In the flesh – Even without with Steve Perry, Johnny Loftus finds something inspirational in a recent Journey show: “It wasn’t nostalgia or worse, irony, that brought a sold-out crowd to its feet for the ballad ‘Open Arms.’ … It was as if the switch everyone has nowadays, that switch that turns off empathy, community, or even humanity in a rabid quest for self-preservation, suddenly shorted out. … It was blissful mayhem, and Journey—not nostalgia—made it happen.”
Props to Loftus for writing such a brave piece. It’s very easy for hipsters to dismiss Journey and even easier to make fun of anyone who counts themselves as a Journey fan. The challenge is to acknowledge that there’s something about them that would cause 15,000 people to see a band who hasn’t even had a hit in, literally, 20 years, and is, literally, on their fourth lead vocalist. And to do it using kid gloves on those 15,000 people for the article is admirable, not to mention very well-written.