Marco Mendoza, Fred Coury, Carmine Appice 

As far as the Neal Schon Band Show it was NOT a Journey Show. At moments it was extremely heavy.This was a show of great musicians playing some great music and songs.

The first thing I noticed was that Neal was just a member of the band who just wanted to play. No egos anywhere! Sure he was out front for some stellar shredding but everyone here got to shine. More than capable lead singer Keith St.John even stepped aside for two songs to let Marco Mendoza take the spotlight.

 
Marco & Keith St.John

Marco fronted the band on "Hole in my Pocket" and the Stevie Wonder classic "Higher Ground". Marco even gave us a taste of The Trio as I felt I was back at La Ve Lee for a few minutes. Marco got a great reaction from the crowd as there were wide eyes as he used his "vocal percussion" on them. Neal's son Miles had his moments too as he added more Schon family guitar sounds. More than enough times the Schon's traded leads back and forth. Youth was served stage left as Miles' pal John Varn played keys. Three songs were played from Neal's solo CD 'Piranha Blues".



Prairie Prince who played on that CD also held the fort down on this set as the longtime Bay Area pal of Neal kept the band in check on the drum kit. Higher moments included St. John on Led Zeps' 'Immigrant Song' and the array of different projects Schon has to pull from including Hagar, Schon, Aaronson & Shrieve. The packed Coach House enjoyed the show from beginning to end.