February 22, 2010: Bombastic Bon Jovi

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion

Guess concert season has officially begun... 2nd show in 7 days!

For someone who wasn't a huge Bon Jovi fan "back in the day", I sure have made up for lost time -- this has got to be the 5th or 6th time I've seen them in the last 10 years or so. They put on such a great show and really get the whole "arena rock" thing. Big. Bombastic.

So last night I headed out to San Jose to meet Leslie (woo hoo! my concert buddy is back in town!!! YAY!) and Emerson for a quick dinner before heading over to the arena for the show. We got to our seats in section 116 (pondering why we always wind up on the left side of the stage) which were right to the side of the stage. Pretty good. The opening act, Dashboard Confessional, hit the stage right at 7:30 -- just as we had finished getting settled in our seats. I know of Dashboard Confessional, but couldn't say I know any of their songs. That said, they were pretty entertaining and had a good opening 40 minute set. I may go pick up some of their stuff.

As we waited in anticipation of the show, the three women sitting in front of us turned around and warned "we might get a little nuts and will probably stand up all night." Works for me. While we waited I studied the stage -- a circle stage with a circle catwalk that brought to mind the U2 stage. Biggest difference between Bon Jovi stage and U2 stage... the seats inside the circle for U2 are General Admission and some of the least expensive tickets, Bon Jovi -- not so much. (We think they cost in the neighborhood of $500!)

But in the tradition of great bombast the band took the stage following an impressive video sequence on the big screens. They kicked off with "Blood on Blood" from New Jersey which was a nice change, then launched straight into "We Weren't Born to Follow" from the new CD. And here I had my second Bon Jovi as U2 moment (yeah, I know -- a little weird, stick with me.) The video screens for this song flashed images of various leaders and icons -- from Gandhi and JFK to Jimi Hendrix and Elvis. The whole "pioneer" leader set, and more socio-political types than rock pioneers. I know Jon Bon Jovi was particularly involved in President Obama's campaign, and there's a quasi-political theme to the song, but it's a little hard to put political consciousness and Bon Jovi together. Lingering bias from the '80s I guess.

The set list was a good mix of old and new (or perhaps old, recent, and new) and not having that life-long connection to the tunes I really enjoy some of the newer stuff that life-long fans aren't as enthusiastic about. I look at it this way -- these guys are in their late 40s/early 50s now, not their 20s, they're not going to have the same world view (hell, do YOU?) Throw in the difference between being rising/dominating stars in the '80s to an older/established band in 2010 and it's just a different vibe over all. I like the grown-up songs I guess. (Yes, I realize this is in contrast to the comments in the previous paragraph.)

So, the set included about half of the new album and it was intermixed well with older tunes. I've said it before, but Bon Jovi is one of the very few "classic" bands I've seen that really SELLS their new material. They go out and perform it with as much energy as the older stuff and EXPECT the crowd to sing along. There's just a cocky confidence about it.

The look of this show was pretty amazing as well. The video screens are REALLY sophisticated -- splitting, flipping, rotating. (Guess that's why there are $500 tickets! Those things can't be cheap!) And gave impressive images. The only weird bit I found was a screen that for most of the show sat behind and BELOW the stage -- I could see it from my seats above and to the side of the stage, but I have no idea how anyone on the floor or looking straight on at the stage could see it. Maybe it's supposed to be raised and couldn't for some reason, but seeing as there were seats behind the stage and that screen would have blocked those seats completely if it were raised, I don't think it was meant to go above the stage. A particularly excellent highlight was the lighting on "When We Were Beautiful" -- it looked like Jon was standing in a sunset. Simply gorgeous.

Other performance highlights included Richie taking the lead on "Homebound Train" and making it really bluesy -- just fabulous. That was followed by Jon coming out on the catwalk for the first time and just backed by David Bryan on keys performing a GREAT cover of the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah". Absolutely beautiful. Shortly afterwards, Jon is joined by the rest of the band out on the catwalk for acoustic versions of "Something for the Pain" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night."

And, as always, there was the encore of "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Livin' on a Prayer" -- they never fail.

Oh, and of course there were Jon's black leather pants. :-D

Set List:

Blood on Blood
We Weren't Born to Follow
You Give Love a Bad Name
Born to Be My Baby
Lost Highway
When We Were Beautiful
Superman Tonight
Keep the Faith
We Got It Goin' On
It's My Life
Homebound Train (Richie on vocals)
Hallelujah
Bed of Roses
Something for the Pain
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Work for the Working Man
Bad Medicine/Bad Case of Lovin' You
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Love's the Only Rule

Encore:
Thorn in My Side
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer