Ann Arbor Art Fairs
Discover the newest Pollack or Picasso
strolling around beautiful downtown Ann
Arbor this week. Begins Wednesday, July 18,
and goes through Saturday, July 21.
michigandaily.com/arts
IiLrr RS
MONDAY
JULY 16, 200 1
THEY'VE STILL GOT IT
Detroit fans
respond to
Jouney
By Gautam Baksl
Daily Arts Writer
Tuesday July 10, shortly past 9 p.m., a
buzzing crowd at DTE Music Theater
anxiously awaited the arrival of 80's rock
superstars, Journey.
Bassist Ross Valory and new drum-
mer Deen Cas-
tronovo (formerly
of Bad English)
Journey walked onstage,
quickly placing
M TE Energy themselves in their
Music Theater assigned positions.
July 10, 2001 Next, guitar virtu-
oso Neil Schon
and piano player
Jonathan Cain
walked on to thun-
derous applause of
the audience.
Finally a fifth, spindly figure came into
view, smiling and waving at the audi-
ence. For even the most die-hard Jour-
ney fans, this was the first glimpse at
new lead singer Steve Augeri. All eyes
were focused on him, as former front
Aerosmith crosses
rock, 'sweet emotion'
As the band's new Steve, Augeri (center) does his best Perry impression.
man Steve Perry was always considered
a unique and irreplaceable vocalist.
The band wasted little time in getting
comfortable before ripping through a
version of "Only The Young." From the
moment Steve Augeri opened his mouth,
the audience fell in love with his voice.
Not only was he vibrant and excited to
be on-stage, but he also sounded nearly
identical to the legendary Perry. Filled
almost to capacity, the crowd was con-
stantly enthusiastic for the new front
man.
Several songs into the set, Neil Schon
began the sliding riff intro to "Lights."
Augeri warned the audience that
although Journey loved Detroit, they
were now going to "the City by the Bay."
With thunderous applause and immedi-
ate enthusiasm, the audience embraced
the band for one of the highlights of the
evening. "Lights" was played superbly,
similar to the early-80's studio version,
but with continued interest and passion
from each band member.
Steve Augeri kept Journey's momen-
tum going, with constant banter with the
audience, taunting of ladies in the front
row and dancing and jumping all over
the stage. After playing a few softer
songs from their 2001 album Arrival
through which many in the crowd chose
to take a seat, the band came back full-
force with the fan-favorite "Don't Stop
Believin."' Augeri smiled as he sang a
line from the verse: "Just a small-town
boy/Born and raised in South Detroit/He
took the midnight train going any-
where." Augeri then pointed at Neil
Schon, a South Detroit native, who
ripped through a furious rendition of the
repeating intro solo, now famous for
most 80s hard-rock fans.
The rockin' "Don't Stop Believin"
was followed by Journey's famous ballad
"Faithfully," well led by Cain on the
grand piano. The set-list was largely
comprised of songs off Journey's 1988
Greatest Hits release, with the addition
of a few early tracks (1978's "Feeling
That Way" and "Wheel in the Sky") and
newer songs off Arrival. Missing were
tracks from 1996's Trial By Fire, includ-
ing the Grammy-winning "When You
Love a Woman."
Overall the band played for just under
two hours, although it was apparent the
show could have gone on all night. The
band seemed vibrant and fu11 of energy
throughout the night, and definitely gave
Journey fans both young and old a great
show. If nothing else, they proved that
Journey lives on even with the departure
of Steve Perry.
By John Pratt
For the Daily
For the past decade and a half, Steven
Tyler and his crew have been able to
grab widespread
musical appeal
by cooking their
albums. hard
A s iih enough to satisfy
DTE Energy rock fans, but
Music Theater with enough soft
July 13, 2001 tunes to make
themselves tasty
for radio and
MTV time slots.
Aerosmith is
back on tour this
summer to pro-
mote their March
release of Just Push Play, making a stop
last Friday at the DTE Energy Music
Theater.
The performance, sponsored by
Dodge, was outfitted with three massive
screens accompanied by roaming cam-
eramen, arrays of manned spotlights
and a three-foot tall metallic hand that
sat on the front of the stage like a hood
ornament, complete with finger nails
that lit up between songs.
Aerosmith kicked off their sold-out
show with the new album's first track,
"Beyond Beautiful." The band followed
with the Just Push Play title-track, with
Tyler belting out indecipherable rhymes
and Joe Perry's showing off his signa-
ture, stair-climbing guitar sound.
Throughout the night the group phased
in and out between older hits like "Love
in An Elevator" and newer ones like
"Fly Away."
Each section of DTE seemed separat-
ed by generation, with newer fans that
bought $75 lawn tickets located toward
the back, and older crowds populated
closer to the stage. Guarded by a wall of
sheriffs and security guards, Aerosmith
walked through the aisles to the second
stage in the middle of the show where
they treated the younger audience to a
few songs, including the classic rock
anthem "Dream On" from Aerosmith's
1973 debut album.
The band returned to the first stage
where Tyler continued to hit dead-A
vocals and Joey Kramer sent supporting
drum beats behind songs like "Janie's
Got A Gun" Aerosmith also performed
some of its more emotional songs like
the "Armageddon" soundtrack hit, "I
Don't Want To Miss A Thing," and
"Cryin"' from 1993's Get a Grip.
Reminiscent of when the band
teamed up with Run DMC in 1986 in a
rap-rock redo of "Walk This Way," KA
Rock made a surprise guest perform-
ance during "Sweet Emotion," and at
one point delighted the crowd when he
and Tyler repeatedly rapped the word
"Detroit." Kid Rock stuck around to
show off his vinyl scratching skills but
his ability to steal the show soon faded,
especially when Joe Perry later shat-
tered his guitar, sending pieces of the
wooden instrument flying into the audi-
ence.
Even though Aerosmith has receiv
justified criticism in the past for aban-
doning their rock-and-roll roots, they
are a remarkable live band. Squashing
each decade block and generation barri-
er with surprising success, Aerosmith
has accomplished the impossible: They
survived to middle age, managed to
consistently reign popular among youth
and perform with reserves of energy
and talent that make many young
bands today look like screaming, nois
rhidre
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