Journey/Tokyo,Japan 2.6.2017

Looking back, JOURNEY’s Japan tour was like a dream. With their unfading performance and a tsunami of super-famous songs, they changed the first week of February 2017 in Japan. It’s been about half a month since then. Live albums that savor that vivid “dream” have continued to appear, and finally the big decision board has been released (almost). This work is a live album that is the culmination of the “February 6, 2017: Nippon Budokan” performance. There are three titles released this week, so let’s organize them here. ・February 1: Osaka Castle Hall “OSAKA 2017” ・February 2: Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium ・February 4: Xebio Arena Sendai “SENDAI 2017” ・February 6: Nippon Budokan [This work] ・February 7: Nippon Budokan “BUDOKAN 2017 2ND NIGHT” A total of five performances over seven days. The group shook the Japanese archipelago with a two-day weekend schedule, but all concerts except the Nagoya concert were confirmed to be apex recordings. Among them, “Nippon Budokan: First Day” included in this work is the fourth audience album. The quality is truly superb. Since the local performance album “SENDAI 2017” with its superb sound was released at the same time, it cannot be called “the tour No. 1” lightly, but it is definitely “the best of this day”. Last week, it was also reported as part of the four-disc set “LIVE BUDOKAN 2017”, and its superb sound was very well received. The quality of this work is amazing, and the “ringing” of the solid bass is particularly glossy and rich. Melody-oriented bands like JOURNEY tend to focus on the extension of the mid- and high-pitched sounds, but it is the bass that gives the songs a sense of scale and dynamism. The bass can be felt at a “vibration” level, which is why the mid- and high-pitched sounds are even more dazzling. Of course, this is in comparison with “LIVE BUDOKAN 2017”, and it’s not a sound with a particularly prominent bass. The mid-high range is beautiful, of course, and the crystal clear feeling is a given. In short, the sound is beautiful and troublesome in all ranges. The JOURNEY depicted by that sound is also wonderful. This Tokyo performance was not this work, but the complete reproduction of “ESCAPE” and “FRONTIERS” on “February 7th (2nd day)” seemed to steal the topic, but that doesn’t mean that the “super luxurious greatest hits” are bad. This is also based on the two great masterpieces of “ESCAPE” and “FRONTIERS”, but in addition, there are three songs from the masterpiece “INFINITY” – “Lights”, “La Do Da”, and “Wheel in the Sky”, as well as “Any Way You Want It”, “Only The Young”, and “Be Good To Yourself”, and other super masterpieces from the golden age that could not be heard at the reproduction night. Combined with the natural flow freed from the album composition, it is 1 hour and 52 minutes in which the beautiful melody continues to shine to the fullest. Perhaps many people will pay attention to the world’s first “ESCAPE” and “FRONTIERS” complete reproduction concert, but this work is an even more luxurious “Greatest Hits” the day before. The band is in a tense and motivated condition before the historic challenge, but the performance is dazzling because it is “as usual”. In later years, only the reproduction of the masterpiece may be talked about, but that was never the only JOURNEY in 2017. The apex record of a concert with a higher degree of completion than a historic night. Live at Budokan, Tokyo, Japan 6th February 2017 TRULY PERFECT SOUND(from Original Masters) Disc 1 (49:31) 1. Introduction 2. Separate Ways 3. Be Good To Yourself 4. Only The Young 5. Stone in Love 6. Any Way You Want It 7. Guitar Intro. 8. Lights 9. Keyboard Solo 10. Open Arms 11. Who’s Crying Now Disc 2 (62:33) 1. MC Intro. 2. Chain Reaction 3. La Do Da 4. Drum Solo 5. Guitar Solo 6. Wheel in the Sky 7. Piano & MC Intro. 8. Faithfully 9. Don’t Stop Believin’ 10. La Raza del Sol 11. Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ 12. Band Introduction