Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 29, 2019

Having first Foreigner: Live at the Rainbow '78 and now this Journey release show up in my review queue in quick succession may have subliminally gotten me to think about this, because it kind of suddenly occurred to me how many great bands that initially hit it big in the seventies and/or eighties had absolutely soaring tenors as their lead singers. Probably no one soared higher or more plaintively than Steve Perry, who of course propelled Journey to the top of the charts with several of his “high and mighty” vocal pyrotechnics. In that regard, some may feel absolute pangs of sympathy for Arnel Pineda, the guy who joined Journey circa 2007 to help propel Journey into its future, though it’s more than obvious that at least part of the reason Pineda got the gig is that he could so successfully recreate Journey’s past. Pineda has a voice at times almost eerily similar to Perry’s, which was no doubt part of the calculus in hiring him, and at times you can kind of shut your eyes and basically hear “Perry” sing some of the tunes with which he (i.e., Perry) is so closely associated. All of this said, Journey relies as much on the incredible fury of Neal Schon’s guitar, and Schon is the one constant in what has been a rather “busy” revolving door in terms of people coming and going in the band. Schon is on hand here, along with Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain and Steve Smith, and this “recreation” of two of Journey’s best remembered albums really crackles with incredible energy throughout.

The disc is authored so that you can watch either "album" separately or together as a whole. The complete set list is:

Esc4p3

• Don't Stop Believin' Intro
• Don't Stop Believin'
• Stone in Love
• Who's Crying Now
• Keep on Runnin'
• Still They Ride
• Escape
• Lay It Down
• Dead or Alive
• Neal Schon (Guitar Solo)
• Mother, Father
• Jonathan Cain (Piano Solo)
• Open Arms

Frontiers

• Separate Ways Intro
• Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
• Send Her My Love
• Chain Reaction
• After the Fall
• Faithfully
• Edge of the Blade
• Steve Smith (Guitar Solo)
• Back Talk
• Frontiers
• Rubicon
• La Raza Del Sol
• Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'

Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Journey: Escape & Frontiers — Live in Japan 2017 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Music Group and Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is a rare Eagle Rock Blu-ray release where the video element has some issues, because as can clearly be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, there are not just interlacing artifacts, but what almost look like "jaggies" regularly seen in some upscales. Look, for example, on the cymbal at the far right of screenshot 7 or the keys on the piano in screenshot 9 to get some idea of what I'm talking about. That said, this is an intermittent issue (to my eyes, it's more prevalent during Escape than Frontiers, though you can still see aliasing during Frontiers as well), which is why I'm finding it a bit hard to adequately assess and/or describe. Aside from a somewhat "digital" appearance overall (something which perhaps can be gleaned in several of the other screenshots accompanying this review), detail levels are generally quite good, and in any of the many close-ups, excellent. Stage lighting tends to mask fine detail levels at times, though there are no instances of banding or posterizing that I noticed.

Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Luckily the audio on Journey: Escape & Frontiers — Live in Japan 2017 encounters no weirdnesses similar to the video presentation, and both the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks provide solid accountings of the concert(s), though as expected the surround track significantly opens things up and especially helps to deliver some of the blistering low end from the really impressive rhythm section. Keyboards and guitars both sound clear and bright without ever tipping over into brash territory, and Pineda's voice has no problem dominating the often multilayered backgrounds. There's good recreation of the acoustics of the arena in the surround track as well.

Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements offered on the Blu-ray disc. This DigiPak comes with 2 CDs offering audio of both live recreations of the albums, and there's also an insert booklet featuring an essay by Matt Wardlaw as well as a little production data and a few stills.

Journey: Escape & Frontiers - Live in Japan 2017 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The audio side of this concert is top notch, and any Journey fan will probably love it, even for those who have deemed Steve Perry "irreplaceable". The video element here has some odd anomalies, and so I suggest those interested in a purchase carefully parse the screenshots to get some idea of how this looks.