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When the press release accompanying the new Journey live CD states that this June 1981 show in Houston is considered to be the band’s best live performance, and you’re talking about a band that has toured, in various configurations, since the 1970s, it’s a bit of an eyebrow raiser. But so too is former frontman Steve Perry’s credit as the producer of the DVD and CD of that concert.

And while I’ll admit that my knowledge of that touring career is a bit limited, from this viewer/listener’s point of view, the publicity blurb on this one pretty much hits the target. With the right crowd, the right band, the right songs and the right mood, this was a great show. The musicianship is off the scale here - while Perry is free to jump around the stage during solos and between songs, his bandmates are putting on one hell of a show without dancing around a lot. Everything you hear is generated by the musicians on the stage, and it’s not a case of “lean on the synth guy to play everything that everyone else can’t” either. This is Journey at the height of not just its popularity, but its crowd-pleasing, arena-filling power.

The concert is presented on two discs: the DVD contains the full, unedited version of the concert (which originally aired in a slightly different form on MTV in 1982), plus a handful of bonus features, while an audio CD presents the complete concert (with some between-song audience interaction banted cut out for time) plus a second encore not seen on the DVD (by that point, the TV cameras had shut down but the sound desk was still rolling tape). The audio has been impeccably remixed and remastered on both discs. The DVD extras are a bit on the thin side, though I’ll admit it was interesting to see the archived interview footage shot before and during the tour; having already adjusted to the addition of Steve Perry to the lineup, the band members talk about the new dynamic brought on by the addition of multi-instrumentalist (but usually keyboardist) Jonathan Cain. There’s also a hilariously early-80s-style TV ad for the Escape album (but, as with so many things from the ’80s you can see on this site, it was probably really cool at the time), as well as the original end credits from MTV’s airing of the concert.

The song selection is a nice chunk of the group’s best-liked pre-Frontiers material, with some songs combined into extended medleys (”Lights” and “Stay Awhile” make a particularly nice, nearly-seamless combination). Naturally, the focus of the set list is on Escape (the album being supported on the road) and the other albums that had featured Perry as lead singer. Longtime fans won’t be disappointed by the selection.

If you’re a Journey fan…well, you probably already got this before I did. If you’re looking for a sterling example of a classic rock show steeped in pure showmanship and musical excellence without the distraction of a big light show and other gimmickry, look no further.