House of Blues - Tribute to Journey

As this weekend was filled with many Disney adventures for us, we started our long Disney weekend with a unique beginning, which was a concert! Matt got 6 tickets (Matt, Anna, Neil, Shannon, myself and IF I had a date) for Departure performing a Journey tribute. Now if you know me at all, you probably know my favorite karaoke song is "Don't Stop Believing" and well ever since then I've been a pretty big Journey fan. Needless to say I couldn't wait for this!

House of Blues is the venue located in Downtown Disney for those of you who don't know. Upon arrival, we had about 30 minutes before doors opened and went down to Wolfgang Puck Express for a quick bite to eat. Each of us choose a different pre-made sandwich (made fresh daily) which were pretty good and filling for our night!

House of Blues is a pretty awesome venue, it's kind of like an old wood mill feeling of a building. Inside holds probably a couple hundred people and includes an upstairs. The venue has three bars downstairs and it's set up with multiple levels to stand and watch. Doors opened at 7 and the music was to start at 8. Upon entering we checked out the bar scene, which to my disappointment didn't have any specials. Mixed drinks were $7 bucks but in honesty, they were half liquor so it was a good Disney price for what you got.

We walked around trying to find a good spot to hang out and one where we could potentially sit or lean up against something. At 8 o'clock the warm up band came out which were the Mike's.

Two guys (Mike and Mike) came out with an electric guitar and acoustical guitar to sing some old classics. Now when I say old, these were really old because well we had no idea of most of the songs. Personally I was pretty disappointed with the Mike's as it was hard to hear the words they were singing.

After a while and some setting up, Departure came out opening with a Journey song I actually didn't know but followed up with classics such as "Don't Stop Believing", "When the Lights Go Down" and "Faithfully". The crowd roared with the classic songs and couples sweetly danced to Faithfully.

We made some friends while there, had some more drinks and enjoyed the music. Departure did a great job representing Journey, sporting some awesome clothes (LOVED the 'MERICA shirt) and honestly sounded just like Journey. I believe the crowd was really pleased and our Disney weekend started with a bang!! In the words of Journey and fitting for Disney "Don't Stop Believing, Hold on to that Feeling" summed up our night.