Well how Can I start. Soul Sirkus were so fucking loud. It was such a great show, yes and it was metal. They were as loud as any metal band and it was beautiful. Four really talented players rocking our socks off. Neal Schon was amazing to watch close up, a real legend on the guitar. To see and listen to these four incredible musicians on stage was the best gig I've seen in years. I would be the first admit, I always liked Neal Schon's work with Journey (the very reason why I went to gig in the first place). He takes his guitar playing skills to a new level. Neal Schon's playing is like a fine wine, the longer it goes on the more charming it becomes. They open up with 'Higher Place', (with this band where else could you possibly go). It was a mid paced rocker. Jeff Scot Soto flexing his vocal muscles like a tiger let loose on a busy street. But yet there was a supple grace to his voice. Marco Mendoza was completely barking mad (maybe a result of his days with Ted Nugent). I had a great chat with Marco about the state rock music was in today at the after show party (See pics at bottom of page- Kellz).


'Friends 2 Lovers' was the next on the bill the only Journey flavoured number from 'World Play' CD. Obviously it had Neal's Signature trademark guitar tricks stamped all over it. Virgil Donati was like an octopus. How he managed to play like that with one bass drum was an astounding feat. 'Another World' was again a Neal Schon Tour d' Force which was moulded around a Led Zeppelin type riff. Jeff Scot Soto is the prototypical frontman. At one point during the gig he took the stage to do a solo medley of Journey songs on a Rhodes keyboard. Namely 'Send her my Love', 'Who's crying now' and 'Faithfully'. Steve Perry would have been proud of it, his range was spot on. JSS thrived on the big stage; he marshalled the stage with some adept dance moves. He had the voice to fit all the music. Versatile would be an understatement.

At one point in the proceedings the band played the end lead break part of Prince's 'Purple Rain' which was a reasonable facsimile of the original. Neal did his obligatory Santana Shuffles accompanied by Marcos thundering Latino rhythms. Following this Neal Played and sang Hendrix's 'Voodoo Chile' which was fucking sublime in every which way. His riff mastery of this song was UNBELIEVIBLY and incredibly accurate down to the last chord. MM did a little bass solo which again was very Latin flavoured. He also did a beatbox segment which was surreal for a rock gig, it left the crowd a bit stunned. 'Peephole' was an out and out metal song which JSS asking the crowd, "are there any perverts at the show tonight" with crowd shouting back a resounding "no", his retort "that's ok, cos I am". Believe or not they did a version of Seal's song, 'Crazy', albeit a very rocked up version which went down a treat. They finished the night with a new song 'James Brown'. You guessed it; it was a tribute to the Godfather of soul and very funky number it was to. After the show my girlfriend, Claire and I went to the after show party to meet the band. They were a very friendly bunch of guys. Simply put they wanted to chat with everybody and did. SS were only too happy to have the photos taken (I will provide these photos when we get them processed). Neal told me that Journey will tour Europe in the New Year and in particularly England. He also said that the new Journey CD 'Generations' is "unabashedly a loud rock album"." Now that we don't have a record company telling us what to do we can play what the hell we like, Rock n Roll".

This was one of the best live performances I have ever had the good fortune to attend, all four were solid and I went away with a tremendous appreciation for those guys as well. They were very friendly, affable people who liked to chat, listen and have a beer with us.


Peter McAllister

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