A review by KC / kenigmac@yahoo.com

I just wanted to express to everyone that Bon Jovi ROCKS! That said, we failed him as a audience during this show. Let me make it clear that I was up front and close and could see him and everone elses faces perfectly.

Yes, it's true, he came to DC to rock, but the crowd was so lame that I believe he ended the show prematurely. Let me sight several times when he had to call people back to the arena because they were leaving. I'm not certain if they thought the show was over BEFORE his first encore, but the first thing he said was, "Hey, were are you all going - we're not through yet. Did you really think we were leaving?" It was a little embarrassing. He said this several times, and those of you there should have seen the looks they had in between songs (between Jovi and Ritchie and Jovi and Tico). Yes - it was pathetic.

When he would ask the crowd to sing along, you could barely hear them. None of that, "Let's try it again" to see how loud the crowd could get - nope. I guess after a while he just accepted that we were lame.

Let me be clear though - AT NO TIME did he just "go through the motions" and not give us his all. Jovi Rocks and I love him for it.

It was cool at the end to let the singer from the Baltimore-based (where I'm from) SR-71 sing lead on "Wanted". The whole front row (which was his family) was holding up there cell phones to record their Mitch singing with Jovi for other family members who were not there. How do I know? I know Mitch and spoke with him after the show about it (Jovi gave SR-71 15 more minutes for their set since it was their home town). For those of you who may like SR-71, they were called "Honor Amoung Theives" a couple of years ago and do put on a great show.

All in all the crowd at the MCI Center was uninvolved, not loud, and certainly did not do their part and give back to the man that gave us so much. I feel sorry about that and if he ever were to read this I would want him to know that, despite everything, there is much love for him in the DC, Baltimore corridor. After all - we broke Jovi to the world. DC's WAVA was the first radio station to pick-up and play the Jersey boy's Runaway tune (as he was also kind enough to remind us at the show). Its a shame WAVA is no longer a station, but he remembered!

Long live Jovi and for all of you that read this and will be going to upcoming shows - PLEASE TREAT THE MAN RIGHT! He gave us so much. Being on the road away from all you know is tough enough. Let's give some back to him and show how much we appreciate him as an artist, a performer, a poet, and a prophet.

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