Journey to perform at 2015 Hollywood Bowl opening night concert

City of the Angels, Journey is calling you. The classic rock band will open the 2015 Hollywood Bowl season with a performance with Thomas Wilkins and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on June 20. It will be the band’s first-ever appearance with a full orchestra.

The curtain-raising concert will advance a pop music schedule that’s filling up. Also slated to appear throughout the summer at the landmark outdoor venue are Basement Jaxx, Ed Sheeran, Underworld, Smokey Robinson, Death Cab for Cutie, David Gray, Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club, Sheryl Crow, the B-52s and others.

As for Journey: as always these days, of course, the band will be absent its longtime vocal asset Steve Perry, who long ago stopped performing with the band. In his place, founding members Neal Schon and Ross Valory will be joined by longtime members Jonathan Cain and Deen Castronovo and the miraculously on-spot singer Arnel Pineda.

Close your eyes and Pineda’s a ringer, and as such, Journey’s takes on classics including “Open Arms,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Faithfully” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” sound as bombastically majestic as ever.

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