Journey, Heart, Cheap Trick

Journey returns to the Mid America Center with Heart and Cheap Trick live Tuesday, July 22nd!

Since 1973, Journey has been altering their music and talent while becoming a top touring and recording band. The consistent factor throughout the years has been guitarist Neal Schon, a music prodigy and former Santana member. It wasn’t until the band’s fourth album Infinity, which was dropped in 1978, that they hit it big. The album sold over a million copies within a year. Three more albums were released before Escape in 1981. It was that album which broke them through to the top ranks of pop groups by scoring three Top Ten hit singles: “Who’s Crying Now,” “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and “Open Arms.” The band kept recording until 1986 when after a tour they disbanded. In 1996, there was a Journey reunion in which they released the album Trial by Fire, which featured the Top 20 single “When You Love a Woman.” Other highlights in the band’s career include the track “Remember Me” on the 1998 “Armageddon” soundtrack, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a 30th anniversary tour, both in 2005. This tour will introduce fans to Arnel Pineda, the group’s new lead singer who has stepped in for Steve Augeri. Augeri left Journey in 2006 for medical reasons. It will also promote their most recent recording effort, Revelation. Heart is comprised of sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group found success in the mid-70s with “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,” and “Magic Man,” but engineered a major comeback in the 1980s with hits like “What About Love?,” “Never,” and the chart-topping “These Dreams,” “Nothing at All, ” and “All I Want to Do is Make Love to You.” Heart has been the subject of one of the better episodes of VH1’s “Behind the Music” and has had their music featured in movie soundtracks such as “The Virgin Suicides,” among others. In 1999, Nancy released her first solo album and a year later penned the score to the hit motion picture Almost Famous. Ann has continued to perform and recently participated in the A Walk Down Abbey Road: A Tribute to the Beatles tour. The band returned to recording in 2004 and released a live performance album, Dreamboat Annie Live, in 2007. Cheap Trick has been combining British guitar pop song craft with powerful chords for over 35 years. Drawing from the Beatles, the Who and the Move, they released their self-titled debut album in early 1977 and have scored hits like “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me,” “Voices,” “Dream Police,” and the number one power ballad “The Flame.” They have opened concerts for the Kinks, Kiss, Santana, AC/DC, Queen and The Smashing Pumpkins. The band’s infectious energy, flair for the absurd and music have had a surprisingly long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands throughout the past several decades. Their most recent record effort, Rockford, was released in June of 2006.