Journey In New Mexico

Arnel Pineda is that good. The kid is a pro. And the J-boys? They look amazingly refreshed, energized and there's much vitality but you don't know where it's coming from; like an old car with a new paint job? Like, you know it's been sitting in your neighbors garage for a long time, you have not seen it driven, yet when it came out of the garage it was not sputtering - it took off bright and roaring.But the driver is not your familiar neighbor.

The stage lighting at Journal Pavilion was definitely better than the one at Superpages when Journey was here. Except for some momentary black outs for stage effect, the light upstage was continually bright and the lighting for the audience enabled the band to see the audience and make eye contact far beyond the 3rd row.

That's how I was able to see Jonathan very clearly when he played the organ and helped Robin Zander with Cheap Trick sing Surrender and Deen was also brought in towards their last song. Jonathan and Deen looked out of place at first, they both had an uneasy smile that seemed to say, "Yup, we feel awkward, but wait til you see us with our own tribe."

And their own tribe did show up. Arnel came out in black garb: ski hat, scarf wrapped around his neck. And I didn't think the boy could get away with leather pants. Yes he did, and Yes, it was hot. But maybe not too hot because he only took off his head gear. Looking at Arnels hair fluttering over his shoulder gently, softly, shinily (if there's such a word) I wanted to hate him: How in the world did I get blessed with hairs like that of a porcupine?

Anyway,also because of good lighting I was able to feast my eyes on Ross Valory I almost forgot that there were other members of the band. Like Deen. I am not sure if it was just my eyes or the lighting but I'm telling you, Deen's eyes were dancing, gleaming with a boyish smile happily banging his pots and pans, "Look mommy, I don't need Ritalin."

Neal played the Star Spangled Banner, while the red, white and blue was fluttering on the screen, then gave the V-sign when he was finished. It dug out a warm feeling inside me, making me pause for a moment how grateful I am of America, to be naturalized and be a part of her. And a part of last nights concert. Maybe it's just me wanting to believe this but when the boys sang the song without Arnel, I honestly believe it was a calculated move by the boys to lighten the load on Arnel's throat. To help little brother. Because this needs to be said; Arnel Pineda is tired. That's why I said he is that good and he is a pro because He hardly had no voice but Arnel came on top last night. I want to see again the life back in that signature Arnel Pineda smile. I want the dancing mooneyes again.

I have not seen Ross sing much until last night. Oooh,I was mesmerized when he looked down at someone in the audience and gave his teasing smile. (Even though it was not me he was looking at) When Arnel and Neal had their backs together doing Lights, Arnel leaned hard on Neal's back, then slid down gesturing to Ross that he was tired so he's using Neals back as his bed, Ross opened his mouth so big and laughed so hard. Now, I remember why I wanted to elope with him. Them tight jeans covering his legs the size of my ankle, and converse shoes just kills me.

Ok, let me stop dreaming as I'm hardly coherent here...from lack of sleep. I got back to my hotel room around midnight last night then left the hotel at 4a.m. to catch the 6am flight back to Dallas. So I just got home about 5 hours ago. As expected I don't have good pictures but that's not the worse, I bought a front row seat and paid $317 for it only to find out that Live Nation double booked it. So why was I the one to leave the seat and be herded out back to the 6th row instead of the 1st row? I could have made things difficult for the security people and demand that they rectify it and put me on the same row because there was an empty seat but I did not want to use my energy for a negative discussion. The head security came back with a bracelet to allow me to go to the VIP area to get drinks. Are you kidding me? But I have this principle: I already lost the money, I can't damage my body too. So why engage in a heated discussion when those boys are just doing their jobs? I told Chat what happened and she was fuming -"Tomorrow, Live Nation will hear from me." You go girl, go on with your bad self.