Bon Jovi is a band that has been rocking it since the eighties and they are still doing it. They have been touring huge arenas and putting on over two hour long shows that will leave you breathless and singing along to all of their hits from Slippery When Wet up to their latest album What About Now. The band came out to a roaring applause at 8:41 as blue and white strobe lights lit up the stage and the band members jumped right into it with “Lost Highway”.
Bon jovi is a hard rock band that started out in the glam scene of the eighties and has always figured out a way to change and mature with the times without losing their sound or image. They have branched out to dabble in country and pop but have always managed to retain their trademark rock sound. This is what made them so successful in the first place and why they are still one of the biggest arena rock bands around.
This show was a bit different from previous ones in that there was no smoke or pyro and Jon Bon Jovi did not venture into the crowd as he does during some of their other concerts. Instead they used a massive network of lights and video screens to make the show more rock-show worthy and it definitely was. At one point during the song “Bad Medicine” the screens above the stage lit up to display images of people doing the type of gyrating that was popular in music videos produced by Bon Jovi and other bands in their heyday.
The band kept the crowd on their feet with songs like “Army of One” and “Bad Medicine”. They also performed some ballads to slow things down a bit but they never lost the crowd’s attention. The encore of the night was a powerful performance of “Livin’ On A Prayer” and the crowd loved it.
Jon Bon Jovi is an incredible showman and still has a lot of youthful energy to bring to his shows. He is an expert at crowd control and knows how to get the audience involved. He still has a great voice that carries all of the anthems with ease and is even able to hit some of the higher notes during some of their bigger songs such as Runaway and Bad Medicine. The rest of the band sounded tight and showed true musical chemistry with each other. Lead guitarist Phil X did a great job filling in for Richie Sambora and had some truly killer guitar solos. Bassist Tico Torres and drummer Hugh McDonald also gave outstanding performances.