Journey - LIVE in concert.

For those of you, that got me on Facebook, you had to see that I was getting ready for the concert of the year - Journey in Oslo. So I sat my ass into my car, and drove into Oslo, a one hour trip. When I entered the venue, I immediately took place alongside of the mixing console. After 15 years behind a desk, I know where, supposedly, the best sound at a concert is.

Then I heard the well known sound of Neal Schon's guitar coming through the PA system, that by the way was a D&B Audiotechnik system. And the band starts with "Never walk away". And normally the first one or two songs might not have perfect audio, since you tune the rig and do the sound check in an empty room. Wait a minute here.. Gotta do this right. Let's split this into sections of: Band, lights and sound.

The BAND:
Well, if there is a band in the world, that can break mountains before breakfast, this is it. They got three and sometimes four harmonic vocal lines. Neal Schon is THE god playing the guitar. Jonathan Cain is just terrific on the keyboard, and who else will haul a red grand piano on a world tour?? Deen Castronovo not only plays the drums like almost nobody else, but the dude can sing like an "angel" at the same time. I bow my head in pure admiration. Ross Valroy stands there like a rock solid groove guru, with his Music Man bass. And Arnel.. Arnel.. Arnel.. What can I say. Steve Perry IS the voice of Journey, sad but true. Arnel do a very good job, indeed, and then some. But sadly, he is No: 2.
And the hits just keep on coming, and sure as hell, the band got a few hits to present. "Only The Young", "Ask The Lonely", Stone In Love, "I'll be alright without you", you get the picture. Time and time again, both Arnel and Schon proves why they got their respective jobs. And I keep thinking; Damn I'm glad I'm here right now. I would have given a lot to be able to get 10 minutes with Schon, just to tell him that he IS THE god of guitar. Forget Steve Vai, Frank Gambale and Joe Satriani. Sure, they all can play fast 'n wild. But Schon does it with tone, feeling and style like no other. I would have given my soul to have hte talent he got in his left little finger in my entire body.

Character 10/10

The LIGHTS:
When I watch "Live 2001 Las Vegas" or "Live in Chile" Journey got enough lights on stage that the total power consumption could have powered up Manhattan for app 24 hours. And here they use, after what a in-house crew member told me, the in-house light equipment. Not a lot of "Pro Spot", "Pro Wash", moving heads, blinders or PAR62 lights. But he did a great job with what he had to work with. Personally I do not like white, bright tracking lights all that much, and when it's at the top four of them moving across the stage, it kinda wrecks the moods that filtered lights can provide. I can understand the reason on a 10.000+ venue, but in a venue that has a limit of 1700 people inside, it's a bit overkill. But still, I really liked his work.

Character 8/10

The SOUND:
Well, here's the Achilles heel of the evening. As I stated at the beginning the first songs might not be "all there". But sadly, it went from bad to worse. App 30 minutes from show start, the sound tech comes out, pops a handful of Aspirins' or whatever the Americans eat when they got a big headache/hangover. Shoots it down with energy drinks. That tells me that last night might not have been his best night. And really folks, that's no job you should do if you're drunk or got a severe hangover. The reason for this is the way that alcohol, if it's fresh or from last night, affects your ear. When you drink, you tend to loose focus on high pitch sounds and the same could happen if you did the same yesterday, and what came out of the speakers proved that. Ok, it could have been technical issues, working with a digital FOH mixer. But I do not think so. To my left, there's two Americans standing. And as I talk a little with them, I soon realize that this is not their first Journey concert. And from what they tell me, it's a normal thing with Journey - "relative" sound. And to make matters worse, the dude suddenly locates the main faders. And then the shit really hits the fan. Until the mid section of "Separate Ways (worlds apart)", I did not hear nor notice that the sub-woofers where working. But when Cain hits the lowest E on his Ensoniq keyboard, the floor starts dancing. And one of the earlier mentioned Americans turns to me and says; "Hell, did they just now find the main power switch to the sub amps"??. But then, as suddenly as the magic came, it was gone. the rest of the night was spent in a 6KHz and above hell. I'm not kidding, all that much, when I say that I've could have cut glass in front of the speakers. A total absence of mid-low frequencies'. No sub, what so ever.. And it's a lot of volume, estimated app 115 - 120 db.

It's not to brag about my own capabilities as a sound tech, thou more to state the obvious. If I had a Midas, Soundcraft or Allen & Heath analog console, with enough channels. Some dbx 2231 equalizer to FOH, Klark Teknik DN540 and DN530, three TC Electronic M3000 and a couple of D-Two's, I should have done a better job. And given a chance, I'll, as sure as you can hear "Amen" in a church, prove it!!! It's a damn shame.

Character I gotta put something here, but what? Well, 1/10, for the efford of showing up.
Character for his work 0.0/10.


Overall character 7/10.