Concert Review
Steve Augeri Band
The Bears Den
Inside Seneca Niagara Casino
Niagara Falls, NY
Friday May 3, 2013
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
Friday evening, the Bear’s Den inside Seneca Niagara Casino came alive with the sounds of former Journey frontman Steve Augeri. Augeri was at the helm in Journey from 1998-2006 and since then has formed The Steve Augeri Band. The band included powerhouse drummer Michael Morales as well as former Valentine members keyboardist Craig Pullman and bassist Gerard Zappa. Also in the regular band is guitarist Adam Holland another former Valentine member who was unable to make the show. Have no fear as Steve brought in Brooke St. James of Tyketto fame to fill in admirably on guitar. Background singers Erica Lozzo and Sally Blandon helped to enhance the show.
The show started with the lights dimmed as Steve walked onstage alone with an acoustic guitar and went into the old Sam Cooke standard “A Change Is Gonna Come”. “Chain Reaction” was up next as that brought the band out to the stage as the show took off from there. Journey classics “Stone In Love”, “Lights” as well as a mixing in a recent solo tune entitled “Hours In The Day” followed.
The set list featured all the Journey’s greatest hits one would expect. One cool aspect was how the band played “Higher Place” and “Kiss Me Softly” both off the Arrival album which was the first Journey album to feature Augeri.
The set ended with heavyweight songs “Don’t Stop Believin” and “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’” with the latter including a snippet of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and featured the skill of drummer Morales.
Steve Augeri stated in a recent interview with us (click here for interview) “All in all they’re really looking for a vocalist that sang with Journey and they’re expecting to hear the Journey songs that they love”. I think that most of Augeri’s fans would had loved to had heard some Tall Stories and Tyketto material tossed in for good measure. It would have only been fitting on the latter with Tyketto guitarist St. James in attendance.
Set List
A Change Is Gonna Come
Chain Reaction
Stone In Love
Hours In The Day
Lights
Higher Place
Kiss Me Softly
Open Arms
Send Her My Love
Wheel In The Sky
Faithfully
Don’t Stop Believin’
Lovin Touchin Squeezin
Any Way You Want It
Encore
Be Good To Yourself
Separate Ways
Special thanks to Tony Astran for allowing us to review the show
