What’s more classic rock than singing along to “Don’t Stop Believin’” in 2026 while still rockin’ your faded Frontiers Tour T-shirt from 1983?
Not much, except maybe losing yourself in the nostalgic “na, na, na-na, na, na” of “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” with thousands of Journey-loving dads (and moms) on Father’s Day.
Shoot, just seeing that iconic logo spread its wings across the massive screen behind the stage at the Resch Center one last time for the arena rock giants’ farewell tour stop June 21 felt kind of goose bumpy.
Journey’s first time back in Green Bay in nearly a decade was also likely its last. The Final Frontier Tour, which has been going hard since February and was recently extended into late November, is being billed as the group’s goodbye after more than a half-century as road warriors. Whether that holds, well, see just about every other band or artist who has done some kind of farewell tour.
Nevertheless, fans filled up the Resch for a chance to revisit one of rock’s most recognizable catalogs and relive the days when albums like “Escape,” “Frontiers,” “Raised on Radio,” “Evolution” and “Departure” filled record store bins in the 1970s and ’80s.
Original lead singer Steve Perry, gone from the band now for decades, will forever cast a substantial shadow, but it is founding guitarist Neal Schon who’s long carried the torch. He got the most time on the series of three screen video panels throughout the night and seldom missed an opportunity to work in a guitar solo – and another and another.
Lead vocals were a nonstop, dizzying volley from one song to another, from frontman Arnel Pineda to drummer Deen Castronovo to keyboardists Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka. It worked best early on and particularly with Castronovo, who ramped up the energy level with “Lights” and “After the Fall,” and looked like the guy having the most fun onstage all night. But the constant handing off of songs, and Pineda disappearing from the stage and returning, began to feel a little like a momentum interrupter as the evening went on.
The concert ran a generous 2 hours and 15 minutes, skipped an opening act and included such deep cuts as “Dead or Alive” and “Chain Reaction.” The first hour felt sluggish at times, which might have had more to do with the sometimes sleepy Sunday night vibe of the crowd than anything the band was or wasn’t doing.
Getting fans, at least those not down on the floor, on their feet seemed like a challenge early on. When Journey asks fans to light the place up with their phones for “Lights” and the other “city by the bay” only comes through at like 35%, what the heck is going on? Although the instantaneous singing along of “Open Arms” later in the night was impressive, like all those ’80s high school proms were just yesterday.
It wasn’t until Schon’s otherworldly, 6-minute guitar solo, trippy cosmic special effects and all, led into “Wheel in the Sky” that it felt like the party was in peak form. All the pyro probably didn’t hurt, either.
For the final six-song sprint of the greatest of the greatest hits, Pineda proved he had the vocal gusto to pull it off, and he can still bounce up and down like he has springs in his shoes. In a hoodie emblazoned with “Gucci” across the front, he took a surprise victory lap around the Resch floor, high-fiving fans all along the perimeter.
Cain, a fixture in the band for 46 years and responsible for the signature openings to so many of the hits, seemed the most wistful of the band members, often briefly introducing a song with a reference to the year, the album, the MTV video or Perry. He dedicated “Faithfully,” the power ballad he wrote, to veterans as America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday.
For a tour that Schon said would be a “full-circle celebration of the music that’s brought us all together” when it was announced, it missed an opportunity to share a montage of photos and footage of Journey’s remarkable journey through the decades. Perhaps the Perry factor makes that too tricky.
But for longtime fans, it was indeed, as billed, “A Special Evening with Journey,” right down to the entire band lined up across the stage and the confetti flying at show’s end.
The setlist
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Journey delivers nostalgic night of rock to a low-key crowd at Resch
Reporting by Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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By Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
