4 weeks ago
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! Read more...
Review: Bon Jovi - Wells Fargo Center 3-2-11
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Thanks for the link Imp...
It Happened Last Night: Bon Jovi and the Teleprompter
Apparently the video device is not just for heads of state
Last night, on the occasion of his 49th birthday, Jon Bon Jovi gave a rousing performance in front of a way beyond sold out room at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia. He played all of his hits, he played them quite well—which is to say that he played them exactly the way they sound on the Bon Jovi Greatest Hits CD he released last November, which is the same way he played them at every other show on every other tour in recent memory—and the crowd roared in thunderous appreciation.
But did it bother anybody else that the man used a teleprompter? Sorry, make that four teleprompters. At least.
As soon as the lights went down at 8:30 p.m. last night, to the sound of 20,000-plus people screaming like it was the Rapture, the first thing I noticed from my nosebleed seat behind the stage (note that when they market a show as “360-degree end stage”, this means that you might be sitting behind Jon Bon’s cute butt), were the video screens displaying the scrolling words to “It’s My Life,” placed so that no matter where he decided to sprint to on stage, he’d have a clear view of the lyrics he wrote.
Now, the use of the teleprompter throughout the show wasn’t as shocking as Motown legend Diana Ross lip-syncing at the Borgata or a decrepit Roger Waters using pre-recorded music and vocal tracks in his extraordinary 2010 staging of The Wall.
And teleprompters aren’t anything new outside of the State of the Union spectrum. An elderly Frank Sinatra made use of one, as did the heroin-addled Jerry Garcia. And scatterbrained Bob Dylan. And crazies Axl Rose and Brian Wilson.
But Jon Bon Jovi is a young, sober, perfectly sane man who should be able to remember the words without prompting, don’t you think? Sing it with me, Jon: Take my hand, and we’ll make it, I swearrrr / Whooah, livin’ on a prayer… Livin’ on a prayer. It’s not that hard.
Granted, I am 13 years his junior (don’t worry, Jon, you’re still a whole lot better looking) but I can damn well sing “Wanted: Dead Or Alive” perfectly from beginning to end every time. I could even do it after a few beers. Or several. And I’m not the one who wrote the song. And I’m not the one who has performed it thousands of times and made tens of millions off of doing so in scores of cities the world over.
Okay, so it’s not exactly a crime against humanity. I’ll give you that. And no, it’s not going to stop me from holding up my Bic during “Bed of Roses.”
But it is illustrative of the real problem here, which is this: the predictability of so-called “Rock and Roll.” Gone are the wild days of sex, drugs, decimated hotel rooms, and, you know, that old concept known as creativity. Instead, Bon Jovi is to the music scene what Olive Garden and Applebee’s are to restaurants, what Dan Brown and Jackie Collins are to the literary world. And that’s a shame.
source Read more...
Bon Jovi - Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia 3-2-11
No, not a review, sorry. When I find one, I'll post it, promise. Just some pictures I found from last night. Wish I had been able to go. Sadly, I think my run of concerts is done for this tour. Unless they decide to come to western New York that is.
Anyway, here are the pictures.
Enjoy and don't forget to click on them, like magic, they get slightly bigger!!
Cake anyone?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Yup, as posted on WMMR's Facebook page... it's Jon's birthday cake!!
Yum... now where'd I put my fork?
Happy Birthday HRH!!
Forty-Nine years ago the world was graced with your presence. Your music and your heart have made this crazy world a much better place, for me anyway. I can't say thank you enough.
Happy Birthday Jon... have a great show tonight in Philly!!
Review: Bon Jovi at TD Garden, Boston 3/1/11
Loud and fast rules the night for Bon Jovi at TD Garden
Someone had to say it, and Jon Bon Jovi decided he would be the first to do so.
“I’m like Viagra for women out here,’’ he boasted last night at TD Garden, drawing deafening applause and approval from the ladies, many of whom had been pawing at him on the eve of his 49th birthday.
That joke — no doubt recycled night to night — came toward the end of Bon Jovi’s sold-out show at the Garden, but it wrongly implied the band’s appeal lies solely in its swaggering frontman. It doesn’t. Judging from the solid and hard-driving performance the Jersey rockers delivered over 2 1/2 hours, it was clear this band works hard to stay on top.
Theirs is a tough balancing act between arena-ready nostalgia and the fact that they are still commercially viable. For every monster ’80s hit (“You Give Love a Bad Name,’’ “Bad Medicine’’), there were newer ones lurking in the set list (“Lost Highway,’’ “I Love This Town’’), and they all jelled surprisingly well.
If the songs had a common thread, it was the band’s conviction to play them all at full throttle. It is not a slight to say bombast is Bon Jovi’s stock-in-trade, from Richie Sambora’s spiraling guitar riffs to the video screens that needlessly projected fireworks during a song already over the top (“Keep the Faith’’).
The band members were good sports, too. When their soundboard short-circuited and temporarily rendered the band completely inaudible, Jon hammed it up with a little tap dance and sulked on the lip of the stage. Any notion of an acoustic set was ruled out 10 minutes later.
Louder and faster, in fact, were actually preferable to the more solemn attempts at reverence.
When Jon turned introspective on a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,’’ he seemed ill at ease with the song’s soft-spoken charm. (And the poor guy’s heartfelt faces were, unbeknownst to him, nearly upstaged by the mugging women behind him grasping at his derriere.)
Other times, the comfort and camaraderie of a band that has been together so long were palpable.
Fist-bumps aside, it was genuinely moving to see Jon and Sambora soak up the adulation after “Wanted Dead or Alive.’’
And in case you could not tell they were having as much fun as the audience, there was mutual catharsis to be had in the wide-open call-and-response of “Livin’ on a Prayer.’’
source Read more...
Happy Birthday Jon Bon Jovi...
From BonJovi.com
March 1, 2011
Today, March 2nd, is Jon Bon Jovi’s birthday! Jon will be celebrating his birthday this evening with a show at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia! You can be in on Jon’s birthday celebration even if you’re not going to the show tonight.
US/CANADA FANS: Call & leave Jon a voicemail message for his birthday! Call 1-201-984-5711 and leave your best birthday greeting.
UK FANS: You may also call and leave Jon a birthday message! Call 0208 8206662 and leave a voicemail after the beep.
Fans around the world: In honour of Jon’s birthday today we ask that you make a donation to Jon Bon Jovi’s SOUL Foundation. All currencies are accepted and every donation is appreciated. Even small donations go a long way when it comes to combating homelessness. Visit Jon’s birthday donation page to make a donation. Visit the SOUL Foundation’s website to learn more about the foundation’s mission and work to help those in need.
Happy birthday, Jon!
It's Oscar Sunday...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
And in honor of Hollywood's most glamorous night, I give you one of the couples who made the worst dressed list way back in 1991...
Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, what were you thinking?!
Let us all be thankful that his fashion sense has improved 1000% over the years... LOL Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
