Live In Houston 1981: The Escape Tour

while reading Sarita's review, i could tell she is a true fan, even though some of the items stated are not quite factual. i saw Journey on that tour. it was my second concert with the amazing mr. Steve Perry fronting a great rock band. i was very pleased to know that i had also seen them while recording the live album on May 22, 1980 in Cincy. on the first show, there was the great Greg Rolie who had done a lot of the lead vocals for Journey in the early Pre-Perry album offerings. and Greg was a pretty good vocalist, having sung "Black Magic Woman" with Santana where he got hooked up with Neal. on the Escape tour, we were introduced to Jonathon Cain, formerly of The Babies (who opened for Journey on the Captured recording tour). JC brought a new flair to Journey in that he could also play guitar and got into the writing effort that helped make Journey more hits. (He wrote Faithfully) he's also got a decent voice on him as his solo projects show. I've seen the new Journey and while Steve A. is a very good vocalist that sustains the Journey sound we old timers have become used to, he's not even close to the performer that Steve Perry was in his time as front man. Steve A. looks the same leaving the stage at the end of the show as he did in the first song. SP was covered in sweat 3 songs in. and he never stopped moving while the music played. i recently bought the new cd, Generations. it's good. so was Arrival, Steve A.'s first full length cd with the boys. but if you want to see GREAT Journey, this Houston show is the one to have. I recorded it in 1982 on vhs when it ran on tv one night. i've since lost the tape, but the show was almost as good on tape as it was in Cincy. NOBODY sang with as much energy at a full run as SP could. Nobody holds a note like Steve Perry. It's rumored that Steve A. had also given up on getting into the music business because he was continuously told he sounded too much like Steve Perry and we already had one of those! as they say, close but no cigar. I'll still go see them when they come around, no doubt about it. But if you are a recent fan of Journey, do yourself a favor and see where they come from, the foundation that this kick ass band was built on. Neal is one of the greatest guitar players ever in the history of rock n roll as far as i'm concerned, but Steve Perry made the band great. i can still remember the first time i heard the Infinity album and heard Steve Perry sing "Lights". I was blown away. by the way, "open Arms" reached number 2 and was as close to a #1 hit as they got. The did get a Grammy nomination for "when you love a woman" off of the "trial by fire" cd. what a nice piece of recognition after a 10+ year absence. no matter what problems they had that caused them to part company, Steve Perry was the heart of Journey and there will not be another one like him ever. often imitated, never duplicated. get the DVD, see the real deal. see why they have "Generations" of fans.

A Very Good Live JOURNEY Concert.

Old school Journey. This is the video they will show in music history classes 200 years from now when they cover arena rock. Steve Perry and Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain snd Ross Valory? At their highest commercial success. High energy anthem rock, love ballad rock and AOR perfection. High fidelity bliss. From the greatest generation of rock music ever produced. Thanks Fred Shapiro for this offering.

Journey's Escape Tour came to the Cleveland Coliseum just a few weeks after my 14th birthday. I had no car, no money and parents who suspected that things went on at rock concerts that they had to protect me from. It seemed like the entire neighborhood was going, and at school it was the only thing anyone talked about for the next week. The girls all had magazine pictures of Steve Perry taped inside their lockers. All I had to sustain me was the "Escape" album in LP vinyl, and my friends and I literally wore it out over the next several years, with all of us coming of age in what seemed like months, all to the soundtrack of Journey and a few other bands. By the time the "Frontiers" tour came to town, I was old enough to go but I had moved on to other bands, and besides we all sensed that "Escape" had been the pinnacle, and that Journey was morphing into a band for girls. So I am grateful beyond words that MTV happened to capture this night in Houston with such high quality video and sound. The band is simply at their technical and spiritual peak, and they are riding a wave of unbelievable power since, as Steve Perry mentions during the concert, the "Escape" album had gone number one just three weeks earlier. Disco had ended, Progressive was still coming, MTV had arrived but hadn't figured out quite what it was yet, and Journey was the biggest thing in America in 1981. This DVD captures that moment, and what's truly amazing for us rock connoisseurs is how sparse and basic their stage show is here. The musicians stand on stage with their gear, they blow our minds out with their playing, Steve Perry runs around and some primitive pyros explode at the beginning and the end, and aside from that, pretty much nothing else happens except that everyone in the audience goes nuts and most of the girls probably wet their pants. It's a basic, fundamental, unbelievably well played and well sung rock concert by a band that was on the rocket ride they had worked towards for years. If you missed this concert too, this DVD will almost make up for it. It certainly stands up to time, and they play and sound better than you would think was humanly possible.

