You may not even like Journey and you may have heard Don't Stop ... to death (I think it is an American anthem much like Born in the USA except that it really is uplifting whereas the Boss' sad account is only misunderstood as being uplifting), but can you really stay unmoved by their rags to riches replacement vocalist's unbridled enthusiasm about his new role? In contrast, Steve Perry so often seemed listless, especially in the latter days of Journey, he obviously wasn't enjoying what he was doing anymore, though Perry, in his best moments, had a souful refinement where Arnel Pineda just exudes ... happiness! Maybe in a few years the refinement will come also, he sure has the pipes, this stuff is hard to sing and he is giving his all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o42DB5gLBk
Luckily saw them in the seventies whilst Rolie was in place on the keys... nice version though...
Of course, Rolie had a nice voice and he was a Hammond B-3 old schooler, I loved his groove. The ex-Baby as his replacement did take them to new catchy tunes-heights though.
I agree, Pineda just LOVES being in the band, and it shows. He's a breath of fresh air for them. He can sing as well as Perry, in my book, and he's entertaining. I've shared that clip with others.
I saw the original, pre Steve Perry, Journey when their first LP came out. The radio station I was a DJ at used to do live concerts from its downstairs studio (a converted two car garage.) Journey showed up and played with dual double Marshall stacks and the engineer got in a huge fight with them because they made it near impossible to mix the show fro broadcast. It was deafening in that small room.
My guitarist, Ronni Crooks, did appearances playing with Neil Schon in Germany/Musicmess for Crate Amps. The builder of the custom Les Paul Neal is holding had just delivered it to him at the booth about fifteen minutes earlier. I recall Neil saying he paid over $10,000 for it and had waitd along time for it. He played if for a couple of minutes and then handed it to Ronni and told her to check it out. She strapped it on and then reached into her pocket and pulled out a can of Fingerease string lube and must've sprayed a quarter of the can on his new guitar!! It was dripping off the neck! Neii and the builder's mouths dropped open in shock but Ronni just started wailing on it like nothing was wrong. The heads of Crate were trying to hold back their laughter and later thanked her for pulling that stunt...Crate was made at Neil for having not shown up for a few appearances and locking himself in his hotel room to rum up the bar tab for days (back in his drinking days.)
(http://home.earthlink.net/~mc2/images/RonniCrooks_NeilShonCrateWb.jpg)
In hindsight, of all the AOR bands that reigned, they had something special, I guess it was the West Coast influence. Toto were smarter and Foreigner grittier, Styx schmaltzier, harder and proggier (all at the same time), but Journey had a certain lighthandedness in their approach the others lacked without sounding studio muso'ish like, say, Toto.
I always liked the Latin/Jazz tinged edge to their early music - Santana influenced, obviously... Once Perry got on board they went pure AOR - not knocking it at all - i liked pretty much all of it and most of the spin-off material - Schon's solo stuff, Smith's Vital Information work, et al...