It's the Journey not the Destination

Hello, and welcome to the second consecutive wet Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 3rd.

This week was a good bucket list week. First off, Othello was in town at Warroad RiverPlace for a one-night-only show featuring a Shakespearean theater company from the United Kingdom.

I've seen Shakespearean plays before, but this was the first time I had seen a Shakespearean play performed in the traditional sense, i.e., male-only actors playing both male and female roles. The place was packed, and I had a second-row seat. Shout out to my friend. Nancy, who suggested I sit up close so I could hear everything. 

Yowza, that Shakespearean language is quite a linguistic workout. As someone said to me, it was like listening to a foreign language. I'm not gonna lie, that Shakespearean came strong out the gate when the performance started. At one point I looked at my watch, and it was only 7:15pm. Only 15 minutes of Shakespearean had already felt like 90 minutes after a long day of steady meetings, last-minute kid shuttling to and from activities, and no time for dinner. I wasn't sure I would have the mental stamina to make it to 9:30pm. Fortunately, after having a good laugh of shared reality at intermission with other theatergoers, I was good to go for the second act and sailed through all the way to the end.

The second bucket list item came as a complete surprise. Thursday afternoon, my friend texted, "Hey I have extra tickets to the Journey concert in Grand Forks tomorrow night. Do you wanna come?"

Do I wanna come? Of course, I wanted to go! When I saw the Facebook ads for Journey's concert first come out, I didn't even bother trying to buy a ticket. Who doesn't love Journey? I assumed tickets would sell out within minutes of Ticketmaster gates opening.

As much as I yearned to attend their Final Frontier concert (and especially so, since it sounded like THE LAST TOUR EVER), I scratched it off the bucket list. So it was an extra fabulous, a super-ultimate thrill, to get the invitation from my friend who did have tickets.

I'll tell you right now. The concert was fabulous and absolutely worth the late-late-night drive back to Wannaska.

"Did you know that the lead singer is some Asian guy they found off YouTube?" My friend asked me.

No, I didn't know. I had been looking forward to seeing Steve Perry in the flesh, but it was okay, I could pivot. The Filipino singer, Arnel Pineda, was nothing short of excellent. He jumped out on the stage, waving his microphone, inviting the audience to engage. He had great spunk and verve. My friend thought that he was going to be a young guy. Google told us later that he is actually 59 years old. While I missed Perry, I came to appreciate Pineda's sound and how he added his personality and style to the songs. Fun fact: He joined the band in 2007. Where have I been and how did I not know?

We were ready to see 80-year-old band members up there. And while Neal Schon (the last original member to remain throughout the group's history) and Jonathan Cain were actually in their 70s, they did not disappoint. These "old guys" held court for 2.5 hours, wowing the crowd with their talent and instrumental riffs on guitar, keyboards, and harmonica.

They started their playlist with a couple of familiar songs. And then launched into some songs I hadn't heard before. Admittedly, there was a lull there, at about an hour into the set, when my friend and I both started yawning. We thought, "Ohh, good grief, we're ready to go to bed. Are we gonna make it to 10:30?"

Pineda did all he could to excite the crowd and get them to stand up, jump and clap, or wave. At one point, he even ran all the way around the entire Alerus Center to high-five folks and drum up some excitement. For all his hopping and microphone stand twirling, a good 30-40% of those staunch, sensible North Dakota audience remained stalwart, seated, their arms crossed, hands tucked securely in their armpits, with legs crossed. Of this bunch, a good half swayed or nodded. However, I noted that when the stage lights panned across the wave of people, you could see mirth and a twinkle in everyone's eyes. My friend and I joked that this is what North Dakotans having a good time looks like and hoped someone backstage would explain to the hopping Pineda that the crowd really was loving the show. 

Towards the end of the playlist, when all of the classics were being played - "Wheel in the Sky" (1978), "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (1983), "Any Way You Want It" (1980),  and "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981) - the familiar tunes were enough to rouse the crowd, and maybe sixty percent, possibly seventy percent, of the audience did stand up. A few even jumped around. One lady threw her red, white, and black leather jacket at Pineda, who donned it for a song before throwing it back into the crowd.

The experience of witnessing greatness was worth it. It is an impressive feat that this band has 53 years of creating and performing music . They recorded and released between 150 and 200 original songs, had 15 albums, 19 Top 40 hits, 6 of which landed on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. They produced truly timeless music.

It's also worth noting a small irony. When I was in high school, I made the choice to attend an Eric Clapton concert instead of my senior prom. Last night was homecoming in Wannaskaland. I had originally planned to go to the football game and support my daughter's first homecoming dance with lots of parental cheer. When I asked my daughter if I could go (she said yes), I jumped at another chance to skip a formal high school dance for a rock concert performed by music legends.