig with the classic Infinity song ‘Wheel In The Sky’.
Eventually Journey move into more familiar territory with bluesy
‘Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin’. Finally they finish with
a manically fast version of ‘Anyway You Want It’, in
which we see Steve Perry run up and down the stage at high speeds,
and not losing a note or once being out of key.My God, why did we
have to wait so long for this masterpiece to be released? I have
been a diehard Journey fan now for over 25 years. It seems to confirm
to me that this is Journey's true incarnation.They focused on playing
music, no flash here, just great musicians making great music. Steve
Perry is simply irreplaceable as this DVD/cd testifies.You really
have not heard a drum solo until you hear Steve ‘Machine Gun’
Smith, as the band so affectionately christened him. When Perry
put this DVD together I bet he was laughing to himself, saying,
I'll show you who Journey was. You certainly get more than your
money's worth from this DVD and cd; it was a steadfast piece of
work, efficacious in its delivery. An eclectic approach that takes
best from all Journey’s differing rock styles. It certainly
established the benchmark for other bands to attempt to reach the
dizzy heights of Journeydom. This is a must have for every Journey
fan, certainly for anyone
who is a fan of melodic hard rock. While its looking that a Perry/Journey
reunion will never happen. This is Steve Perry's way of saying this
is how he wants Journey to be remembered. Looking at the power of
this gig it would be hard to argue with that feeling.
To
start with there is some bad blood between Steve Perry and his old
band mates. There is no mention of this DVD/cd on Journey's official
website. Live In Houston was originally filmed by MTV when they
were just a few months old. Journey with their spirited blend of
soulful ballads and anthemic driven heavy rock captured the 80's
perfectly, other bands with a similar musical out-put paling in
comparison. Out of Santana and the Steve Miller Band came the ethereal
but somehow powerful and passionate musical journey, which ultimately
became one of Americas biggest bands Journey. Let’s get it
out of the way, most people when they hear the name Journey, they
think of the wimpiest, radio friendly band, anchored by 1 or 2 well
known ballads. Although not entirely off the mark Journey are so
much more than that.Between the 70's and early 80's Journey churned
out perhaps 5 of the greatest melodic rock albums of that time (Infinity
'78, Evolution '79, Departure '80 Escape '81 and Frontiers '83).Not
to take anything away from their first 3 albums, Journey '75, Look
Into the Future '76 and Next '77 and with their mixture of prog,
jazz fusion, blues and heavy rock, bloody good albums. 5 years after
the Houston gig Journey would be putting out their last cd before
a 10 year hiatus. Valory and Smith would have been gone, and over
the top pop shit would be flowing from the very below par Raised
on Radio album. 
was
the perfect opener. They keep the crowd baying for more with ‘Line
of Fire’, an out and out hard rock tune from their magnificent
Departure album with the pyrotechnics replacing a gun shot in the
mid section of the track. This is followed by three of Journeys
biggest ballads, Lights, Stay Awhile and Open Arms, filling the
air with the lighter wielding masses. Then comes the prog influenced
‘Mother’ Father a song about alcoholism, which has some
amazingly intricate time changes and voicings. The song shifts from
the classically flavoured intro to some dark exquisite heavy guitar
moments beautifully. Neal Schon's father was responsible for the
classic parts of the song. He was a music teacher. This is one of
the heavier songs from the album. The power and the passion of Steve
Perry's voice literally kicks the shit out of you, dressed in his
obligatory black tuxedo jacket. For anyone interested in a great
singing talent, you could do worse than check this mans voice out.
I had almost forgotten how good this man could sing live.Left out
of MTV's 25 greatest voices in favour of (the mind numbingly boring,
over-rated Kurt Cobain, a Smack addict with a gun). Now where's
the justice in that.This is my opinion of Kurt Cobain, who had the
musical talents and acumen of a deaf Walrus, but I digress. Up next
was ‘Who's Cryin' Now’. This song features one of Neal
Schon's most exquisite solos, simple, but, effective with great
meaningfulness and expression.Maybe they wanted to get all of the
ballads out of the way. Up till then Schon was Suspiciously restrained,
he went up quite a few gears with this solo, showing that he is
definitely one of the best guitarists in rock music. 
would
grace any good heavy metal album with its seriously heavy riff.
After that the classic ‘Don't Stop Believin' was played with
superb technical ability, it was fanfuckintastic. ’Stone in
Love’ saw Jon Cain on Rhythm guitar which is an excellent
mid tempo rocker.Then we get back into why I love this band so much
namely ‘Keep on Running’, when Journey rock they go
for the throat as is the case with this number.Neal Schon goes for
his usual manic soloing which pleased the crowd and me no end.
anyone
who is a fan of melodic hard rock. While its looking that a Perry/Journey
reunion will never happen. This is Steve Perry's way of saying this
is how he wants Journey to be remembered. Looking at the power of
this gig it would be hard to argue with that feeling.