Schon spoke sparingly, but Cain told the story of writing “Faithfully” on a lonely 1981 bus ride, concluding, “We pay a price for a life like this,” then encouraging the crowd to support the U.S. Schon and Cain consistently kept roughly 20 yards of distance between them, as Cain, mostly stationary in a dark suit coat, held down stage right with four different keyboards. Most experimental of all was Schon, who wore a black denim jacket, an open-collar shirt and several necklaces, and spent much of the night engrossed in his guitars, coming up with different improvisational angles and colors for hits you thought you knew, dabbling in glam rock, metal and even new age music, peaking with a three-minute solo before “Wheel In the Sky.” Relying on a setlist similar to much of the 2022 tour, Journey challenged the crowd in subtle ways, opening with lesser-known hits like “Only the Young,” a 1985 single first released by Scandal, then “Stone in Love,” from 1981’s Escape, later throwing in “Be Good to Yourself,” from 1984’s Raised On Radio, during the punchy, four-song finale.

They dispatched with their signature “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which has nearly 1.5 billion plays on Spotify alone, as the third song, then closed with na-na-na-ing, whoa-oh-whoaing and general earworm-rocking with “Wheel In the Sky,” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” and the finale “Any Way You Want It.” Journey’s live formula is simple: play the beloved hits from the ’70s and ’80s, even if Schon and Cain are the only remaining band members from that era. Schon soloed constantly, opening the first song “Only the Young” with a burst of noise on his PRS NS-15 guitar and improvising with hard rock power chords in unexpected ways at the ends of rock radio fixtures “Wheel In the Sky” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” and Cain anchored “Feeling That Way” and “Who’s Crying Now” on his red piano. Pineda, who replaced long-departed frontman Steve Perry in 2008 and sounds exactly like him, was in constant motion, running, jumping, waving, pointing and leading singalongs. The sextet’s three focal points - frontman Arnel Pineda, Schon and Cain - dominated the spotlight. 4 in Allentown, Pa., the two-hour show at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, the first of two nights, was generally harmonious and upbeat. As Journey prepares to return to arenas Feb.

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