State Champ Radio Rock
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In its 40th week on the chart, Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” tops Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs survey for the first time, lifting from No. 2 to No. 1 on the ranking dated Feb. 4.
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“Orange” accumulated 17.2 million official U.S. streams (up 2%), 4.7 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 5%) and 4,000 downloads sold (up 1%) in the Jan. 20-26 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The song’s 40-frame trip to No. 1 is tied for the fourth-steadiest in the history of the chart, which began in 2009, alongside the rise of Bastille’s “Pompeii” in 2014. The only songs to build support over longer stretches? Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” (60 weeks, 2020-21), twenty one pilots‘ “Ride” (47, 2015-16) and Passenger’s “Let Her Go” (43, 2013-14).
Most Time to No. 1 From Debut on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs60 weeks, “Heat Waves,” Glass Animals (first week at No. 1 in 2021)47, “Ride,” twenty one pilots (2016)43, “Let Her Go,” Passenger (2014)40, “Something in the Orange,” Zach Bryan (2023)40, “Pompeii,” Bastille (2014)39, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It,” Panic! at the Disco (2019)39, “Whatever It Takes,” Imagine Dragons (2018)35, “Stressed Out,” twenty one pilots (2016)32, “Ex’s & Oh’s,” Elle King (2015)30, “Feel It Still,” Portugal. The Man (2017)
“Orange” is Bryan’s first No. 1 on the chart. Bryan first made the tally in 2020 with “Heading South,” which eventually peaked at No. 27 in March 2021.
“Orange” concurrently spends its fifth week atop the Hot Country Songs list. On the all-format Billboard Hot 100, it rises 13-11, after reaching No. 10 two weeks earlier. It also bullets at its No. 27 high on Country Airplay with 4.2 million impressions (up 5%).
“Orange” is the lead radio single from American Heartbreak, Bryan’s third studio album and major-label debut, released on Belting Bronco/Warner Records. The set debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 last June 4 and ranks at No. 9 on the latest survey with 23,000 equivalent album units earned. It has earned 1.2 million units to date.
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Kelly Clarkson let out her inner indie rocker on Monday (Jan. 30) to cover Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
“Have you got color in your cheeks?/ Do you ever get that fear that you can’t shift the tide/ That sticks around like something in your teeth?/ Are there some aces up your sleeve?/ Have you no idea that you’re in deep?/ I’ve dreamed about you nearly every night this week/ How many secrets can you keep?” the talk-show host asked over the electric snarl of her backing band’s instrumentation.
Released as the second single off 2013’s AM, “Do I Wanna Know?” marked Arctic Monkeys’ very first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 70. Of course, the English rockers had already long been a staple on the Official Singles Chart in their native U.K. by that point, thought it became their highest-charting hit in over a half-decade when it landed at No. 11 across the pond.
Later in the episode, Clarkson bonded with guest Hilary Duff, who confessed her 4-year-old daughter Banks is a diehard fan Harry Styles while promoting the new season of Hulu’s How I Met Your Father.
Other tracks the OG American Idol champ has dusted off recently for Kellyoke include CeCe Peniston’s club-ready ’90s anthem “Finally,” Hailey Whitters’ “Everything She Ain’t,” “She Drives Me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals and Taylor Swift’s “Better Man” from the Red (Taylor’s Version) vault.
Watch Clarkson rock out on Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” below.
The following is an excerpt from Gary Graff’s new book Alice Cooper @ 75 (Motorbooks, pre-order here), a lavish, comprehensive look at the game-changing shock rocker, which comes out Tuesday (Jan. 31), days ahead of Cooper’s actual 75th birthday on Feb. 4. Below, Graff – a veteran rock journalist and longtime Billboard contributor – tells the real story behind the name Alice Cooper.
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The Alice Cooper band had been through a couple of names, including the Earwigs and the Spiders, before settling on the Nazz when it moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles. But during the fall of 1968, another Nazz out of Philadelphia, led by Todd Rundgren, released its first album and had a hit with “Open My Eyes,” nixing the name for Cooper (then still Vincent Furnier) and company. Discussions were soon under way about a new moniker.
Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper Set 2023 ‘Freaks on Parade’ Joint North American Tour
01/30/2023
During this time, some of the band members joined then-manager Dick Phillips at his mother’s house. She was reputed to be a medium and pulled out a Ouija board to have a little fun. When Furnier asked the spirits whom he’d been in a previous life, the board led him toward the spelling of A-L-I-C-E-C-O-O-P-E-R.
A great story. But not a true one.
That actual adoption of the Alice Cooper name was more mundane. “I just kind of said, ‘Alice Cooper.’ It just came out of my mouth. That was it,” he said. “It had a quality to it—a little deranged, a little wholesome, a little spooky maybe. And . . . I felt like it would make people go, ‘Wait . . . what?! Alice Cooper? They’re all guys. Who’s Alice Cooper?’”
In Alice Cooper: Golf Addict he elaborated, “There was something about it. I conjured up an image of a little girl with a lollipop in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. Lizzie Borden. Alice Cooper. They had a similar ring.”
The moniker opened a wealth of conceptual possibilities for a group of long-haired rock ’n’ rollers who were already exercising their theatrical creativity on stage. They got help from friends in the groupie-cum-band GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) and turned to the movies for inspiration. Tapping Bette Davis’s disturbing look in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Cooper began applying black mascara to roughly circle his eyes. “I had absolutely no qualms about it,” Cooper told Behind the Music. “I had to build a reputation somehow in this city.” Barbarella’s Great Tyrant (played by Anita Pallenberg) and The Avengers’ Emma Peel, meanwhile, were sources for futuristic leather and glam costuming that was both flashy and foreboding. It all struck a not-so-delicate balance between a soft femininity that complemented the band’s brand of counterculture vaudeville and the more aggressive aspects of its performance art.
“A guy, not a girl,” Cooper wrote. “A group not a solo act. A villain, not a hero or an idol. A woman killer. Weird. Eerie. Twisted. Ambiguous. It all came together—and nobody was doing anything remotely similar. On top of it all, everyone in the band was straight.”
Alice Cooper was never supposed to be one person, however. It was conceived solely as the band’s name, with Vince Furnier as a member of the band. But the singer’s name became Alice, as the song says—perhaps inevitably. “I was Vince,” said Cooper, who would change his legal name before the band’s first album. “But when we became Alice Cooper, everyone was like, ‘You’re Alice . . .Hey, Alice!’ ‘Oh . . . you mean me?’ It just stuck, and pretty soon I was Alice.”
The Ouija board myth hung around, however. And the original band would continue to reference it throughout its time together, including in guitarist Mike Bruce’s memoir No More Mr. Nice Guy. “It gave us a myth, a great story,” Cooper said. “People loved it even better than the truth.”
Björk‘s Cornucopia is heading overseas. On Monday (Jan. 30), the singer announced that her successful Cornucopia residency shows at New York City’s The Shed will travel to Europe for an arena tour this year
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“Cornucopia was always intended to be a world for both utopia and the album after that … which is now out there called Fossora. So I am truly excited to premier those two worlds colliding, this autumn in southern Europe,” Björk said in a press release.
The original show is based on her album Utopia and includes her catalogue of music. The Cornucopia arena tour shows will be reworked to include music from Fossora, according to the press release. Fossora is nominated for the best alternative music album Grammy, which will be handed out Feb. 5.
The tour will kick off on Sept. 1 in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Altice Arena. After making stops across the continent in Madrid, Paris, Milan, Prague, Vienna and more, the trek will conclude on Dec. 5 at Bordeaux, France’s Arkéa Arena. The shows arrive after Björk’s scheduled concert dates earlier in the year, which includes a run at Australia’s Perth Festival and stops in Japan in March, as well as a Coachella appearance in April.
Tickets for the 2023 European Cornucopia tour dates go on sale starting Friday, Feb. 3, at 9 a.m. local time. Tickets for Madrid will go on sale the same day at 10 a.m. local time. See the full list of dates below.
