Concert Review
Journey
An Evening With
Wednesday June 10, 2026
KeyBank Center
Buffalo, NY
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
Journey made what appeared to be their final appearance in town at KeyBank Center Wednesday night. The band has dubbed this tour The Final Frontier Tour and plans to cease touring sometime in 2027. For the crowd of over 13,000 strong it was more like a sing-along at times especially as the evening wore to a close. The crowd grew boisterously as the band saved all the radio gems for the end. One hit after another the crowd ate it up.
The band kicked off with the trifecta of “Be Good To Yourself” quickly followed by “Stone In Love” before delving into a stellar “Ask The Lonely”. A great start to get the crowd going.
The band played for two and a half hours with no intermission. As the set carried on the band seemed to help folks decide when to schedule their own intermission when they went into some lesser known material. The show would have had more flow to it had they mixed in a few familiar songs to compensate. For the diehards who wanted to hear such rarely played songs like “Of A Lifetime” and “After The Fall” they got their wish. I must point out one misstep was by not playing “Feeling That Way” a song which generally always preceded “Anytime” on the radio as well as in concert over the years.
Vocalist Arnel Pineda has been in the band since 2007. He has recorded three albums with the band including the stellar Revelation. The strange thing is how the setlist did not feature any songs from those last three Journey albums. None. Considering his tenure of being the longest serving vocalist in the band, yes even longer that Steve Perry overall, it was just astonishing to see.
One cool aspect was hearing drummer Deen Castronovo sing several songs helping to ease the load from Pineda. It must be pointed out that Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka also sang a couple of songs each. Bassist Todd Jensen rounded out the rhythm section and also sang background vocals.
What can be said about guitarist Neal Schon? No matter what happens with band personnel, he always manages to find excellent musicians to join the band. Schon has been there since day one. He has seen several come and go and some more than once. What about Schon’s performance? Simply as masterful as ever. He stepped into the spotlight for his guitar solo and followed that with perhaps his highlight of the night in “Wheel in the Sky” which had the arena rocking full force.
The band ended out the night with some huge songs such as “Faithfully” which was dedicated to the men and woman of the armed forces. Two of the biggest songs “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Separate Ways”were saved for near the end. “Any Way You Want It” brought the evening to a close.
Cain is celebrating his 45th year in the band and took the time to acknowledge and thank the fans for their love and support and said he will miss you guys.
Journey has done what many bands start out saying who have announced their final tours. They say the tour will run two years into 2027 and that will be it. A good portion of bands have altered their initial tune or changed their song before actually saying goodbye. I don’t think Journey will do that but these days do we ever really know? Especially with the band still performing at this extremely high level. We shall see if they really all go their separate ways when all is said and done. For now they left us with a show to be proud of if it is indeed the final Buffalo show.
Journey Set
Be Good To Yourself
Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Just The Same Way
Girl Can’t Help It
Only The Young
Lights
When You Love A Woman
After The Fall
Of A Lifetime
La Do Da
Drum Solo
Escape
Chain Reaction
Dead Or Alive
Anytime
Piano Solo
Who’s Crying Now
Open Arms
Keep On Runnin’
Suzanne
Guitar Solo
Wheel in the Sky
Faithfully
Don’t Stop Believin’
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
Separate Ways
Any Way You Want It
