Journey: Five Decades of Seattle Concerts

PJ20? P’shaw! Let’s us talk about some J38!

Journey, which plays Saturday night TONIGHT at KeyArena, had their first Seattle tour date in 1974. Back then, they were just a Steve-Perry-less rock/fusion group, opening for the more-popular and more-salaciously-named Climax Blues Band at Moore Theater. Over the years, they grew from backing obscure groups in small venues, to backing well-known groups in large venues, to headlining large venues, back to headlining small venues and now, back to headlining large venues again. There are no second acts in American lives? F. Scott Fitzgerald, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

An exhaustive search of Seattle Times archives nudged these forgotten Journey visits out of the mists of time.

June 8, 1974, Moore Theater.
Opened for Climax Blues Band at Moore Theater
“Individually they were very good, but their tunes just didn’t make it.” (Patrick MacDonald)

October 31, 1975
Opened for Uriah Heep at Seattle Center Arena.

May 28, 1976
Headlined at The Paramount. Thin Lizzy opened.
“The momentum built up in the music was quashed by the intrusion of cliche-ridden, bland lyrics.” (Patrick MacDonald)

October 8, 1976
Shared the bill at Seattle Center Coliseum with Lynryd Skynyrd
“Lynryd Skynyrd pleased the audience by playing all their favorites (the most requested was ‘Free Bird.’).” (Patrick MacDonald)

July 31, 1977
Opened for Emerson Lake and Palmer at Seattle Center Coliseum
“There was a lot of variety crammed into their 50-minute set (no encore) but much of it was lost on the audience who came for EL&P and saved their enthusiasm for them.” (Patrick MacDonald)

May 4, 1979
Headlined at Seattle Center Arena. Bighorn opened.
“They played a good, long show for the near-capacity crowd, emphasizing solid rock without gimmicks, flash, or star tricks.” (Patrick MacDonald)
I must note that the newspaper for that day contained a story about a children’s play being performed in town called “The Revenge of the Space Pandas: or, Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock,” by a promising young playwright named David Mamet.

June 3, 1980
Headlined at Seattle Center Coliseum. The Babys opened.
“Fifteen thousand persons paid $9.50 each to see Journey in its first Coliseum appearance, and got a big show for the money. Journey’s songs always have leaned toward the dramatic, especially since dynamic vocalist Steve Perry joined two years ago, and its staging has gone the same route.” (Patrick MacDonald)

December 6, 1981
Headlined at Seattle Center Coliseum. Red Rider opened. “Despite Perry’s energy…the show never caught fire. The band seemed to be going through the motions most of the time.” (Patrick MacDonald)

March 28, 1983
Headlined at Seattle Center Coliseum. Bryan Adams opened.
“Fire-spouting Roman candles and ear-shattering flashpot explosions punctuated severals songs.” (Patrick MacDonald)

September 13, 1986
Headlined at Seattle Center Coliseum

December 19, 1998
Headlined at Seattle Center Arena (fronted by Steve Augeri.)
“The crowd might have been closer to 2,000, but Journey played with all the volume and emotion it once did before 10 times that many.” (Tom Scanlon)

Journey has since played at The Gorge (1999), and White River Amphitheater (2008), but this is, as far as I can tell, their triumphant return to Seattle–headlining the former Coliseum, KeyArena–which is even bigger capacity than it was in their glory days. Hooray for Journey!