Review II - Bon Jovi @ Wells Fargo Center 3/2/11

A much nicer review from Philly2Philly...

Bon Jovi and The Boys Celebrate Jon’s Birthday in Philadelphia

Bon Jovi rocked the Wells Fargo Center March 2nd in Philly, and what a night it was! It was Jon’s 49th birthday, so he opened the show with the aptly named ‘Just Older’ from the Crush album. He told the audience : "I came back to Philadelphia for one reason, and one reason only...I couldn't think of a better place to have a birthday party!"

It certainly was a birthday party of the most insane sort- although I kept wishing somebody (like Richie) was going to grab the mic and have the audience sing (unfortunately, he didn’t). Jon hasn’t lost his sense of humor, changing a line in ‘Just Older’ to ‘I’ve still got my hair’ (instead of ‘Tell him I've cut my hair’), making the audience scream with delight.



This year’s tour- Bon Jovi Live 2011 -was to highlight the Greatest Hits, songs we all know and rock out to- Bad Medicine, You Give Love a Bad Name, Lost Highway, along with a few new ones thrown in. And this was a sold-out show- every single seat as far as the eye could see was filled- even behind the stage. Jon, Richie, David and Tico did not disappoint with their usual energy, charisma and musical talent during their 3-hour concert.

Local band Soraia  was introduced by WMMR’s Pierre Robert  and rocked the house with some rough and tough intense vocals and jammin’ bass and drums to get the audience on their feet. I especially liked that the opening act was a Philly band, as Bon Jovi always likes to give the hometown bands a chance to show their gritty stuff.

I love when Jon and Richie Sambora talk to the audience, and they always have such a great time on stage with the band, playing in Philly is like a huge party with thousands of their closest friends. Richie got to take lead vocals in “Lay Your Hands On Me,” where he sounded amazingly sexy. The stage included the circle runway used in the Circle Tour, with a few upgrades, bigger screens and super-cool graphics, some of which Jon actually was able to dance and sing on. Continue around to the front, the circle jutted out into the crowd so even more people had a close-up band experience, with Jon and Richie singing “Diamond Ring” and “I'll Be There For You,” then  drummer Tico Torres and keyboard player David Bryan joined them to sing  “Love For Sale,” and The Who’s “Squeeze Box.” New songs off the Greatest Hits CD (released October 29, 2010) included the previously unreleased “No Apologies,” “The More Things Change,” and encore hit “Blood on Blood.”

The energy of the crowd was barely contained as Jon brought everyone to their feet in a frenzy of “Keep the Faith” shaking the maracas and singing his heart out. As the show came to a close, I was rockin’ out along with everyone else, and went crazy when they came back for a long encore, singing loved and familiar hits, wrapping up with “Livin' on a Prayer,” making the audience sing their hearts out!

With the 24th sold-out show in 25 years, I would say Philly made sure Jon had a very birthday indeed!