Hey Tenorcat: Speaking of that period, I saw Journey (the pre-Steve Perry version) at Santa Cruz Civic in about 1977 and they were way late coming out, then did a pretty short set (like 45 minutes). We couldn't believe it was over.  They disappeared for about 8 minutes while the crowd shouted for more.  They came out looking quite happy and excited and played two songs with more gusto. They went away, came back in another 8 minutes or so, again looking very happy to be back on stage.  This went on for 3 encores.  We were SURE they were sucking up huge lines of blow backstage and they NEEDED it to get pumped up. 

BTW, when they were playing and not ruining their sinuses, they were very good, with Neil Schon being his outstanding self and Ansley Dunbar a dynamo on the skins.