I'm not really a web/php programmer, but my (humble) experience really was like the cliche -- the limiting factor was the db and not the scripting language.

(I'm right now relearning css, javascript, dom etc. The present place is getting to be a bit non-challenging and boring. And I promised myself I'd work hard to do interesting things the rest of my life.)

Edit: I might add my 2c. I have no problem with Java, really. It is like a simplified C++. It is just boring.