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REVIEW: GREENSBURG, INDIANA, SEPT. 20th, 2008
by Jeff Matheus, Indianapolis, IN

Just got back this morning from Greensburg, Indiana, where my wife and I attended the AFJP show at the Tree City Fall Festival. What a great time and an EXCELLENT show! The Asia line-up of Payne/Downes/Govan/Slade was always one of my favorite live bands to see in concert. The new line-up of Payne/Govan/Schellen/Norlander takes things even one notch higher, with a more unpredictable set, better vocal harmonies (I didn’t know Jay sang!), and tons of positive energy coming from the “new guys”, Jay & Erik (this was my first time seeing Asia with either of them.)

Greenburg is only about an hours drive, but my wife and I decided to make a day of it and got to the fest early. What immediately struck me it that Greensburg looks like a throwback from another time, with a lot of old buildings and country shops that look like they came from a 1950’s Jimmy Stewart movie. Walking around the fest at about 1 pm, there were not many people and it seemed sort of like a small town arts & crafts show. I wondered for a minute if we hadn’t gone to the wrong festival, but then we found the stage and saw some AFJP flyers. I’ll admit that I was slightly worried that this might not be the right place or “crowd” for a JP-lead rock show. This was a quiet little town, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Guthrie’s guitar was jus about the loudest thing that ever happened there. : ) Anyway, after a while we left the fest to find some dinner and relax a bit before the show. Most of the Restaurants were closed on Saturdays (huh?), and our culinary choices were one Pizza Place and one Hot Wings place - I’m serious, the phone book for Greensburg is about as thin as a magazine…but I digress. : )

By the time we got back to the fest, closer to show time, there were now more booths, and a LOT more people. I now started to see some classic rock t-shirts in the crowd (I spotted Pink Floyd, Journey, Styx, Chicago, Queen, etc.), so it was now starting to look a little more like a crowd that might appreciate JP and the guys. Through sheer luck we walked up near the stage just as some other folks were leaving and quickly scored two FRONT ROW SEATS! We were pleased to say the least! I soon spotted Guthrie standing off to the side of the stage area smoking a cigarette. I went over and chatted with him and he remembered me from a previous show. I was just about to interrogate him for info on the upcoming GPS and AFJP albums when John Payne walked by. He said “Hey, how ya’ doing you Rascal” and gave me a hug. I had organized the Indianapolis AAA show years earlier, and had met him at many other shows as well, so it’s nice to see that I was still remembered. We spoke briefly, but it was getting close to showtime and he and the others need to go get prepared for the show…My wife and I then sat through one of the local warm up bands (sort of a Hootie & the Blowfish-type group, not really my style), and then before AFJP came on they trotted out the Winners of their “Miss Tree City Fall Festival” beauty pageant to talk for a while. They definitely were not the usual plastic-looking Pagent types (a big plus in my book!), and I talked a bit with their cute “Miss Congeniality” after the show, and found her to be friendly and, as you would expect, very congenial!…Don’t tell my wife I said she was cute. :   )

Anyway, after the local beauties left the stage and the National Anthem was sung, “Asia Featuring John Payne” finally hit the stage, though the MC introduced them as simply “Asia”.

The show began with Erik Norlander playing a spacy synth intro, to which the other guys soon joined in - this then lead into a powerful “Long Way From Home” from Silent Nation. It was obvious from song one that the band was tight, rehearsed and in top form, and I soon noticed that Erik was smiling from ear to ear like this was the coolest gig he’s ever had (and his other band, The Rocket Scientists, are pretty cool in their own right.)

OK, here is the set list as best I can remember. The exact running order is a little hazy, but these were definitely the songs played. I’ve put some comments next to each song, and will have a few comments about after the show after that….

SET LIST

Long Way From Home (with a new spacy keyboard intro by Erik! Jay’s drums were THUNDERING, too!)

Who Will Stop the Rain (best live version I’ve heard yet. JP’s vocal? Wow!)

