Review NEAL SCHON ‘Journey Through Time’

Neal Schon is known as the founder and guitarist of Journey. The iconic rock band is still driven by Schon but the name is also connected to three Santana album, Hardline, Bad English and other bands/projects, not to forget his solo releases.

On February 9^th, 2018, Schon played a show at The Independent in Hollywood. It was benefit concert for victims of the fire in the North Bay area in autumn 2017. Schon out together a special line-up for this show which included Gregg Rolie, who was part of Journey from 1974 to 1980. In addition, Marco Mendoza and Deen Castronovo handled bass and drums with John Varn being part of the show as well.

This differently looking line-up gave Schon the possibility to create a very special setlist. With having a guy like Rolie with him on stage allowed Schon to go for a deep dive into the early days of Journey with a special focus on the first three albums. ‘Journey’, ‘Look Into the Future’ and ‘Next’ are the longplayers that created the frame of the show.

‘I’m Gonna Leave You’, from the ‘Look Into the Future’ album, led things off, followed by the titlte track. With the instrumental ‘Kohoutek’ the guys went back to the self-titled debut, before going forward to the ‘Evolution” album with ‘Daydream’.

Of course, the classics have been played that night too. ‘Don’t Stop Believin”, ‘Wheel in the Sky’ and ‘Lights’ are timeless rock songs that have been performed that night at a sold-out venue. Even the Santana times have been part of the show when Schon played ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Oye Como Va’.

The five-piece played 32 songs that night, delivered in two sets which means a lot of Journey. Luckily the show was recorded, and these days Frontiers Music releases the entire recording as ‘Journey Through Time’, a title that couldn’t have been chosen better.

This release, spread out over three CD’s is a treat for Journey fans and acts as a travel back in time. At the same time the release allows younger fans to explore the early days of a rock legend. However, concert and live album clearly show, why Journey belongs to the group of rock giants with music, that is stellar and timeless. A treat for your ears, for sure.