Stone in love.

I accomplished a major life goal.

Yes. I finally saw Journey.

Mr. Wonderful had seen them twice, post-Steve Perry. He told me we'd be seeing the best karaoke show in the world.

But, alas, no!

Journey's new lead singer is the real deal. The band found "the thriller from Manila" on YouTube. Yep. Arnel Pineda was fronting a band in his homeland of the Philippines and Neal Schon saw them on YouTube.

While we were waiting for the band to come on, we noticed that the entire row in front of us was filled with Filipinos of all ages. A few rows in front of that, there was a row of Filipinos with banners and signs.

I had heard that when Mr. Pineda landed the gig with Journey that it was big news for a month in the Philippines. The folks we saw at the show obviously weren't familiar with the music, but it was like they were watching an Olympian represent their country.

The couple in front of us was, well, really cute. She spent the entire show text messaging on her phone that had a picture of a rooster as the wallpaper. He took photos of the concert pretty much nonstop, which was a chore because I don't think he topped 5'3".

In a crowd filled with people in varying stages of inebriation reliving their misspent youth, singing at the top of their lungs along to songs that probably accompanied many a back-seat deflowering, it was touching to see this outpouring of pride from folks who obviously have no personal affiliation with the music or the singer they came to support. It made me happy.

And Journey? Kicks some serious ass. Jonathan Cain plays, like, 27 instruments. The band sounds even better than you remember. The new lead singer is amazing.

And I totally need to score a pic of a rooster for my phone's wallpaper.