BJÖRK 2023 TOUR DATES
Sept. 1 – Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
Sept. 4 – WiZink Centre, Madrid, Spain
Sept. 8 – Accor Arena, Paris, France
Sept. 12 – Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy
Sept. 16 – O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
Sept. 19 – Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria
Sept. 23 – Unipol Arena, Bologna, Italy
Nov. 18 – Tauron Arena, Krakow, Poland
Nov. 21 – Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany
Nov. 24 – Quarterback Immobilien Arena, Leipzig, Germany
Nov. 28 – Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland
Dec. 2 – Zénith, Nantes, France
Dec. 5 – Arkéa Arena, Bordeaux, France
Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper: two great ghouls who scare best together. The O.G. shock rocker and his spookiest offspring announced a joint summer tour on Monday (Jan. 30), the 19-city Freaks on Parade outing, which will follow-up Zombie’s terrifying 2022 tour of the same name.
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The Live Nation-produced swing with opens Filter and Ministry is slated to kick off on August 24 at the Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas, Texas and keep the show on the road through dates in Tampa, Toronto, Nashville and Anaheim before winding down on Sept. 24 with a gig at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tickets for the tour will go on sale on Friday (Feb. 3) at 10 a.m. local time here, with a Citi presale slated to start on Tuesday (Jan. 31) at 10 a.m. local time through Thursday (Feb. 2) at 10 p.m. local time here.
Zombie dropped The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse album in 2021 and his reimagining of the classic monster family sitcom The Munsters in 2022; last summer’s Freaks on Parade tour featured Mudvayne, StaticX and Powerman 5000. Cooper is planning to drop two new albums in 2023 — to follow his 2021 Detroit Stories collection — while continuing to host hist syndicated “Nights with Alice Cooper” radio show.
Check out the Freaks on Parade 2023 tour preview and dates below.
August 24 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
August 26 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
August 27 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
August 29 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
August 30 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Sept. 1 – Tinley Park, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sept. 2 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena
Sept. 5 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sept. 6 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
Sept. 8 – Scranton, PA @ The Pavilion at Montage Mountain
Sept. 9 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Sept. 10 – Hartford, CT @ The XFINITY Theatre
Sept. 12 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 16 – Englewood, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre *
Sept. 19 – Ridgefield, WA @ RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
Sept. 20 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
Sept. 22 – Concord, CA @ Concord Pavilion
Sept. 23 – Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
Sept. 24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
*Non-Live Nation Date
The Foo Fighters have added two more festival gigs to their busy summer schedule. After thrash metal icons Pantera were dropped from the lineup of Germany’s Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park fests last week, the Foos announced that they are sliding into the June 2nd headlining slot at Rock Am Ring as well as the top spot on June 4th at Rock Im Park.
The Dave Grohl-led band join a lineup that also includes headliners Kings of Leon and Die Toten Hosen, as well as Rise Against, Limp Bizkit, Yungblud, Tenacious D, Evanescence, Incubus, Papa Roach, Bring Me the Horizon, Machine Gun Kelly, NOFX, Turnstile and more.
Pantera were also removed from the lineup of Austria’s Gasometer Festival just days after they were erased from the German fests. Promoter Mind Over Mater Music announced in a FB message that the Pantera performance originally announced for May 31 at Gasometer has been cancelled; the post did not give any further information on the reason for the decision.
According to a report in Vienna’s Die Presse, the Austrian Green Party had a hand in the cancellation after demanding that Pantera be removed in a statement that echoed one from Germany’s Greens in advocating for Pantera to be dropped from that country’s events. “Due to its National Socialist past, Vienna in particular has a special historical responsibility to oppose any form of right-wing extremism. The appearance of Pantera is completely incompatible with this responsibility,” the statement from the Austrian party reportedly read.
While organizers did not give a specific reason for their decision, speculation has centered on an incident from 2016 when Anselmo was filmed giving a nazi salute and shouting “white power” during a tribute to late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Shortly after, Anselmo issued an apology, in which he said he had been drinking at the Dimebash and, “There was heavy-duty talk between myself and those who love Dime. And heavy emotions were flowing, jokes were made backstage that transpired upon the stage, and it was ugly. It was uncalled for. And anyone who knows me and my true nature knows that I don’t believe in any of that; I don’t want to be part of any group… just give me another chance.”
A spokesperson for Pantera said management had no official statement on the German or Austrian festival date cancellations.
