A review by Jokerkarl

Now that all the impressions of Saturday Night have calmed down, i´ll try to bring my review down in order.

First of all - NICKELBACK. Very good performance but due to the fact, that the roof of the LTU-ARENA had to be closed for the show, you really could tell, that the soundmixer was trying out some things during the Nickelback Set, which resulted in a very poor and way too quiet sound. I bet that´s gonna change throughout the tour. Nickelback played 45 min. including all their hits!

Bon Jovi entered the stage at 20.25 introduced by AC/DC´s HELLS BELLS and SHOOT TO THRILL followed by a short intro. While the band appeared onstage Jon immidiatly took the catwalk surrounding the pit-area and openend with LAST MAN STANDING. The sound was perfect from the first second. I won´t tell too much about the stage design - you should be surprised by it yourself. Just two things - first, it offers more that you´ll expect, second the videowall (HD-TV) is killer. Playing JOEY from BOUNCE was the first surprise comparing to the US/Japan-Setlists. Richie was playing the acoustic guitar, so David had his spot for a brilliant pianosolo. Everyone in the band seemed to have a great time. There were smiles all over that stage. I have to admit, that i see no reason, for bringing Bobby Bandeira and Jeff Kazee on that tour. It adds simply nothing to the BJ Sound, but i guess Jon has it´s reasons for it. All the new tracks ( except the extreme cheesy NOVOCAINE - COMPLICATED would have been way better ) came down very well. WHO SAYS was awesome, and will be a Live-Standard for years. After opening the encore with BELLS OF FREEDOM ( brilliant stage show ), followed by RUNAWAY and SLEEP WHEN I`M DEAD, the band went off stage again. I saw Jon´s Roadie stickin a BIG piece of paper to the stage, so I knew straight away they would be playing something right now, they haven´t done for ages and Jon needed some "lyrical attendence". They came back again and Jon said they "wanna do something for the die-hards now" and David started ...... DRY COUNTY!!!!! There are no words to describe, what was going on in the Fanclub Pit Area. Screaming, tears, total freaking out - the crowd just went nuts. AWESOME!!!! Followed by WANTED and TREAT HER RIGHT ( Jon again on the catwalk ) the Band finished the show after 2hrs and 50 minutes. It has been the best concert ( after Munich 2003 and 2001 ) i have seen since the THESE DAYS TOUR from the boys! Absolutly brilliant! With JOEY and DRY COUNTY in the setlist, i see a very good change for songs from THESE DAYS during the European Shows - i really hope they keep DRY COUNTY in the set anyway!

Next stop for me: DUBLIN!

Everybody else, wherever you go on that Tour - enjoy yourself it´s a great show and the living proof, that you do not have to rip off your fans with entrance fees like Robbie Williams, U2, the STONES or MADONNA to put on a brilliant show with a nearly 3 Hour Show, which none of the mentioned before does anyway! THE GUYS STILL ARE NUMBER ONE!

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