Steve Perry - Strange Medicine Concert Review

By Patrick MacDonald

  Love him or hate him, you have to admit Steve Perry has one of the best voices in rock 'n' roll.
  As lead singer of Journey from 1977 to '87, he turned the power ballad into an art form with such hits as "Don't Stop Believin'," "Who's Cryin' Now," "Open Arms" and "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'," all of which he wrote or co-wrote.
  While Journey was riding high on rock radio, the band was also a favorite target of critics, who found the music bloated, calculated and formulaic, the kind of corporate rock the nascent punk movement was rebelling against. More than once, I found myself defending Perry's talent by agreeing that the songs were pretty lame. Only his voice made them listenable.

  Perry unintentionally answered his critics' prayers by virtually disappearing after an acrimonious split from the band (the others wanted to continue but knew they couldn't without him). Before the split, he recorded a solo album, Street Talk, which yielded the hits "Oh Sherrie" and "Foolish Heart."
  For more than seven years, he was not heard from. He took the time to recover from a decade of rock stardom and all the excesses that went with it. He retreated to his Northern California ranch and says he didn't sing a note for almost two years. He rode his motorcycle, renewed old friendships and helped nurse his mother and grandfather, who helped raise him, through ultimately fatal illnesses. he also broke up with his longtime girlfriend, whose love he has sung about in "Oh Sherrie."
  In 1992, he started jamming and writing songs with his friend Paul Taylor, a keyboardist/guitarist. Through old friends at Columbia Records (Journey was the label's biggest-selling rock act) he met guitarist Lincoln Brewster. Perry, Taylor and Brewster began writing songs together and liked the results. Perry felt ready to record again.
  Through auditions, they found drummer Moyes Lucas Jr. In 1993, they went into the studio, using bassists Mike Porcaro and Larry Kimpel on various songs. James "Jimbo" Barton, known for his work with Queensryche, was brought in as producer.
  The result was For The Love Of Strange Medicine, and album released last July. Its immediate success - it jumped into the Billboard chart at No. 15 - showed that Perry's fans had not forgotten him. So did the fact that 27 of the 30 shows in the first leg of his current tour sold out. Tonight's performance, which is also sold out, is the third of 26 shows in the second leg of the tour.
  The new album continues where Journey left off, with more of Perry's power ballads. The best song, "Missing You," is the softest, with his fine vocal backed by little more than a piano and swelling violins. Some of the other songs suffer from his worst excesses - forced, breathy delivery and horrible rhymes.
  In concert tonight, Perry, backed by Taylor, Brewster, Lucas and Todd Jensen on bass, will feature songs from the new album, Journey classics, selections from Street Talk and maybe a Marvin Gaye cover. There is no opening act.