Steve Perry Fans - Departure Review

    Journey has been a frustrating band, one with potential yet one that doesn't bring that potential to realization all of the time.
    Last night's sellout concert before 12,000 at the Mid-South Coliseum was typical of that. On one level the band was acceptable as a hard rock group with music of a standard quality but musicianship frequently excelling in that field. Every now and then, however, the group's material rose to match its abilities as performers, with the result being an occasional inspired moment.
    Certainly, lead singer Steve Perry has the stuff to put across a goodly variety of emotions, and it was the addition of Perry several years ago that really gave Journey its impetus towards stardom and, more importantly, esthetic worth.

    And guitarist Neal Schon is capable of playing with much feeling, very brisk, yet very moody if that is called for.
    Technical quality, however, means nothing if what is being played is built on a lesser level of worth.
    It is, at bottom, difficult to figure Journey out. The potential is there, demonstrably so, and it does seem to be evolving and reaching to a higher level with each record and tour.
    Last night's set was enjoyable - yet one couldn't shake the feeling that there is talent either going to waste or at least still

in the stage of becoming.
    One interesting aspect to last night's concert was Journey's use of electronic mikes. The remote setup, which involves sending a radio signal from each microphone and instrument to a device which transmits to the sound system, frees the performers from the entanglement of electrical cords.
    Such systems have been used before, but always to a smaller extent, because it has been only recently that all of the bugs have been worked out. Journey, however, had practically everything on the remote system and it demonstrated the advancements that have been made. The sound quality was quite clear - well, at least as clear as rock and roll gets at such volume.

    The show was opened by the Babys, a band that seems to have tightened up considerably in the last couple of years, showing a similarity with Journey in its movement towards quality.
    When it started out, the group was just another band of hit single proportions, but as last night's set and the group's most recent recordings showed, the Babys have taken at least a step toward creativity beyond the everyday plateau.
    Whether it will come to mean anything of importance remains to be seen, but the group is now showing some sprouts of personality that are original.