The Foos are preparing to hit the road this summer for their first major gigs since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, 50, last summer in Bogota, Colombia on the eve of a festival gig there. Though the band has not yet announced who will be playing drums with them on the upcoming gigs, the roster already includes seven major dates, including appearances at Boston Calling Music Festival (May 26), Sonic Temple Arts & Music Festival (Columbus, OH, May 28), Rock Am Ring (June 2), Rock Im Park (June 4), Bonnaroo (Manchester, TN, June 18), Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival (Milwaukee, WI, July 15) and Sao Paulo, Brazil’s The Town (Sept. 9).
On New Year’s Eve the group shared a heartfelt message about the challenges of 2022 and offered a glimpse into what the future may hold. “As we say goodbye to the most difficult and tragic year that our band has ever known, we are reminded of how thankful we are for the people that we love and cherish most, and for the loved ones who are no longer with us,” the Foos began their statement on Twitter.
“Foo Fighters were formed 27 years ago to represent the healing power of music and a continuation of life. And for the past 27 years out fans have built a worldwide community, a devoted support system that has helped us all get through the darkest of times together. A place to share our joy and our pain, our hopes and fears, and to join in a chorus of life together through music. Without Taylor, we never would have become the band that we were – and without Taylor, we know that we’re going to be a different band going forward.”
See the new poster for the events below.
Dave Grohl is going to the Super Bowl. The Foo Fighters singer will appear in a commercial for Canadian whiskey brand Crown Royal slated to air during the big game on Feb. 12 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. During Sunday’s NFC and AFC championship games the singer/guitarist appeared in a pair of 30-second teaser ad that begged more questions than they answered.
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Sitting at the console in a recording studio, Grohl grabs a pice of paper and rattles off what appears to be a random list of unrelated phrases. “Peanut butter? What?,” he says incredulously. “The Paint Roller? The battery? No! Trash bags? The replay? No way. The egg carton? Did you know the egg carton?” he asks one of his engineers, who nods knowingly.
“Did you know the carton? It says it right here. Whoa. Electric wheelchair. Did you know that, Lou? Hawaiian pizza?” At press time it was not clear what Grohl’s rundown meant. Is it a roster of things whose prices have skyrocketed during the post-pandemic era? A tally of dance moves from the 1950s? In a second 15-second teaser, Grohl merely says “thank you” over and over with different inflections into a microphone.
“Dave is a Crown Royal super fan and the perfect partner to spread a message of gratitude to the audience that is authentic to the brand,” said Crown Royal spokesperson Sophie Kelly in a statement.
The full ad is slated to air during the third quarter of the game in Glendale, Arizona. So far we’ve also seen previews of some other music celeb-heavy ads, including ones starring Ozzy Osbourne, Missy Elliott and Jack Harlow and Meghan Trainor.
Check out Grohl’s Crown Royal ad teasers.
Musicians are mourning the loss of Television frontman Tom Verlaine, who has died following a brief illness.
Artists like Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Flea, Blondie‘s Chris Stein and many others took to social media to honor the innovative guitarist, who died peacefully in New York City, a Television representative confirmed to Billboard on (Saturday) Jan. 28. He was 73.
“This is a time when all seemed possible. Farewell Tom, aloft the Omega,” Smith, Verlaine’s former partner and collaborator, captioned a black-and-white photo on Instagram.
Stipe also shared a heartfelt remembrance through R.E.M.’s official Instagram account.
“I have lost a hero. Bless you Tom Verlaine for the songs, the lyrics, the voice!” Stipe wrote. “And later, the laughs, the inspiration, the stories, and the rigorous belief that music and art can alter and change matter, lives, experience. You introduced me to a world that flipped my life upside down. I am forever grateful.”
Blondie co-founder and guitarist Stein tweeted a vintage concert poster featuring Television and Blondie on the same bill, and he recalled first meeting Verlaine in 1972.
“I met Tom Verlaine when he just arrived in NYC I guess ’72. He had long hair and came to my apartment with an acoustic guitar and played some songs he’d written,” Stein wrote. “Both Tom and Richard Hell have told me that I auditioned for the Neon Boys but I don’t remember.”
Flea also took to social media to share his memories of Television’s groundbreaking debut 1977 debut album, Marquee Moon.
