Mom called about a month ago, asking whether I had anything planned for the seventh of August. "No, not really," I asnwered. "Why?"
"Because Journey's coming to Nashville with Cheap Trick, and tickets go on sale tomorrow. I'll spring for 'em if you're in."
"Might have fun arranging someone to watch Dae in the middle of the week..."
"Bring him. You were younger than he was the first time I took you to a concert."
"This is true..."
So with visions of Charlie Daniels and Alabama dancing in my head*, I nested on ticketmaster.com and landed three seats midway up the mezzanine. Booyah.
This morning, she called again. "Did you know that Steve Augeri isn't with Journey anymore?"
Well. No. And honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. I liked his stage presence, and he had a clear, clean voice that did Journey's songs justice.
And he was cute.**
"Who'd they get to replace him?" I ask, bringing up Google and firing queries at it.
"I don't know, but he's cute."
"Can he pull the music off?"
"Don't know. Just caught the tail end of the piece on TV."
"Well let's find out..."
Gentleman's name is Arnel Pineda, and his story is just wild. What kills me is this:
"Videos of The Zoo performing cover songs by Journey, Survivor, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Air Supply, The Eagles, Kenny Loggins and other popular acts from the 70s, 80s and 90s, began appearing on YouTube.com in February 2007. On June 28, 2007,[11] Neal Schon of Journey contacted Noel Gomez, a longtime fan and friend of Pineda who uploaded many of these videos, to ask for Pineda's contact information. Schon sent an e-mail to Pineda inviting the latter to audition for Journey. Pineda initially dismissed the e-mail as a hoax, but after being persuaded by Gomez, he finally replied to Schon's e-mail. Ten minutes later, Pineda received a phone call from Schon.[12] On August 12,[13] Pineda, along with his manager Bert de Leon, flew to Marin County, just north of San Francisco, for a two-day audition."
Welcome to new media, you know? It's awesome.
So yeah. I'm looking forward to August. Because if YouTube is to be believed, Mr. Pineda rocks.
And he's cute, too. ;D
*- My first show, at the worldly age of three. I remember clearly Randy Owens standing in the spotlight, the crowd's silence in the darkness around him thick enough to touch. The smile on his face as he leaned in, gripped the mic... and made The Redneck Noise at full volume, straight into it. This marks my first exposure that sound, and while the rest of the audience draws breath to cheer back at him, I offer my opinion (also at full volume): "Mama--he's a loudmouth!" The darkness coughs and swallows. The man on stage peers toward the mezzanine and answers, "Well thank y', darlin'." And the show goes on. Mother was mortified.
**--First Journey concert, at the Ryman, in the balcony, with Chris-the-DM in tow. Mr. Augeri's been losing buttons from his black velvet shirt all night, and now he's down to two. My mother's whistles can be heard from the floor, but my hopeful catcalling is only caught by her to one side of me and Chris to the other. I receive an elbow to the ribs from him and, "I want to hear no more shit about me liking the Spice Girls."
Labels: music