UDiscoverMusic:
http://www.udiscovermusic.com/a-pack...-bon-jovi-show
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Let’s face it, not many artists can get away with playing their new album in full for a whole two-hour gig – particularly when it hasn’t even been released yet. But Bon Jovi are the exception.
At the London Palladium, on 10 October, they played one of only four shows of a worldwide tour before a packed audience of just over 2,000 – the group’s smallest headlining London show since 1985.
Anthemic is what Bon Jovi do best, and it was certainly on the menu. Opening with the lead single and title track off the new album, ‘This House Is Not for Sale’, the group kicked the crowd into a frenzy and had them singing along with big smiles on their faces.
Each new song had a story and Jon gave the audience insights into their genesis, even reciting the choruses like poetry before kicking into the track. He was clearly proud of the new material, and excited to play it live – and rightly so, as they feature some of his best lyrics in years. It’s as if the “worst three-and-a-half years of my life”, as he put it, as reawakened his love for music. (Indeed, there was a hint that these new songs provided some therapy, particularly ‘Come Over To Our House’, which is essentially an ode to the group’s fans.)
The whole evening had an air of intimacy about it – right down to the mistakes made at the start of some of the new songs – as though the audience had been invited back to the group’s rehearsal garage in the 80s. Suitably for the venue, there were no gimmicks, just Jon Bon Jovi assuming his classic stance and holding on to the mic. It felt as though the band were going back to the beginning, reconnecting not only with their hardcore fans, but the rock audience who had long but forgotten them.
The encore brought two of the band’s well-known tracks, ‘Who Says You Can’t Go Home’ and ‘Bad Medicine’, the latter of which elicited a sea of fist pumps from the audience. However, Jon seemed less engaged with the crowd-pleasers, perhaps underscoring his belief in the new songs, which, in his words, have “got something to say and nothing to prove”.
But the evening did prove something: that Bon Jovi have the fire in their bellies and are back doing what they should be. It’s a welcome return.
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Blouinartinfo:
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/st...for-sale-album
Quote:
Jon Bon Jovi pauses, close to the end of his concert to unveil his new album. He tells us that he still has “something to say.” Pause. “And nothing to prove.”
His band’s 14th studio album, out on November 4, is called “This House Is Not for Sale.” It rocks as hard as its predecessors, even with a change of personnel, and has at last three tracks with huge hooks: the title track, “God Bless This Mess” and a sweet ballad called “Scars on This Guitar.” Like him or not, this is classic Bon Jovi – big choruses, heavy but melodic guitars.
The gig, at London’s Palladium, is one of four, called “intimate shows” or “listening parties,” to introduce the album to fans, Tidal customers, journalists and guests (such as Alex James of Blur).
The 2,000-seat venue is packed, but it is still “intimate” in that Jon Bon Jovi, now 54, opens up his heart to us in confessionals between the songs, comprehensively explaining how each came to be written. The lyrical lectures are serious, with just touches of humor and little irony, apart from a joke at the opening about him impersonating Bruce Forsyth at the London Palladium. So it is less of a party than therapy, a showcase of the band and new material which is never less than workmanlike and impressive.
The jumping off point to all of this is the crisis Bon Jovi went through a couple of years back: writer’s block, and after 30 years together, a near break with his record company and the departure of guitar ace Richie Sambora. As Bon Jovi points out, he’s had a three-decade career and 33 years with his wife - and he fully intends to be playing to us in 30 years’ time. The crisis was not exactly life or death but midlife crisis it was. Cynics may ask if we care about the mild tribulations of a wealthy rocker, but these inspired most of the new album which seems to be mad over pretty much everything you can throw at it.
The title track has a lot of a backstory which its writer sets out. He’d seen a striking black and white image, created by artist Jerry Uelsmann, of a stone house anchored by deep roots. He saw the four walls as being like many things, such as the band. The house cannot not be knocked down; cannot be bought or sold. People and nations such stick to integrity and they cannot be defeated. The song already seems like a natural for Bon Jovi’s next “Greatest Hits” album too, whenever that comes, one to sit alongside “Livin’ on a Prayer” or “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
Bon Jovi is proud of the songs and really cares about this stuff. “The Devil's in the Temple” is about the music business; “Knockout” about fighting to be hopeful; “New Year’s Day” is a carpe-diem call for action. “All Hail the King” has him so emotional during the set that he has to stop the song and take it again from the top.
It’s hard to argue with 130 million albums sold, and Bon Jovi has the last laugh on those critics who ridiculed the fashion-defying glam-rock poodle-cut years – laughing all the way to the bank in fact. Bon Jovi now looks better than ever: he could be a company vice-president, perhaps, with a penchant for working out his lithe frame, running a hand through distinguished hair in a speech. Then it transpires he happens to sing very well too, such as on the acoustic “Scars on This Guitar” – a nice change of pace.
Bon Jovi has decades of experience playing hits. For the encore, he thanks everyone for bearing with 15 new songs. He offers up a couple of more familiar tracks as compensation, with the venue rocking big time for the closing “Bad Medicine.”
He embraces “new” guitarist Phil ‘X’ Xenidis, who has been actually in place for a while, initially as a touring member. There are a few off-key notes, nothing much to worry about in new material offered to friends, but enough for an apology to be offered. Not that it matters with lyrics like “God bless this mess/ this mess is mine/ I won’t pound my chest/ or criticize/ I must confess/ I’ve lived I’ve died…” Expect a lot of stadium singalongs with phones and lighters held aloft.
Jon Bon Jovi may think he has nothing to prove. With this new album he proves he is still a force to be reckoned with, and capable of crafting entertaining hits to add to his canon. Going down in a new blaze of glory even.
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10-11-2016, 06:45 PM
