A review by Jeff / cyrano1902@aol.com

Having seen Bon Jovi once before, I can say this was a very enjoyable show but not them at their absolute best. No complaints, though.

The setlist:
Bounce/You Give Love a Bad Name/Wild in the Streets/Livin' on a Prayer/Everyday/Undivided/Runaway/Just Older/Wanted Dead or Alive/The Distance/It's My Life/Misunderstood/
keyboard solo-Right Side of Wrong/I'll Be There For You/ Born to Be My Baby/Someday I'll Be Saturday Night/Keep the Faith/I'll Sleep When I'm Dead/Raise Your Hands encore: Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars/Bad Medicine-Shout

I was able to obtain a copy of the printed setlist (thank you, Mr. Soundman), and "Bed of Roses" was listed as a possibile alternate ("MISUNDERSTOOD or BED OF ROSES"), and "Blaze of Glory" was listed as the first encore song but was crossed out. Someone wrote "RB" next to "Wild in the Streets," "Runaway," and "Raise Your Hands." If anyone knows what it stands for ("reverb"? I didn't see any Rickenbacker guitars played), please E-mail me.

As far as the performance goes, it was fine--not quite as spectacular as I've seen them (though maybe I'm biased since the last time was my first Bon Jovi concert). "Wild in the Streets" was a highlight for me though I would have liked at least one song even more obscure. Another highlight was Richie singing "I'll Be There For You"--both his vocals and guitar playing were inspired on that song. If I get a chance to see a solo performance of his, I will not pass it up after seeing that. If I was disappointed at all, it was by the new songs. They seem to be played with a more laid-back, reflective arrangement than their studio counterparts, and I think "Undivided" and "The Distance" suffered as a result. They just didn't seem to have the power the studio tracks have. As long as they were being mellow, "You Had Me From Hello" would have been a great selection. Overall, the song selection was much better than I would expect from most of their peers, though, so no major problems there.

The production was fairly elaborate, and the satellites from the album cover were a nice touch, but all of the lasers and pre-recorded videos (even one for "Right Side of Wrong") sometimes gave the impression that the band was relying too much on visual tricks and not on the music. Basically, it was a nice show. I wish I could see the Anaheim show tomorrow so I could compare and see if this was an unusual night or not.

I should add that David Bryan's performance (and not just his fairly lengthy solo) was impressive.

This may be my last Bon Jovi concert, and it was not at all a bad way to remember them.

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