Silent Nation (great version w/a longer solo from Guthrie)

Only Time Will Tell (a few missed lyrics, but Erik’s keys sounded great on this one!)

Desire (right as they started the song Guthrie had mega problems with his guitar rig and left the stage briefly leaving Erik to take the solo. But this song is a favorite of mine and I’d never heard it live, and it sounded great even with the guitar missing for most of it.)

Neurosaur (a complex instrumental duet w/ just Erik & Jay. FANTASTIC!)

Days Like These (much better & heavier than the original version )

Different Worlds (John soulfully sang the hell out of this one - GREAT!)

Guthrie guitar solo (very jazzy!)

Go (again, this is one I’ve always liked better sung by JP.)

Heat Of the Moment (as usual, good version played & sang well, but never my favorite of the “orignal Asia” songs. Was surprised to hear this early in the show instead of an encore)

Sole Survivor (a heavier version like the “Live in the USA” DVD - Jay, Erik, and Guthrie just NAILED the “cukoo clock” instrumental break!)

Jay Drum solo (one of my favorite drummers. Incredible solo!)

Military Man (great song, great vocal, great crowd reaction. JP announced that the “MM” single/EP will be released in January.)

Last song/Encore: Free! (A prog epic instead of a familiar hit to close the show??? YES!!! This was incredible!!!! My wife was in heaven, as this is one of her all-time favorite Asia songs. Guthrie somehow recreated the dueling guitars from the studio version all by himself. Too cool!)

The whole show was rousing and energetic, and it’s OBVIOUS that these four guys were having fun and enjoy playing together. The crowd seemed really into them, too. When at concerts I tend to look around occasionally to see how other people are reacting. There were at least a few people there who was obviously already “fans” and knew the JP era songs well enough to sing along, but what was better was to see that there were a lot of younger people who were obviously hearing the band for the first time, and they were clapping along and reacting enthusiastically to many of the songs.

On the GPS and John Payne Fans egroups much has been said about the poor attendance that greeted the band on many of the “Silent Nation” tour stops. When I saw them in Columbus, Ohio on that tour, there were about 100 people present, though they didn’t let that stop them from giving it their all. In Greensburg last night I looked behind me near the end of the show and there must have been 400 people or more actively watching the show, with a few hundred more milling around other parts of the fest who may have caught parts of the show. When the original Asia reunion came to Indianapolis, a much bigger city, they played at a venue that seats 200 and tickets were around $30.00 - so it’s probably safe to assume that only existing “fans” attended that show. AFJP played a free show for twice as many people, and won over many new people who never heard them before (this was obvious at the “meet & greet” after the show)…I’d say that the band are doing quite well for themselves today! I’m glad that I skipped the cash-grab nostalgia tour of the originals and waited for JP’s vibrant new line-up.

After the show John, Erik and Guthrie came out to sign autographs and chat with people. There were people ahead of me in line who were buying their very first Asia CDs and having them signed (they had “Silent Nation”, “Arena”, and “Aria” for sale, so nothing rare or one-of-a-kind) A young lady in line asked my opnion on which CD to start a collection with, I told her to go with “Silent Nation”. When my turn came I asked JP which album would come out first, GPS “Dreamscape” or AFJP’s “Architect of Time”? He said that the GPS album was just about ready to the delivered to Inside Out and would be released first. I wanted to talk some more but there were others behind me in line who were waiting to have their CD’s signed so I decided I shouldn’t take up to much more of John’s time. I wondered why Jay had not come out with the others, but as I was leaving I noticed that he was still up on the stage and was working on his drum kit with tools. Being a fan of many of Jay’s other projects with Billy Sherwood (World Trade, Billy’s “Big Peace” solo album, Conspiracy, and now, Circa:) I wanted to meet him and ask a few questions, but I didn’t want to bother him while he was having equipment malfunctions…so I’ll look forward to meeting Jay somewhere down the road.