“Listened to Marquee Moon 1000 times. And I mean LISTENED, sitting still, lights down low taking it all in,” the RHCP bassist tweeted. “Awe and wonder every time. Will listen 1000 more. Tom Verlaine is one of the greatest rock musicians ever. He effected the way John and I play immeasurably. Fly on Tom.”
Verlaine formed Television, who became an influential fixture of NYC’s punk rock scene at CBGB in the ’70s, establishing an early residency at the legendary Lower East Side club with bandmates Richard Hell, Billy Ficca and Richard Lloyd. With Television he brought his signature guitar work and songwriting to two albums, 1977’s landmark Marquee Moon and 1978’s Adventure, before the group parted ways in 1978.
See all of the social media tributes to Verlaine below.
listened to Marquee Moon 1000 times. And I mean LISTENED, sitting still, lights down low taking it all in. awe and wonder every time. Will listen 1000 more. Tom Verlaine is one of the greatest rock musicians ever. He effected the way John and I play immeasurably. Fly on Tom.— Flea (@flea333) January 29, 2023
I met Tom Verlaine when he just arrived in NYC I guess ’72. He had long hair and came to my apartment with an acoustic guitar and played some songs he’d written. Both Tom and Richard Hell have told me that I auditioned for the Neon Boys but I don’t remember.— Cʜʀɪs Sᴛᴇɪɴ (@chrissteinplays) January 28, 2023
RIP Tom Verlaine. Along with Patti Smith’s Horses, Marquee Moon ranks as one of if not THE best New Wave album of the 70’s punk era. I bought it when it came out and saw them on their first tour with Blondie opening! It was a great gig. I still play the album to this day ❤️M pic.twitter.com/R7Qvqxy8DA— Simply Red (@SimplyRedHQ) January 29, 2023
Beautifully lyrical guitarist, underrated vocalist. Television made a new kind of music and inspired new kinds of music. Marquee Moon is a perfect record. Requiescat.🎈https://t.co/uxt7IMz2rO— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) January 28, 2023
A true original. No one played guitar like Tom Verlaine before or since. Sat crossed legged on the floor on his side of the stage in Roskilde as he played in Patti Smith’s band and that was as close to perfection as you can get. A sad sad day. Rest in Peace Tom 🥲 pic.twitter.com/445yrvH6m8— Simon Raymonde (@mrsimonraymonde) January 28, 2023
More 2023 fretted heartbreak 💔. One of the GREAT Punk lead stylists. Tom Verlaine was a True Downtown HERO. Saddened & bummed to hear it.— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) January 28, 2023
Tom Verlaine. An absolute legend. ‘Marquee Moon’ is arguably the greatest rock and roll album of all time. RIP.— @ACNewman (@ACNewman) January 28, 2023
Most nights we walk onstage to Marquee Moon- RIP to Tom Verlaine, the realest deal— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) January 28, 2023
Tom Verlaine has died after a brief illness, a representative for the innovative guitarist and founding member of Television confirms to Billboard. He was 73.
Verlaine died peacefully and surrounded by friends in New York City, the rep says.
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Born Thomas Miller in 1949, Verlaine was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, before moving to New York City in 1968 and taking on his stage name.
He formed Television, who became an influential fixture of NYC’s punk rock scene at CBGB in the ’70s, establishing an early residency at the legendary Lower East Side club with bandmates Richard Hell, Billy Ficca and Richard Lloyd. With Television he brought his signature guitar work and songwriting to two albums, 1977’s landmark Marquee Moon and 1978’s Adventure, before the group parted ways in 1978.
Verlaine then embarked on solo endeavors — releasing several of his own albums throughout his career over the next few decades, beginning with a self-titled record in 1979 — and reunited with Television periodically.
His early musical influences ranged from free jazz to the Yardbirds’ Five Live Yardbirds to the Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown,” and included John Coltrane, Pablo Casals and John McLaughlin.
“My first music experiences were with classical and then jazz,” Verlaine told Billboard in 2005. “I played sax for three years, so my real roots are in instrumental music. In fact, when I hear the term ‘music’ I never think of ‘songs.’”
Following Verlaine’s death, fellow musician Patti Smith’s daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, penned a heartfelt, personal tribute on Instagram.
