Neal Schon shared an article on X claiming that Journey is performing live better than Def Leppard.
The article was recently published in The Mercury News with the title ‘Journey (easily) tops Def Leppard in the battle of classic rock acts.’ The article writer Jim Harrington said Journey dominated their hometown crowd at Oracle Park in San Francisco during the Summer Stadium Tour on August 28.
The excitement was all about Journey, even though Def Leppard was scheduled to headline. After Journey’s powerful 90-minute set, many fans left early during Def Leppard’s performance.
“No doubt, Def Leppard would pay a heavy cost for that decision. The English rock act delivered a fine set of music, but it definitely couldn’t match Journey’s performance on basically any level — including in terms of setlist, energy, musicianship and, most certainly, connection with the crowd,” Harrington wrote in the article.
Def Leppard and Journey’s 23-city tour started on July 6 in St. Louis, Missouri. “We changed the whole set,” Phil Collen previously said about the tour. “You know, there’s a whole screen [production] and we’ve been using pretty much the same stuff for like 12 years. So we’ve changed it completely. The stage show is drastically different. It’s going to take a lot of energy.”
The guitarist continued, “There’s going to be a lot of running around. So I’m working out, trying to get the stamina up and all of that. Vocally, too. You know, I’m having to sing every single day. We did rehearse in L.A. for a two week period and finished with a SiriusXM gig. Production rehearsals in St. Louis will lead up to the first gig.”
“Now, we toured with Journey, I forget exactly what year — my memory is terrible; I think 2018, ’17 or ’18 — and it was awesome. I mean, those songs are timeless. And we just thought that it would be great to reach out to them and see if they wanted to do it again. And, lo and behold, they did,” Rick Allen also told Nikki Blakk of San Francisco’s 107.7 The Bone radio station about touring with Journey.
The tour finishes on September 8 in Denver, Colorado. Cheap Trick will be playing as the support act.
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) August 29, 2024