| 27 June 2001 - Padova, Italy Concert Review |
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Only God knows why italians have so much care of the stadium grass and why they love football so much. I work for the press and I was invited to come to the Padova concert. I was told that everything will be organized very well and that the cancellation of the Modena concert of the last year was not correct, so I came to see the show. I tell you that Bon Jovi will never, ever come to Italy to play a show, if the stadium and the capacity will not suit their needs. Look, they want to have crowd in front of them, not on the seatings. but the excellen (read:catastrophal) italian organizers, who care only for the GRASS of the footbal field, did not let the people to go to the grass field in front of the stage. I asked some organizers and they told me that the capacity is full. Can you immagine 3000 persons in front of the gigantic Bon Jovi stage?????? Is this the full capacity of the footbal field????Goddamn the organizers, they f***** the whole concert. I have been to lots of BJ shows, including Vienna 96, Zeltweg 00, Wembley 95,00, and I can tell you that yesterday on the show the band played very well, they gave the best,except John, who was ill and definitively pissed off about the organizers. But in all this shows, there were about 80.000 people, and there was sceraming and parying in the crowd. How can u immagine a huge party with 5000 persons??I think U bacame disappointed when you see so few heads in fron of you. But is not to blame the crowd, the crowd expected more, but the organizers definitely did not want the show to succede. I agree with some who wrote, that the location was a big piece of shit. The show should have been in Milan or Rome, not in an peripheral town like Padova. The second thing is the promotion. I heard that there was not enough promotion, but not because of the band management, but because the local organizers did not want to fulfill the stadium!!! And you know why????? Because of the grass!!! They had a fear that the crowd would devastate the grass. But lets take Wembley, one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world, and the best concert venue, and definitely the best crowd alive. At Wembley, there is the entire fild covered with wood boxes so that the grass dont get damaged. But Italians, lazy as they are, they dont care about this things, and definitely they dont know how to organize a concert. Go to England, or even Austria and Germany, and take some lessons. The other thing is the show. The Italians, known as lovers and romantics, wanted to hear Always, Bed of roses, Ill be there for you, Thank you lovin me,..and so on...and normally they were dissappointed because BJ were playing very hard stuff,except the encore, which was more easy stuff. Richie was absolutely awesome, and even for me was the first time to hear Stranger live. Ok, John was so pissed off and angry that he decided not to play longer because of his voice and to spare it for Vienna and Munich. Logic. There will be 90.000 fans on every show...not like Padova, 3000 fans in front of the stage. I think that this is a logic conclusion. Better have a bad show in front of such little crowd, than a big debacle in front of 90.000 persons. So, Italians, dont be angry, blame on you and blame the organizers. I hope the next time, which probably wont be in the near future, you will do it better.
J.A.G.
freelance journalist
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