Journey gives fans a farewell soiree in Atlanta before going separate ways

Journey has always been a band for the masses, its radio-friendly earworms still on high rotation on rock stations.

They’ve also been road warriors for decades, with key members Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain grinding it out from arena to amphitheater to stadium.

But this year, the group finally made the call: The lights go out next month for good in their hometown of San Francisco after 100 North American Final Frontier tour dates. Cain, 76, told Rolling Stone that he simply felt it was time to leave the road for good.

Atlanta’s State Farm Arena Monday night was stop No. 80 with 20 more to go, and the place was almost sold out. (In the 12th row, I stood next to Kimberly Euston, who was thrilled to snag a $90 single seat for her 10th and final time seeing the band.)

The setup for the night of 26 songs was simple: three large screens, six band members, minimal frills.

Journey was never a critical favorite. Writers over the years have derided them for sounding too commercial, too formulaic, too melodramatic.

Rolling Stone magazine never placed the band on its cover. They have zero Grammy Awards and a lone nomination for 1996’s “When You Love a Woman.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally inducted them in 2017, 17 years after the band was first eligible.

But none of that mattered on Monday. As Cain said, “We are celebrating 50 years of music, 16 albums, 170 songs from the greatest hits to the deepest cuts.” Dressed in a pinstriped suit, Cain meant business and while he and Schon have had offstage conflicts regarding management of the band and politics, there was zero animus on stage. They are musicians first and foremost.

Indeed, the two-and-a-half hour, 26-song concert was calibrated for fans of all stripes: the casual ones who may only know the biggest songs, the Gen Xers who know their secondary singles releases from pop and rock radio and hard core lovers who own all their albums and know the words to rugged cuts like “Chain Reaction” and “Dead or Alive.”

About a third of the songs, which comprised a good portion of the first hour, were the lesser hits that got some radio airplay but fell short of classic rock canon like opener “Be Good To Yourself” (peaked at No. 9 on the Hot 100), the aforementioned Grammy-nominated ballad “When You Love a Woman” (No. 12) and midtempo “Only the Young” (No .9).

When the band formed in 1973, it wasn’t hunting for radio airplay, opting for a more prog-rock jazz fusion sound prior to the arrival of lead singer Steve Perry in 1977. This meant extended and somewhat indulgent guitar solos for Schon, dressed in a leather jacket and shades evoking a 1980s-era Lou Reed, during songs like “Of a Lifetime,” the first cut from their debut 1975 album, and 1978’s “La Do Da.”

Perry’s arrival shifted the band to a more mainstream sound. For many fans, Perry remains the face of the band despite not touring with Journey for nearly 40 years.

And despite pleas from the band over the years, Perry has steadfastly remained on the sidelines, refusing to reunite under any circumstances, not even a cameo for the current farewell tour.

So Journey has trekked through multiple lead singers on the road. For a decade, Steve Augeri covered lead vocals until he had vocal issues. Jeff Scott Soto only lasted a year.

But in 2007, Schon found Arnel Pineda of the Philippines doing covers of Journey songs on YouTube. A year later, Pineda became their new lead singer and he has remained ever since.

Pineda has performed more than 1,000 shows with Journey including 10 previous stops in Atlanta before Monday’s concert. (That is actually more concerts than Perry ever did with the band.)

The strain of replicating Perry’s operatic vocals, though, has taken a toll. Pineda, in a Rolling Stone article earlier this year, noted that his voice at age 59 isn’t what it used to be, so the band made accommodations to help him out.

While Pineda sang lead solo most of the concert, other band members took over for eight songs. Drummer Deen Castronovo ably sang lead on “Lights,” “Precious Time” and “Keep on Runnin.’” Cain and Castronovo tag-teamed “Anytime” and “Just the Same Way.” Keyboardist Jason Derlatka competently handled “Girl Can’t Help It,” “Of a Lifetime,” and “Suzanne.”

The regular breaks appeared to work for Pineda. He didn’t look or act like someone ready to retire. His K-pop mop-top hair is now gray but otherwise, he was an energy bomb, running around on stage with the joy of a man thrilled to perform with his childhood heroes. He twirled his microphone stand with abandon, trading high-fives with fans in the front row and gleefully running around the floor of the stadium during “Wheel in the Sky.”

Pineda was also able to belt when he needed to, staying in key and hitting the big notes without too much strain.

Journey’s biggest hits were back-loaded to the final hour, with Pineda giving proper emotional credence to “Who’s Crying Now” and “Open Arms” and emulating all the original ad-libs from the original radio version of “Faithfully.”