A review by Brooce

SETLIST.

Bounce / Bad Name / Everyday / Its My Life / Wanted /
Misunderstood / Prayer / Sleep / Medicine / Shout.

The great man proclaimed early on in Melbourne "Welcome to the first official show of the Bounce World Tour!"....Hmmm. Not really. Ten songs, 50 minutes and Tico banging away on movable drum riser to a half empty arena isn't really a Bon Jovi show.

Anyhow. The band was in good form, and Jon's voice is back near its best. Opening song Bounce saw Jon discard his guitar, but certainly got things moving. The only real lull in the 50 minute set was Misunderstood. It will be interesting to see if the band persist with it in this form for the tour or re-vamp it. Tomorrow night in Brisbane should tell the story.

Hugh seemed to be more comfortable on stage than ever before...but the only real difference song wise was a slightly, and I mean slightly different intro to Prayer.

Jon and Rich had said they were looking forward to coming down and watching all the other bands on the bill, but their only appearance front of stage before show time was to judge some contest....Surely Jon was wondering what the hell he was doing here...Richie hung around backstage with his guitar during Pinks set, but alas, the catering must of been too good out back!

The show was incredibly raucous as you would expect for a 50 minute show, and time flew by before the band took their bows.

Hopefully the band won't be deterred by these abyssmal crowds for the Rumba festivals. Surely Jon had visions of packed stadiums to play to for 50 minutes...The band must be wondering what the hell they have got themselves into with these gigs. We all hope they come back and do an "official" show. Must punters are saying that they just won't pay $100 for 50 minutes of Bon Jovi. Fair enough. We all know it's about the dollars and cents, but surely if you are going to bring the band 13,000 miles we can crank out another hour of stage time??? Or better still, do a theatre gig for the long neglected fan club.....

It's just a thought. I'm sure once the band reach Japan all of this will be long forgotten and arenas will be ringing out Sleep When I'm Dead for the quizillionth time....

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