Sunday afternoon in Zarate, a city 90km away from River Plate Stadium. We woke up and gathered up at the van. The only people going from Zarate we knew was us (Mati, Lauta, Bochia86 and Leajovi) and 5 other people we knew also.
We prepared 2 live audio cd's with bon jovi's finest performance of our favorite songs to hear on the way. Even though we were going to see Bon Jovi for the first time ever we weren't too excited. We were talking about the setlist in Chile and other shows of the leg and thinking that we were going to get the same show they got.
In River, the field was all seated because of a goverment ruling stating that in order to prevent the damage to building's foundations from the people jumping at the stadium, it would have to be seated in order to be able to host a concert. That sucked, we wanted to be able to jump and move and get to the front but that was not possible, at least it didn't seem at first.
We had Sector A seats, which were pretty close to the stage, but on the far left. Don't get me wrong, the view was great.
When we entered the stage (pretty fast because of the numbered seats). The stage was being set up a little, and people was just arriving. We walked around and took this picture of us in front of the stage:



(From left to right, Bochia86 - Leajovi - Lauta - Mati)

We saw Bobby onstage checking some of his stuff and we screamed BOBBYYYYYYYYY, play THESE DAYS, and NEVER SAY GOODBYE, and DRY COUNTY, and THIS AINT A LOVE SONG, and... He looked at us like if like we were idiots and got off stage. Lol, what we wanted to say to him was, HAVE SOME DIGNITY AND STOP DOING THE IN THESE ARMS SOLO!!!!!!!! We had spare time, so we went and check the official merchandise. It was expensive and pretty lame, but I bought the T-shirt I'm wearing in the photo.
Then came the supporting act, nobody gave a shit. I don't know why but we were pretty quiet and calm, maybe because we didn't realised that we were going to see Bon Jovi live for the first time yet. As if having a seated field wasn't enought, security kept making us sit down and remain within our seats and calm.

Then, at some point there was some movement onstage, everybody went crazy and started screaming. Bocha told me "it won't start until the stadium lights go off" and I said "how do you know? what if the lights.." BUM! LIGHTS WENT OFF RIGHT THERE. The intro for the Circle tour started and we were feeling the rush starting up..

1. BLOOD ON BLOOD

We were hoping to get this one as an opener, we didn't care for Happy Now. When Blood on Blood kicked in and we saw Richie, we went out of our minds.
Everybody, and i mean EVERYBODY got up on their seats. This meant that if you wanted to see ANYTHING, you had to get up on your seat. That sucked too, because jumping and moving around on a cheap plastic chair is pretty hard to say the least. So we were moving as we could and singing and watching the show.
The song went great, it's a great opener, it works. Richie nailed it, they seemed in a really good mood.

2. WE WEREN'T BORN TO FOLLOW

As expected, WWBTF came second. Many people around us knew it and they seemed to enjoy it. We didn't care for that song. It wasn't a terrible performance but it is a terrible song. That song wasn't born to follow a song as amazing as Blood on Blood. Bocha says that it's the most horrible song in the universe, lol.
We believe it should be droped next tour.

3. YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME

Jon said hi, and asked if we were ready, since we knew what was coming, we were so ready. When everybody started singing the bad name riff, we felt right at home, surrounded with people that felt the same was as we do. It's a great feeling since BJ fans are not found around the corner here.. Singing and looking at eachother as if "this is it man, they're really here". Again, the performance was very good.

4. BORN TO BE MY BABY

Great song, Richie was on fire and we jumped as we could due to the damn chairs and sung our hearts out. They got everybody really excited and ready for what was coming.

5. LOST HIGHWAY

Terrible choice. This got a really poor response from the crowd, probably the worst one of the whole set. This song just plain sucks. It's terribly boring and can't go after the high that is BTBMB. The band thought that Jon was going for the extended version but he didn't and they ended it right there. That was
surely because of the crowd. We were glad Jon was considering what we wanted and trying to remove what we didn't care for. Bocha says that this is the worst song of the Ultraverse or something like that.


JON CALMING DOWN THE CROWD:

Jon started at this point to tell everybody to take 2 steps back because it seemed that people left their seats and went to the front of the stage and girls were being pushed against the fences. He told people to take 2 steps back and the show wasn't gonna continue if they didn't. We were terribly scared because we wanted Jon to stay in the mood for a great show!

