© San Francisco Chronicle, March 1995

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Steve Perry's Journey to the Past

Singer's show of slick,
Vegas-style greatest hits
by Joel Selvin

  The former vocalist of Journey, one of the most popular American rock bands of the '80s, finally made his long-delayed solo debut Friday at the Warfield Theater, amid meg-wattage lighting, a sound system large enough for a hockey rink and a thoroughly Vegasized show. The concert cruised right through his erstwhile glory days at the prow of Journey, barely pausing to touch on his recent solo album, which disappeared virtually without a trace, almost on release several months ago.
  But Steve Perry laid the ecstatic, capacity crowd in the proverbial aisles with a rock-'em, sock-'em deluge of tunes from the Journey coffers. A four-man mini-Journey behind him and an extra helping of show business pizzazz kept the nearly two-hour show running over the top for almost the entire duration.
  When Perry appeared on-stage, spotlights spinning in every direction, his back to the audience and a pony tail hanging down to his waist, he looked like refuge from a Seattle grunge band in a flannel shirt and blue jeans with the knees ripped out.
Wardrobe Changed
  But, as he tore into a bright, sleek number from the already deceased new album that sounded like - guess what? - a minor-league Journey impression, it was clear that he had only changed wardrobes, not sounds.
  Before the night was over, even his old wardrobe was back. Descending from the rafters on a

hanger, while Perry rambled on during an introduction to an old Journey hit, came the old red ringmaster's coat that was his sartorial trademark with the band.
  "Hey, where ya been?" he inquired.
  After addressing several remarks to his old coat, he dismissed the garment, only to have the crowd call for its return. Perry, ever the amiable crowd-pleaser, ordered it lowered back down and , sticking his arms through the sleeves, launched a 20-minute finale in which he blitzed the audience with such Journey hits as "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'," "Anyway You Want It" and "Separate Ways."
  Neil Diamond couldn't have done it any better.
  But if Perry reduced his magisterial musical legacy to a glossy big-room show - "When the lights go down in the city, thank you, and the sun shines on the bay..." - the frankly commercial music of Journey probably deserved no more elevated fate. In fact, there was a just beauty to the whole

enterprise, Perry plying his old band's hits while some hapless youth, old enough to have learned guitar to Journey records, tried to play stand-in for Neal Schon and a merely adequate drummer attempted to recreate the fluid grace of sturdy Steve Smith.
He Looked Marvelous
  Perry himself looked great - about five or 10 minutes older than when the carcass that passed for Journey rolled through town on the band's final tour almost eight years ago - and sang great. So what if he dodged a few of the old high notes? He still has a voice that he can pour over electric guitar lines like melted butter.
  The few pieces of new material he peppered the set with left little impression. He followed "Missing You" from the new album with "I'll Be Alright Without You," one of Journey's last hits, and even that modest piece towered above the current offering. But Perry certainly knew what the crowd came to hear.
  He didn't try to bring out his latest single for the encore. He tossed off "Don't Stop Believin'," the quintessential Journey track from "Escape," the band's 1981 high-water mark, and followed that with "Faithfully" and "Open Arms," the twin peaks of Journey's power ballads.
  Give Perry credit. Rather than trying to force-feed his old fans the latest crud, he opted for entertainment. And if no trace of self-effacing humor or becoming modesty could be detected within miles of the Warfield stage on Friday, Perry nevertheless ended up with one of the most unintentionally hilarious shows to hit town since Erasure covered Abba.