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29 June 2001 - Vienna, Austria Concert Review 1 July 2001
Great band, great setlist, great crowd!

A review by Gabor / jofejgabor@freemail.hu

Five years. I've been waiting for five long years to see Bon Jovi live again. And I can tell you, I was not disappointed at all! The ticket, even if it was quite expensive, was worth buying, and it was worth travelling from Budapest to Vienna for me.

Maybe I bought the tickets too late, because all the standing tickets were already sold. So I bought sitting tickets - but it doesn't mean I was sitting last night...I'll tell you about it later. Anyway, I had a good seat, it was at the centre of the stadium.
I arrived at 18:40 and a band called Short People was already playing. I've never heard of them before, and well, no one seemed to like them, and there's no wonder: they were quite crap. They were good for one reason - at least there was some music in the background while people were arriving in the stadium.

Short People fortunately left the stage at about 19:10. At 19:30 another supporting act, Gotthard came onto stage. I didn't know them, either, but I was surprised how good they were. The singer's voice is similar to our beloved Jon's voice, and the songs they were playing were cool. They played some own ones and some covers, too. The crowd seemed to like them (many people clapped their hands), but when they played the Deep Purple classic, Hush, and they wanted the crowd to sing, no one sang. Come on guys, was it really that hard to sing "na na-na na na-na na na-na-na" back to them? It would have made them happy.

After they left, roads started to work on the stage and on "Empire State Building". And while they were doing that, there was some quiet music in the background (for example Learning to fly by Tom Petty). When I heard Aerosmith's Love in an elevator and U2's Beautiful day, I became really happy, because I've read it here that Bon Jovi start their shows after these songs. Well, soon they started it!
At 20:30 there was the famous elevator sequence, aaaaaaand finally they arrived!!! They were smiling and Jon opened his arms like he'd embrace the whole crowd. He didn't seem sick at all, like Italians said (dear Italians, please don't complain. If more of you had gone to the concert and you had been more enthusiastic, then Jon would have felt better in your country.) As I awaited, they started with the live album and tour title song, One wild night. They played the Crush version.

The setlist was fine. There were a lot of songs from last year's multi-platinum album, Crush (six in total), also many Slippery songs (five), plus some others. It was NOT a "Greatest Hits show", but a real Bon Jovi concert. So they didn't only play their famous hit singles (like their did earlier, and got many bad critics for it) but also some songs that only the real fans know, for example, Raise your hands, Wild in the streets, I got the girl, Captain Crash etc. There was just one real ballad, and it was Always. It's not my favourite ballad from them, but the live performance of it was awesome. In fact I was longing to hear I'll be there for you, because I saw last year's Zurich concert video, and I just loved the "Whooo-hoo-hoo"-s in that song. But they played Always instead, and who cares, that was great, too.

Something about highlights, well, I think the whole show was a huge highlight, but the highest highlight was definetely It's my life. Before that, many people were sitting on their seats. But when they heard the first chords of this song, they stood up, shouted, sang and started to jump. Everyone did that in our area (except for my little sister, she enjoyed the show sitting).
There were fireworks three times during the show (Lay your hands on me, Keep the faith, Twist and shout). It made the great mood even better.

Needles to say, all of the guys did their best. There were wonderful solos by Richie and David, Tico gave great beats, Hugh also played some kick-ass bass riffs. And yes, Jon's voice was awesome, no sign of illness, again.

The only bad thing I can mention was about the sound. Somehow they seemed quite quiet for me, the supporting acts were much louder. Sometimes it was hard to find out which song they are playing. Was it because the crowd was loud? Probably, but I think there were some smaller technical problems, too. Anyway, in a while I got used to it, and it became a bit louder, too, and then it was OK.

After Bad medicine & Shout, they said goodbye. But we all knew that they would come back, and no-one, I repeat, NO-ONE left the stadium! And they were back in three minutes! In the first encore they played Someday I'll be Saturday night & Keep the faith (with fireworks at every "hey!").
Then they left again, but we wanted more and more! So they came back again, and opened the second encore with an excellent performance of Say it isn't so - the crowd sang some of the backing vocals, just like we did in the next song, Wanted dead or alive. And then there was an unmissable Bon Jovi song, Livin' on a prayer (another highlight). First Jon sang the bridge and the chorus a capella (of course with the supporting of the crowd!), then the whole band joined in playing this fantastic song. I guess they wanted to finish the show for real real after Livin' on a prayer, but ha-ha, we didn't let them go! So they played Tequila & Twist and shout (I was especially happy because the second one, being a Beatles fan, too), and during this song, Jon twisted with his guitar:) The aaah-aaah-aaah's were great, too, the crowed seemed to like singing that.

And then, after playing 2,5 hours, Bon Jovi left the stage for real. They walked in the elevator and disappeared. Then we realised that the show was really over.

I really had One wild night, I shouted, screamed and sang myself hoarse. A BIG THANKS FOR BON JOVI FOR BEING SUCH A COOL BAND! JON, RICHIE, DAVID, TICO, HUGH - YOU ARE GIANTS & HEROES!!! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!

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