Re: Journey and Deep Purple live in Auckland, New Zealand (spoilers included!)
Posted by:
Steve_Roamer
()
Date: February 26, 2013 05:01AM
For Journey most of the audience sat down for a lot of the time which I thought was pretty naff (very appreciative in between though!) but everyone stood up for the final "Don't Stop Believing". Arnel worked very hard to try and get the fans going and succeeded with a small group at the right hand corner. I gotta say he was great, really working the stage, running around and his voice was just wonderful. The ballards were beautiful but he knocked out the harder stuff too. Stunning backing vocals - remember this is the first time I'd ever seen Journey so they made a real impact. Deen handles lead vox on Keep On Running and did a fantastic job. Basically and in many ways suprisingly, they are not as well known or established as DP who have the advantage of having toured here before. I like both bands so it was a real treat for me and honestly they really seemed to enjoy it.
I wasn't expecting Purple to be half as good as they were to be honest but again, they were incredible. Loved 'em. Audience did too and were standing up for pretty much the whole set. Some young girls dancing in the aisle too which was great to see. The Arena wasn't sold out but it was comfortably full I'd say. A fantastic double bill.