This is a great live concert when Journey was without a doubt in their PRIME. Steve Perry, with those distinctive vocals is incredible as well as all the other members of the band performing their very best. Journey was at their pinnacle during their "ESCAPE" tour and I can even remember they had a video game in most arcades of the time based on the band JOURNEY. That's how popular this band was during the early 1980's. They could easily fill stadiums to sold out concerts, and in fact they did, everywhere they went. They were especially popular over in Asia during this time as well as everywhere else in the world they travelled to. This DVD does not disappoint and if you are a Journey fan, this is a must have for your collection. Even if not a fan of Journey, it's still worth the watch and has some incredible music from the late 1970's through the early 1980's by a band who is still popular to this very day. Almost 50 years, and Journey is still active....INCREDIBLE FEAT IN ITSELF in the world of rock bands.

Journey's Live in Houston 1981 : The Escape Tour CD and DVD was released in November of 2005. The year 1981 was the year the rock band Journey (based in San Fancisco, CA) ruled the American rock music landscape as their then-latest album Escape hit #1 on the Billboard album chart and they were possibly, aside Canadian rockers Rush and the Chicago based rockers Styx, the best concert act from the US and Canada touring the United States in 1981. In fact, Journey were so big that they opened a few shows for The Rolling Stones (whom retured to the road in 1981 in support of Tattoo You (Journey opened up for Mick and Keith and the lads in 1978 for a few shows as well)) before embarking on the tour in support of their Escape album. This 1981 concert was recorded and filmed at The Houston Summit in Houston, TX that November (with Canadian rockers Loverboy (who had just released their Get Lucky album) opening up for Journey) and this Journey performance originally aired on MTV (when it stood for Music TeleVision, not REALITY TV like it is now). For years, this classic Journey concert was not available on either DVD or VHS nor even on an audio format but it is now. This Journey concert features the classic line up with lead singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, then new keyboard player/occasional rhythm guitarist Jonathan Cain, bass player Ross Valory and drummer(and my fellow Bay Stater (Massachusetts) native) Steve Smith. The Escape Tour sees Journey at the top of their game. On this CD and DVD set, the band played eight of the Escape album's ten tracks (the set opening title cut (with a killer fanfare riff to begin the tune), "Open Arms", "Mother Father", "Who's Crying Now", "Dead or Alive", "Don't Stop Believin'", "Stone in Love" and "Keep on Runnin'") as well as songs from 1978's Infinity ("Lights" and set closer "Wheel in the Sky"), 1979's Evolution (the first encore "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'"), 1980's Departure ("Line of Fire", "Where Were You" and the final encore "Any Way You Want It") and the studio track from 1981's double live album Captured ("The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love)" which is on the CD only) plus solos from messieurs Cain on the piano as a link between "Mother Father" and "Who's Crying Now", Smith (who does a superb drum solo which starts at the end of "Where Were You") and Schon (whose solo serves as a link between "Keep on Runnin'" and "Wheel In the Sky"). The sound quality of the CD and DVD set is incredible (superbly mixed by Allan Sides and wonderfully remastered by Bob Ludwig) and the digi-pak type packaging, which includes a 16-page booklet is excellent as well. The extras on the DVD portion are interviews filmed during the 1981/82 timeframe with Journey's calssic lineup, the ending credits from when MTV aired the show in 1982, the Escape album promo commercial and photo gallery and all are top notch. Overall, Journey Live in Houston is a great value for your buck. Thank you to Steve Perry for helping restore the true Journey legacy. RECOMMENDED!

I've always liked Journey's music and yes even Steve Perry, but I've not been in love with the band. Generally a little too commercial for my liking. This was certainly the high point of their career and for what it is this is fantastic. If you're a hard Journey fan you probably already own this. If you're a casual fan then you should probably consider adding it to your collection.

I discovered Journey for the first time sitting in the back seat of a friends car way back in the early '80's as he blasted my ear-drums with "Don't Stop Believin'" . I then found out it was the same band that had had a hit with the ballad "Open Arms" and I wanted to find out more. By this time "Frontiers" had been released and I caught the film-clip to "Seperate Ways" (as cheesy as I now know it to be). I immediately bought both "Frontiers' and "Escape" on record and the very first CD I ever bought was "Frontiers". I have been a fan for over twenty years and regret never being able to see the band live. I realise Steve Augeri is doing a great job with the band and I'm loving their new stuff but it would've been nice to see Steve Perry and the band at the peak of their popularity. This DVD shows just how good a live band "Journey" were and the wonders of modern technology gives us a sound that is beyond belief. The CD is an extra added bonus and the original band interviews a nice extra but put the DVD on your 40" widescreen with the sound up LOUD and witness the band that represents the truest example of rock that America has ever produced.