6. IN THESE ARMS

Another great song and great performance. The intro got us really excited as we love this song! Everybody really enjoyed it and jumped and sung. Richie really nailed the solo on this one.. YEAH IN MY DREAMS. Bobby screwed it big time as usual, we cursed him pretty bad but overall the band looked pretty tight!

7. CAPTAIN CRASH AND THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS

I know what you're thinking, but we really like that song. The band seems to like it too since it's pretty weird they kept that one to play once in a while.
We were very glad we had this instead of another LH song. I would've prefered Just Older though!

8. WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME

I freaking hate this disgrace of a song. We got bored in the middle and we decided we weren't going to miss our chance to see the band closer so we went towards the stage and got really really close, almost next to the fence and right on Richie's left side. Many people decided to stay on their seats but we just didn't give a shit anymore, we wanted the real experience. We ended up in front of the people that paid 5 times what we paid.. talk about shitty organization. Anyway, we were so happy. After an endless run of "It's allrights" the song ended and since we were so close we decided to start chanting "these days these days these days". To our surprise, a lot of people joined and it was a really loud these days chant that kept on going in between every song! Bocha sung "it's not right" instead of "It's alright". I laughed at the boy full of hate that he is.

9. SUPERMAN TONIGHT

We didn't care for this song either but we jumped and sung just to keep the band happy. It was really noticeable how Jon doesn't struggle even a bit with this song. It's a really really safe song and it shows.

10. WE GOT IT GOING ON

Well, I'm ashamed to say that even though I dislike this song with a passion, live it works amazingly well! The bass line is great and was pounding on our chest all the time. It was just a fun song, and we really enjoyed it. It's not a song I'd listen at home but live it was great. The part when they let the people sing was amazing and I like the solo live.


-- THIS IS WHERE THE REAL DEAL BEGINS --


11. IT'S MY LIFE

The reaction of the crowd was incredible, EVERYBODY KNEW THIS SONG. It's the song that made me and many many others fans of the band! I reckon they must get this reaction almost everywhere with this song since it was such a huge hit. To whoever said that this song doesn't work live, it may not have the same power than the studio version but you wouldn't even notice when you have people screaming and singing the song around you.

12. BAD MEDICINE ~ Pretty Woman ~ Shout

What a song! Women went nuts and everybody enjoyed it. Adding the covers really made the song more fun. We knew that Pretty Woman was coming but we really hoped for Old time rock and roll. Since we never heard BM before, we had a great time and Shout was great too. I know some of you grew tired of it live, but it was all NEW to us!

13. LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME (RICHIE)

Wow, just wow! The giant screens showed a church and we were already singing LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME.. Jon introduced Richie and everybody started screaming his name, we didn't know that many people loved Richie so much! It was great! He said hi with his amazing voice I LOVE HIM MARRY ME RICHIE!!!! Sorry, got a little carried away lol.. Anyway, Richie nailed the guitarwork and the vocals were really good. The solo was incredible, what a great solo! He got a verse wrong but nobody cared, and NOBODY went to the bathroom when Richie was playing. Richie was a part of Bon Jovi that night and this wasn't a JBJ show. That's for sure.

14. ALWAYS

Bocha's all time favorite song. All those days we spent watching Live from London and that increidble Always performance. I'm gonna write what he experienced since this was his song. He soaked in the first verses, just listening and enjoying every second of it. He died right there. He knew it was coming because of Chile but he and neither us were ready. The solo was incredible. Richie was really on fire that night. He had his Always, which was the song he wanted to hear the most. So I knew at that point that he was going to love the show no matter what came next. Sadly that wasn't the case for the rest of us. The favorite song of Lauta and me is These Days, which we know had no chance and Mati's song is Dry County.. we had no hope of being as lucky as Bocha.

15. BLAZE OF GLORY

Jon said that they were going to play a song they hadn't play in a long time.. We were so happy because it already was looking up to be a better set than Chile! It was great, I personally love the solo of this song and everybody sung it really loud. We did the full ending and it was really fun, the band loved it.


To be continued..