Journey will play New Jersey in February

I never saw them live but I always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the band Journey. Maybe for a dumb reason. Their best song in my opinion was used in the final scene of one of my favorite television shows of all time.

As Tony Soprano sits in that booth at Holsten’s in Bloomfield with his wife and son waiting for his daughter to show up we hear the desperate hopefulness of “Don’t Stop Believing” on the jukebox. Sopranos creator David Chase once painstakingly explained how the song was picked.

Chase said Journey’s small town girl and city boy represented Carmela and Tony. And taking the midnight train going anywhere in Chase’s mind represented that these two had no real options in life other than the life Tony fell into.

As any Sopranos fan knows, when Journey’s sound cut off in an odd midsentence and the screen went black none of us knew what to think for a few moments. As the weeks, months and years went by we realized Tony was gone.

One song is a dumb reason for liking a band, right? Well Journey had a ton of hits.

“Faithfully”

“Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”

“Open Arms”

“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”

“Who’s Crying Now”

Oh, and they’re coming to New Jersey!

While the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famers have been doing a Las Vegas residency it has been announced that Journey will go on the road for the first time since 2018.

And the band will perform at Prudential Center in Newark on February 27, 2022. If you can’t make that show right here in the Dirty Jerz, look for them four nights sooner in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center on February 23.

Tickets for general public go on sale through Ticketmaster Friday November 19 at 10 a.m., but you can find tickets right now on sites like StubHub and Vivid Seats.

By the way, it’s said that the first half of the tour will have special guest Billy Idol, and since the Philadelphia and New Jersey shows are second and fourth on the tour you have a good chance of catching a little “Rebel Yell.”

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.