A review by rjotb

I had spent six hours in the car wondering all along the way what version of the band was going to appear at the Minneapolis show. Some of you may have read the reviews or witnessed the show live over the web as I did, of the first show on this leg of the tour, in the Chicago area, and were probably as surprised as I was to see and hear that the band didn't have their "A" game going at all that night. I was genuinely worried that my second concert and my 11 year old daughters first concert would end up being a huge disappointment leaving us with this feeling that all the time and money it took to get us there was going to be a waste. I have been a fan from the begining and my daughter has really been into both the Bounce and Crush albums and this was to be the occassion where I could prove to her that her and the "old" guy could actually end up on the same page together.

Well I'll tell you what, from the first note they played to the last note of the encore we had an absolute blast.

We were surprised, excited and worried that the road crew was setting up chairs for the boys to sit on at first. My first thought was that Jon blew out his vocal chords during an earlier show and would have to take it easy the whole night but what the acoustic set proved was one thing THE BOYS CAN STILL SING AND PLAY! The highlight I thought was Living On A Prayer the music and vocals were tight and bang on and with the crowd singing backup it was nothing short of spine tingling. My daughter agreed and was totally floored that the crowd knew the whole song word for word although she was a bit dissappointed once she realized that we weren't going to hear the electric version as well.She spent the last two months and the whole trip down learning the lyrics to their whole catalogue from the last 20 years and the electric version is her favourite of the classics. We both agreed that Misunderstood played acoustically was the way it should have been in the first place, they absolutely nailed it. Also having Ritchie sing I'll Be There For You whether out of neccessity or to add a new twist was fantastic. He adds an entirely different spin to the song and makes it his. Seeing Jon's face light up when the crowd absolutely ate up Ritchies' version may just prove to be too tempting and he may have to let him do a lead on the next project.

Of course the highlight was yet to come. The Electric set. From start to finish they reminded you that yes you were at a Rock Concert!! They had energy and enthusiam and best of all the looked like they were having a blast and the music was 10 times better because of that. Of course hearing Just Older live was great (it seemed like it's the new anthem for about 60% of the crowd these days) and seeing my daughter get into Raise Your Hands with me and the rest of the crowd was special.

The guys still rock. The last show I saw was outdoors in Toronto in 2000. While the guys gave it their best at that show this indoor show at the Target Center left it in the dust by a mile. I think that playing in an arena helps the crowd and the band get into it a whole lot more and it's way easier to get that energy going. The dont call it arena rock for nothing. The acoustics and the audio were great all night long and it had to be especially for the acoustic part.

Overall it was a great show and I would do it again in a minute. Judging by the crowd that was there both the young and not so young will be along for the ride for years to come so I'm hoping the opportunity will be there sooner rather than later. After all we still like to rock, we're Just Older.

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