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21 July 2001 - Pittsburgh, PA, USA Concert Review 23 July 2001
Reflections on Bon Jovi's Pittsburgh Performance

A review by Cricket, a/k/a BJBug

Here are some more reflections on the Pittsburgh show.

Again, here’s the set list:

One Wild Night
Raise Your Hands
[then Jon & Co. greeted the Pittsburgh audience]
You Give Love A Bad Name
Born To Be My Baby
Livin' On A Prayer [started with the audience]
Bed Of Roses
Stranger In This Town [performed by Richie & Co.]
Keep The Faith
It's My Life
Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars
Just Older
Wild In The Streets
Blaze Of Glory
Lay Your Hands On Me [really long intro]
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead [with a regrettably brief conga line from the left side of stage]
Bad Medicine
(You Make Me Want To) Shout
[end of regular set]
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
I'll Be There For You
[end of first encore set]
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Tequila
Twist And Shout

We had a great evening for the show. Driving in (which took a while), it was fun to hear a variety of Bon Jovi tunes drifting out of the vehicles around us. Some people had evidently been there for hours ahead of time--saw some great tailgates that must have taken a great deal of thoughtful planning. I had a 3-1/2 hour drive to get there, and was simply grateful to arrive safely, and on time.

The evening was warm—-so warm that near the start of the show, Jon commented that if it got any warmer, we could all go home and “tell Mama that you had a steam bath with Bon Jovi!” I didn’t realize until that point just how many of us were there. I discovered that my friend and I had terrific seats, far closer to the stage than I’d expected. Until people began to roar and cheer, I hadn't realized the number of people packing the lawn. Looking out behind me over the crowd, it seemed like it would be difficult to wedge a postage stamp between folks.

The set was the basic brick walls with a couple windows and a fan inset in various places. The show began as it consistently seems to, with VH1 ads and then the satellite shots zooming in on the concert location, followed by footage of the guys, first hanging out in a room somewhere and then moving to ride in an elevator to the stage. Lots of dry ice seemed to be used to create steamy, smoky clouds on the sides of the stage. Of course, the show began with One Wild Night, followed by Raise Your Hands.

It was marvelous to hear Richie perform Stranger In This Town. His superb bluesy guitar was accompanied well by the rest of the band (David Bryan co-wrote the song). I had forgotten that Dave simultaneously will play two sets of keyboards, and noticed this several more times throughout the evening.

The camera work was as impressive as ever, permitting people not immediately in front of the stage to easily see much of the performance. We didn’t see the video often shown during Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars (where people start looking around in the audience for people dressed up like the characters). It was fun to see people’s reactions as they suddenly noticed themselves on screen—and to look at the various banners that folks were holding up. At some point early on in the evening, someone tossed a Superman towel up on stage. For a short while, Jon tied the towel on like a cape, and romped around with it briefly before taking it off and throwing it back into the audience. Someone threw a Columbian flag up on stage, which Jon hung up on the platform where Tico was playing. And later, the camera highlighted an Ohio license plate that said SAMBORA, held up by someone near stage—the crowd liked that a lot.

During one song—-I’m not certain which one—-a young girl (probably between 5 and 8 years old) was escorted up on stage. Jon carried her up around his waist, and danced with her on the stage for several minutes. The crowd just loved it—it looked pretty neat.

During Lay Your Hands On Me, Jon went up on Dave’s platform to sing, and ended up handing Dave the mike. Jon took over on keyboards while Dave worked the stage and sang for a while—a fun treat for the audience. When Dave made it back to Jon, there was a (mock) mini-struggle as Jon got the mike back from Dave to finish the song, which concluded with some of the best harmonies I’ve heard from the men: very tight and clean singing.

What about clothes? I didn’t take many notes, but do remember that Jon started the concert wearing a sleeveless utility shirt with his name on it (spelled the legal way, John) and some tight leather pants. Jon's outfits changed throughout the evening: at one point he had on a jean jacket and wore his stylin’ straw cowboy hat. At the end of the show, Jon was wearing a black Sopranos baseball shirt.

Richie had these fabulous silverish whitish glittery pants on, and wore different jackets—at one point, a *fabulous* glittery jean jacket in a light blue, later a black jacket with long tails, and at another point, his maroon jacket and that furry striped hat that we’ve seen before in folks’ photographs. At the end of the performance, Richie was wearing a gauzy long-sleeved shirt that seemed to tie in front: very nice. His purple velvet hat seems not to be a beret (as someone wrote about earlier) but rather one of those ivy-style driving caps, worn with the brim in back.

Dave had on a tight black T-shirt and white pants with black accents, Tico wore a black sleeveless T-shirt with the American flag on the back and a black ivy-style driving cap (worn with the brim in back, of course). Hugh had on dark pants (probably jeans) and some sort of long-sleeved shirt in a darker purply-blue sort of pattern…at least that’s what it looked like from where I sat.

I thought there was a distinct difference in the men’s energy in comparison with the last show I’d seen, several months earlier in Columbus. I can’t imagine what it must be like to play for almost 2-1/2 hours straight, in that heat. But I’m not sure whether it was that alone, or the fact that they’re also getting tired, that amounted to a slightly different feel in the energy onstage. Jon mentioned how good it was to be in Pittsburgh, and though I don’t remember exactly what he said, I had the impression that the guys are glad that the tour is almost over: their being in Pittsburgh meant that they were soon on their way home. I also noticed that Richie wasn’t singing harmonies as much as he usually does, in some songs—most noticeably in Wanted Dead Or Alive.

This isn’t to say that the show wasn’t terrific. It was great! I had a super time. I think venue has a great deal to do with how you experience a show, which means for those of you headed to Bon Jovi Stadium in a few days, well—you will have the time of your lives! I am so envious, and look forward to reading about your adventures once you’re safely back and have recuperated.

Cricket


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