Bon Jovi Fires Up Fans With Sing-Along Hits
By CURTIS ROSS cross@tampatrib.com
Published: Mar 16, 2003

TAMPA - It's an old Tin Pan Alley adage: Don't bore us, get to the chorus.
In other words, shelve your pretensions and give us something we can hum.

Bon Jovi's music has revealed little in the way of pretense during its 20-year history. And boy, do those guys know about choruses: big, hook- filled, sing-along choruses that even people who claim to hate 'em can sing from memory.

A sold out St. Pete Times Forum crowd of 16,458 sang the chorus of ``You Give Love a Bad Name'' so loudly they almost drowned out the band.

Same thing with ``Livin' on a Prayer,'' ``Wanted Dead or Alive'' and ``It's My Life''; they've all seeped into the collective pop music subconscious. Sing ``I'm a cowboy,'' and someone almost inevitably will answer ``on a steel horse I ride.''

The band felt confident enough to front-load its set list with its biggest hits. All of the songs mentioned were performed well within the first hour of a show that went past two hours.

A band can get away with it when its second-string catalog includes material as infectious as ``Raise Your Hand,'' which had the manic melody of glam-rock pioneers The Sweet.

Bon Jovi certainly learned from the best. Guitarist Richie Sambora's lead vocal turn, ``I'll Be There For You'' suggests The Beatles' ``Don't Let Me Down,'' and ``Wanted Dead or Alive'' tore a page from the Bad Company songbook.

The band allotted plenty of time to its latest album, last year's ``Bounce.'' The songs may have been less familiar, but the crowd seemed won over by the dramatic presentation of ``The Distance'' and the blue-collar eloquence of ``Undivided.''

Singer Jon Bon Jovi dedicated ``The Distance'' to military personnel and families, and graciously (for a New York Giants fan) saluted the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers.


Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.