I once made an executive decision to break Victoria’s fire-code bylaws in order to cram as many people possible (85) into a private booth karaoke room with a capacity of 25. Why? To bastardize Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” with other adult-oriented-rock-loving ’80s hair rock heshers, of course. Another time I led an army of kids down my street on New Year’s Eve with a ghetto blaster on my shoulder, cranking Loverboy’s “Lovin’ Every Minute of It” like a feather-haired Pied Piper. The reason? That song just screams “happy new year!” And one magical night I found myself pounding my fist with an army of arena rockers and watching an aged woman wearing a Bud Lite hat absolutely lose her shit to Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian.” ‘Cause it just felt good.
Oh, and all of this happened in the past year.
Yes, adult oriented rock is still alive and well in Victoria, and thank the guitar solo, orgasm-faced gods for that (Journey guitar player Neil Schon solo cums like a madman). If not for its indestructible leather pants, this musical genre may have died in a fiery cocaine binge, but here we are, almost in 2013, and bands like Journey, Loverboy and Night Ranger are still alive and kicking. Kicking ass, that is.
More importantly, so are their fans. Older men with younger women, older women with younger men. High ponytails for the ladies, low ponytails for the men. Headbanging and air guitaring in fold-up chairs on an arena floor. Wearing sunglasses indoors. Drunk off your ass and contemplating doing something completely inappropriate to a random stranger in a Damn Yankees t-shirt.
“It’s not really a show until a pair of panties hits the stage,” pontificated Loverboy lead singer Mike Reno (sunglasses on the whole set: check. Signature tight red leather pants strategically placed below beer gut: check.) Strangely, no panties actually got up there, but that didn’t stop a few of the less discerning ladies in the audience from wriggling about in their chairs, then swinging their undergarments around like 1982 Vancouver Canucks towel power.
Other highlights of Loverboy’s set included keyboard effects so loud in the mix they sounded like a spaceship was about to break through the roof and touch down in Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, a version of “Hot Girls in Love” that was so full of swagger it had every hot young thang in the place over the age of 40 (droves and droves) reliving her most unspeakable act, and cowbell, just more cowbell. There was a Rage Against the Machine-style bass and drums jam-out that we should probably just pretend never happened (if only it wasn’t so damn thumpin’).
Headliner Journey’s set was full phasers on stun, new singer Arnel Pineda making us all forget that Steve Perry ever broke our miserable hearts with “Oh Sherrie,” eventually distancing him from a band he’d never, ever fully escape from. But this pint-sized Pineda, what a bundle of energy! What a little spitfire! A firecracker! And how did he manage to steal Perry’s exact voice from 1983? Is he the world’s first voice clone, or is it just a numbers game that some kid from the Philipines’ vocal cords would eventually synch up with one of rock’s most infamous crooners?
Yes, Journey played all of their hits. Of course they played all of their hits. But, quick, name me more than two Journey songs. Fail.
The best parts of Journey’s lengthy set were when keyboard player Jonathan Cain (yeah, who?) mounted his grand piano/enormous cluster of Roland Jupiters and pounded out some piano ballad puddin’. He tickled the ivories on embarrassingly amazing songs like “Who’s Crying Now?” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” while Pineda went fully emo-core on us. Tears were shed in the audience, too, as parents and their grown children swung iPhone “lighters” in unison.
Oh yeah, Night Ranger opened up and played “Sister Christian.” And some other songs. And it was rad.
It was great show. thanks for the write up.