Steve Perry - Boston Herald 1994

Steve Perry with Sass Jordan at the Orpheum last night.
    Former Journey lead singer Steve Perry didn't win many new fans with his sold-out show at the Orpheum last night that featured nearly 20 songs and lasted over 100 minutes,
    But then, he didn't have to. Though Perry performed a few tunes from his new solo release "For the Love of Strange Medicine," as well as past solo hits like "Oh, Sherrie" and "Foolish Heart," his reprise renditions of his old band's songs carried the night: "Lights," a re-arranged "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'," "Don't Stop Believin'," (Journey apparently had trouble with the letter "g"), and "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," among others.
    The Orpheum was swarming with a curious mix of devoted folks who

hadn't seen Perry perform since his last tour eight years ago. They sang along with the old Journey hits, they passed presents to the front of the stage, and the strongly male contingent congregated around the lip of the stage air-punched its way through most of the uptempo numbers.
A trim-looking Perry was still very much the same singer who helped Journey sell 35 million albums. He revels in mainstream rock, has a stiletto-like voice, and is a little too glib with ready-made stage banter that borders on smarmy. He can also over-emote with ease, stretching one

syllable into a paragraph.
But he's assembled a crack quartet of young bucks, including Paul Taylor (keyboards/guitars), Todd Jensen (bass), Moyes Lucas Jr. (drums), and 23-year-old wunderkind lead guitarist Lincoln Brewster, and they provided him with tight, clean backing. Brewster's one to watch. He laid out some impressive solos with what seemed to be ridiculous ease.
Perry wore a flannel shirt, fashionably torn jeans, a T-shirt, and a ponytail that hung almost to his belt. His voice was a little hoarse, but it gave his vocals an added gruffness and cut down on the

sometimes shrill quality of his recorded vocals. There were no real surprises for better or worse with Perry. He delivered the goods with a professional, smartly paced show. But then, perfect music isn't necessarily great music, and Perry came up a little short of both.

Sass Jordan opened with a savvy, no-nonsense set of rootsy rock. The Canadian woman has an agreeably raspy voice that melds well with original songs that reek of the Stones, Small Faces, to Black Crowes. She didn't mess around, and the crowd liked her.