St. Louis Dispatch
July 23, 1999
By: Kevin Johnson Post-Dispatch Music Critic
Transcribed by: Okie

The last time I checked, the calendar still said 1999, not 1981, which was a year when both Journey and Foreigner could boast top hits. Still, at the end of this current decade when the two bands barely mustered up a pair of hits between them, Journey and Foreigner packed Riverport Ampitheatre Wednesday night during an outing that marked their first time touring together.

Sure it could have come off as the CD "Monster Ballads" come to life, and that's what it sounded like at times. But that's to be expected. Journey and Foreigner are arguably the originators of the monster or power ballad.

Journey's headlining set was the bigger challenge of the night because Journey is touring without Steve Perry, who most would consider the voice of Journey. In Perry's place is another Steve-Steve Augeri, a singer whose soaring vocals were often compared to Perry's when Augeri fronted a band called Tall Stories.

The match is working better than anyone could have imagined. From a distance, if one didn't know better, one might even believe that was Perry up there on stage as Augeri does a phenomenal job with Journey's material. Augeri proved to be quite the ham, from crawling around on Jonathan Cain's red piano to swinging the microphone stand around like a propeller. Pair up Augeri's ham with Journey's cheesy music (however pleasing it can be), and how could you go wrong? Everyone knows how well ham and cheese go together.

Opening song "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" let fans know right off the top that the journey isn't over yet for this classic rock band, one who even managed to get a song on the "Armageddon" soundtrack last year next to acts like Bob Seger, Jon Bon Jovi and ZZ Top. (With names like those, why wouldn't Journey be included?)

Journey, with its trademark synthesized keyboard arrangements heard in many of its songs, had no problem digging up power pop gems like "Any Way You Want It", "Only the Young" and "Open Arms" for the crowd.

A blues tune that sounded like a clear mistake would actually serve a purpose-it suprisingly segued into "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" without missing a beat. One thing Journey might want to watch is the number of solos in the show. The group went way overboard. Enough is Enough.

Foreinger didn't fare so well, though the band was well received by the crowd. The group's set was proof positive that a bad 80's song revisited 15 years later doesn't get better with time. It's still a bad 80's song, and this band's cheese has already molded. You can argue that at least Foreigner still has its original lead singer. But hey, it's only Lou Gramm, and he sounded disconnected at times from his own hits, excessive rock tunes like "Double Vision" and "Head Games." "Cold as Ice" was especially of center as Gramm tried to put the accent on different words than before. The effect did't work much.

The band fared better on ballads like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Waiting For a Girl Like You," while "Feels Like the First Time" and "Hot Blooded" were real no brainers.