Journey will eventually call it a career, and while they haven't said their latest run of shows will be their last, the gigs are part of The Final Frontier Tour. It likely should be, as the group is straining for credibility in some aspects currently.
The songs are still epic, of course, and most people going to the concerts know them, and the instrumentation is solid, though not exactly spectacular. It is the vocalists (multiple) where things go awry.
In a recent show in Tokyo, Journey had five different singers, including longtime vocalist Arnel Pineda, guitarist Jonathan Cain, drummer Deen Castronovo, and keyboardist Jason Derlatka. It is the fifth singer who is the strangest.
Journey has become a part-time karaoke act recently
For the second show in a row, someone named Hugo Valenti performed two songs, "Faithfully" and "Keep on Runnin'," the latter from Journey's 1981 album, Escape. The gimmick with Valenti is that he sounds like the band's most famous singer, Steve Perry, but looks like Perry, too.
His presence is a bit creepy, though the fault does not lie with Valenti. He has worked hard at sounding and physically resembling Perry, and has turned those "skills" into a cover show called Hugo: The Ultimate Journey Tribute. Had the band used Valenti once in concert, fine, but still odd. But two in a row?
The ultimate experience is that Journey is using someone who sounds and looks like Perry to somewhat sell tickets. Fans would love to see Perry back with the band, but Journey's tunes just make it difficult for singers to do the tunes for decades on end. Both Perry and Pineda have been at least rumored to have struggled with vocal cord problems.
Perry and the rest of the band have had off-stage issues, and them ever performing again appears unlikely. That said, Perry is still alive and seemingly in good health. Journey has basically said, "Well, we can't give you Steve, but how about this guy who looks like the guy who is still living?"
It is almost as if Journey is willing to become a cover band of themselves. Or worse, a realistic version of a touring karaoke experience. Hugo Valenti has never been a part of the band officially, mind you, but he looks and sings like a person who was. Hopefully, he is getting paid to do a couple of songs at each show, as he has put a lifetime into honing Steve Perry's craft.
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