Maybe you like your subway buskers unplugged, strumming an acoustic and providing a background lullaby to your otherwise tense commute — something you can easily tune out with a light, walking daydream or your own in-ear tunes. But sometimes the city has other plans for you. Sometimes the city wants to shred. Sometimes you gotta take those AirPods out, stop livin' in a lonely world, and let the Journey cover band do its one thing.
And there is indeed only one thing a Journey cover band is here to do —even if, as is the case below, that Journey cover band is just one man with a backing track — and that is deliver a scorching rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" that's so tight you'll wonder what's taking Meadow so long to park that goddamn car.
Sure, you can stay in your own little world, act unimpressed, like that guitar shredding solo isn't making you feel alive. You can ignore the goosebumps that burst forth from your arm skin upon that opening keyboard riff. You can pretend that your heart is just beating a little faster because of that coffee you're holding, and not the pure '80s guitar sound being directly shot into your veins. You can fold your arms and demand more of this city and its buskers. But somewhere in there you know that this classic rock hit is just the thing to shake your spirit alive, and maybe even connect you with your fellow New Yorkers. This song — love it or loathe it — is familiar to everyone, and as such it's a connector in a city of loners all hiding somewhere in the niiiiiiight.
Listen, you don't have to like it, you just have to feel it. Sadly, the woman who took this video on Tuesday night at the 34th Street–Herald Square station was decidedly not feelin' it, and delivers just a short — but perfect — clip of the scene capturing every possible feeling one could have when encountering this in the subway system. Thank you Journey cover man, please do go on and on and on.