“Dearest Tom. The love is immense and forever. My heart is too intensely full to share everything now, and finding the words is too deep of a struggle. The feeling inside is so heavy, though your spirit is light and lifted, it is everywhere, completely and truly free,” she wrote on the post, where she shared a personal photo of the pair.
“I love you always and forever, and will always remember and hold close the touch of your hand – hands of a beautiful creator and of a love more warm, tender, delicate, and true that one can ever dream,” she continued. “There has never been another like you and there never will be. What a blessing and gift I was given to share my time on earth with you. I will be grateful to the end of my life, and we will see you again beyond that, meeting you there wherever you’ve gone. Thank you leading the way.”
Before playing his piano ballad “Faithfully” on Journey‘s opening 2023 date at an Oklahoma casino theatre on Friday (Jan. 27), Jonathan Cain told about 3,000 fans: “It’s good to be back. All together again.”
It was a unifying sentiment after months of Journey acrimony. Although the classic rock band sold 296,000 tickets in 2022 and grossed $31.9 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, Cain and his longtime bandmate, lead guitarist Neal Schon, have been battling legally since late October over Schon’s expenditures on Journey’s American Express card and Cain’s participation in an event at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort.
As Journey prepares to return to arenas Feb. 4 in Allentown, Pa., the two-hour show at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, the first of two nights, was generally harmonious and upbeat.
The sextet’s three focal points — frontman Arnel Pineda, Schon and Cain — dominated the spotlight. Pineda, who replaced long-departed frontman Steve Perry in 2008 and sounds exactly like him, was in constant motion, running, jumping, waving, pointing and leading singalongs. Schon soloed constantly, opening the first song “Only the Young” with a burst of noise on his PRS NS-15 guitar and improvising with hard rock power chords in unexpected ways at the ends of rock radio fixtures “Wheel In the Sky” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” and Cain anchored “Feeling That Way” and “Who’s Crying Now” on his red piano.
Journey’s live formula is simple: play the beloved hits from the ’70s and ’80s, even if Schon and Cain are the only remaining band members from that era. They dispatched with their signature “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which has nearly 1.5 billion plays on Spotify alone, as the third song, then closed with na-na-na-ing, whoa-oh-whoaing and general earworm-rocking with “Wheel In the Sky,” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” and the finale “Any Way You Want It.”
Relying on a setlist similar to much of the 2022 tour, Journey challenged the crowd in subtle ways, opening with lesser-known hits like “Only the Young,” a 1985 single first released by Scandal, then “Stone in Love,” from 1981’s Escape, later throwing in “Be Good to Yourself,” from 1984’s Raised On Radio, during the punchy, four-song finale. Most experimental of all was Schon, who wore a black denim jacket, an open-collar shirt and several necklaces, and spent much of the night engrossed in his guitars, coming up with different improvisational angles and colors for hits you thought you knew, dabbling in glam rock, metal and even new age music, peaking with a three-minute solo before “Wheel In the Sky.”
Schon and Cain consistently kept roughly 20 yards of distance between them, as Cain, mostly stationary in a dark suit coat, held down stage right with four different keyboards. Schon spoke sparingly, but Cain told the story of writing “Faithfully” on a lonely 1981 bus ride, concluding, “We pay a price for a life like this,” then encouraging the crowd to support the U.S. armed forces. The two cooperated musically, especially on “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” when Cain played boogie-woogie runs and Schon dropped in sympathetic guitar riffs to augment the piano. With the exception of Schon, who sang minimally, all six band members harmonized on vocals, nicely backing Pineda’s impossibly high range on “Anytime.”
With Schon and Cain in separate corners, and drummer Deen Castronovo, bassist Todd Jensen and second keyboardist Jason Derlatka holding down the middle, it was Pineda’s job to enliven the crowd, which he did, energetically and enthusiastically. He was the one member of Journey who seemed happy to be there, jumping on a pedestal and throwing his head back to hit those high notes, patting Schon on the back, fist-bumping Cain, signing autographs as songs were going on and, long after the others had walked off stage, sticking around for crowd selfies. Rock stars may “pay a price” for the rock-star life, but, Pineda suggested, it’s fun, too.
