Tommy Washbush
Once upon a time, especially in the Midwestern cities where I grew up in the 1980s, a big rock band like Journey coming to town would be a highlight of the entire year.
But in 2017, with Journey and fellow ’80s rockers Asia making a stop at the Alliant Energy Center on March 28, the most excitement I’ve heard around here came from two older dudes discussing their ticket options in the booth behind me at Nick’s Restaurant & Lounge.
This is a bitter pill to swallow for a guy like me. I still brag about the time I introduced Point beer to Foreigner’s bassist and lead-singer-who-wasn’t-Lou-Gramm after an early-’90s gig in Stevens Point. And I even wore a Styx T-shirt in 1997. On State Street. During date night with my wife.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was introduced to Alejandro Alonso Galva — the 29-year-old assistant news director at WORT-FM — who can’t wait to see Journey.
“The first time I heard a Journey song and it stuck was freshman year of college at the University of Iowa,” Galva tells me. “I got on the campus bus to go to the library on a Friday night. What I didn’t realize was that all the buses headed to the library also head downtown, and those buses were typically called ‘drunk buses.’ So when I got on, it’s standing-room only. Then someone randomly started singing the opening lines to ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’: Just a small-town girl. By the second line, the whole bus was singing along: Livin’ in a lonely world. It was pure college, pure magic and one of those moments when you don’t forget how much you smiled.”
Songs that make you smile. That, in a nutshell, is why Journey will never die. (Well, that and the fact a good chunk of its fan base has the money to spend on tickets.)
Forget for a moment that Journey guitarist Neal Schon is 63 years old and that the band is on its third lead singer since Steve Perry departed in 1998 — a Filipino named Arnel Pineda who Schon found on YouTube singing Journey covers with his band, the Zoo. Journey still plays arenas more than 35 years after its commercial peak with 1981’s Escape, because the songs — the lyrics, the melodies, the guitar solos — spark a memory or create a new one.
And Journey’s not alone. Many active artists from the ’70s and ’80s, while still releasing new material, might have more replacement members than original ones and haven’t visited the upper level of the album charts for decades. Yet pair Foreigner with Cheap Trick, and both bands can play amphitheaters all summer. Def Leppard, Poison and Tesla will hit the arena circuit from April to the end of June, Kansas and Chicago fill large indoor theaters on their own, and Bon Jovi sells out stadiums around the world. Even Boston will make a stop at Breese Stevens Field on May 26.
“There is the simple fact that, regardless of dated production, a good song is a good song,” says Michael Massey, one of Madison’s most accomplished songwriters and producers.
During his regular gigs at the Ivory Room Piano Bar, all Massey has to do is play the iconic opening piano line of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and the crowd takes care of the rest.
“Every time, in every venue,” he says, crediting the use of classic rock songs in Glee and movie soundtracks for bringing new audiences to old tunes. “For some, it is the love of the song, and for others, it’s belonging to something shared for a moment.”
For still others, sadly, it’s an opportunity to scoff at artists they consider too mainstream, too old or simply undeserving of recognition. And that pisses off Galva.
“Rock ’n’ roll has the ability to be absurd and profound all at once,” he says. “People who deride these popular bands pretend like they can’t take anything seriously. But the irony is lost on them; they are taking it all too seriously. They’ve forgotten how to have fun.”
