A Remarkable Journey

This is not a makeup post, but I just saw an amazing concert courtesy of Journey, the band that immortalized the songs "Don't Stop Believing", "Open Arms", "Separate Ways", and "Lights", among many others. Most everybody know by now the amazing story of Arnel Pineda, their new frontman who now has the honor of filling the shoes of The Voice, former lead vocalist Steve Perry. We have read how eerily similar his voice is to Perry's, which Arnel admitted is both a blessing and a curse. Most also know how he was plucked from relative obscurity to rock star status in a span of a few months, courtesy of the internet, when guitar god Neal Schon was trawling YouTube in a desperate search for a lead vocalist for his band. We know how absolutely difficult it is for a singer to belt out Journey's signature songs, and only a tenor with lungs of steel and with raw passion and emotion can put a stamp on the songs. It was in a desperate search for the Voice that can bring Journey forward that led Neal Schon to this video on YouTube:



It was a cover of one of their songs by The Zoo, a cover band in Manila with an amazing tenor lead singer, a chameleon who can sing any rock song and it would sound uncannily like the original. Neal was so floored that he watched each and every video uploaded on YouTube featuring this singer, and Arnel just nailed every difficult song by rock bands, and almost copying each nuance, tremor and treble in the original singer's voices. He could channel Sting perfectly, nailed Led Zepellin and Bryan Adams. Don't believe me? Check this out:



So when Neal saw the covers of their songs, especially this clip of Arnel singing Don't Stop Believing where Arnel sounded so like Steve Perry, he invited Arnel to the United States to audition, and the rest is history. I know, it is eerily (I use this word a lot especially when describing Arnel) similar to Mark Wahlberg's movie Rockstar.



Tonight is the very last concert of their grueling 4-month tour of 50 (or is it 70?) cities here in the States and in Europe. We saw the concert last Friday, and since they were on the last stretch of their tour, the band was obviously road-weary but they were still on performance level. The 20,000-seater pavilion was almost filled to capacity; I couldn't see a single empty seat, and all I saw was a humongous sea of people dancing and clapping to the songs that probably took them back to the good old days. Arnel seemed a little tired and so did his voice in the first couple of songs, but really blew the roof of Cricket Wireless Pavilion after that because he got better and better with each song. He has the same girlish quiver of Steve Perry, but he has more of a grit to his voice, a vibratto that betrays how powerful his voice is. This is a video I took of the concert. You couldn't see him because something was blocking the big screen, and the projector was too dark to register on camera.

Note: something went wrong when I tried to upload it. Will do it tomorrow.

I loved the concert and DH enjoyed it too. It was one of those events where you see history unfolding right before your eyes. Arnel, the homeless 13-year-old boy who used to collect scrap metal and old bottles and newspapers so he could have something to eat, is now the lead singer of the band he idolized as a child. His story is an inspiration enough for me, that anything, anything at all, is possible in this world. Just don't stop believing.