Former Journey frontman Steve Perry stepped out of a time machine Sunday night in St. Paul, performing with alt-rock band the Eels in his first live appearance since 1995. It was a fitting match: the Eels are most known for their ’90s hit “Novocaine For The Soul,” and Perry walked out looking like he stepped off the set of Seinfeld, wearing a black blazer and jeans.
But the voice… the voice is still there.
The reclusive Perry belted out three songs for the Fitzgerald Theater crowd: the Eels’ “It’s A Motherfucker,” and surprisingly, two Journey classics, “Open Arms” and “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin.'”
Perry sounded pretty good for a guy who hadn’t sung in a public live setting in nearly 20 years. His last show with Journey came in 1991, and the 65-year-old suffers from arthritis, had hip-replacement surgery in 1998, and reportedly had two melanoma-removal surgeries in 2013.
And while we all like to bitch about people recording live shows, we’re super glad Paul Frank was on hand to capture this one, all 11 minutes of it.
Who knows when it will happen again.
Check it out below…
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