All roads led to the SM Mall of Asia (MOA) fair grounds as Manila’s mostly upper crust and middle class crowd witnessed rock band Journey’s first Asian date in support of their Revelation album.
An announcer mentioned to the audience that the concert was being filmed for a special DVD and asked the crowd to perform two cheers for filming purposes.
Led by native son Arnel Pineda on vocals, the band took the stage at approximately 8:50 pm and erupted into "Never Walk Away" off the Revelation album with all cylinders firing, followed by "Only The Young," a sufficient one-two salvo to keep the crowd on its' feet.
The legendary rockers mixed the old with the new. Instead of trying to please the crowd with a potential wall to wall greatest hits concert, the band admirably dug deep into their newest release, with songs like the rockers "Change For The Better," "Where Did I Lose Your Love," and the tear-jerking ballad "After All These Years," intermixed with old gems like "Ask The Lonely," "Stone In Love," and the ever crowd rousing "Separate Ways." This brought the crowd on and off their feet; for every hit like "Open Arms," which had everyone screaming, there was a "Wildest Dream" which kind of flew over the audience's heads.
No matter. The sound was all-professional, solid, and tight.
The band also added new bits into their old songs. "Separate Ways" had an interlude during Neal Schon's blistering solo, and "Wheel In The Sky" began with Jonathan Cain on harmonica and Schon on acoustic in a country-honky tonk jam. Bassist Ross Valory was cool and collected, holding down the bottom end while entertaining the audience with his comical facial expressions.
Drummer Dean Castronovo sang lead vocals on several songs, the most impressive being "Mother Father" off the Escape album. Castronovo proves not only to be a great drummer but an excellent singer as well.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
The mark of a good review is where the writer makes me wish I'd seen the show even if I don't particularly care for the band. Mission accomplished Clarence.
-Glen
2 - Clarence Yu
Glen, thank you very much!
-Clarence
3 - Glen Boyd
Just Don't Stop Believin' okay Clarence?
-Glen
4 - Clarence Yu
I sure won't. Sending my...brotherly love, Glen. Thank you again!
Clarence
5 - Juan
Good review. How was the crowd? 100,000 strong like the concert the week before? How was the hardware? Anything we haven't seen locally?
6 - Clarence Yu
Hi Juan,
Thanks. The crowd was a bit more "discriminating"/"mature" for lack of better words, so it wasn't as big as the week previous. I would say as a rough guess, around 30,000-40,000 were present.
The stage and equipment were standard, but one thing I noticed was that the sound engineers did a good job in diffusing the sound and keeping it focused on the watching audience. On the fringes you couldn't hear much, but on the grounds it was really in your face. There was also a screen near stage right which I noticed was the actual footage hopefully to be put in the DVD.
-Clarence
7 - _Lord_Aragorn_
Hello!
I was there! Glad arnel sings some tracks on their new album. Mostly the after all these years and the turn off the world tonight. Its just so awesome. One of the best concert i've ever watch.
8 - Eeh Yut
Great honest review!
9 - ryan
After the concert there was no review to be found thank God i came across of your blog! i am a bit skeptical about the actual number of audience coz what i heard from a friend who works in Ticketnet is quite disturbing i guess Arnel regular appearance on TV (ASAP) made the people sorry for the word (nagsawa na!..
but Arnel's performance that night is AWESOME!
10 - Clarence Yu
Hello Lord Aragorn, Eeh Yut, Ryan:
Salamat (thank you) for the kind words. Actually, there are "official" reviews in the Inquirer from the entertainment section.
I do believe the number ranges from 20-30,000 from estimates, but sources vary. I agree on the TV appearances but I guess that's another story altogether.
Anyhow, thanks again for reading.
-Clarence
11 - juliet
i think arnel pineda in MOA really was one of the best concert among all other concert that he did. about other people who didnt watch because of maybe arnel's appearance in some shows in television i think its not the reason its because the ticket should be cheaper. you know like me i really wanted to watch but cant afford to buy the ticket. unlike in other country their ticket is affordable by ordinary people. thats why they have a big big crowd. in the philippines the promoter are the one who really benefited all.
12 - devermr
I was there... great performance of AP!!!