Aloha !

This concert was the best concert I've been to. I told you before that Gelsenkirchen was great, (I gave it 4 stars out of 5) but compared to the show in Amsterdam it deserved only 3.

We met Tajja and Laura before the concert and I was standing there with Peter (bonjovicentral boss), Mike (bonjovicentral moderator), Sara (bonjovicentral moderator), Thierry (king of file sharing or something), Kieets (one of the boxsetmorons), Alja (another boxsetmoron), her brother (who puked during In These Arms since the temperature was rising a little to high for some people), Kathleen (a member from the bonjovi.nl forum), Karin (another member from the bonjovi.nl forum).

There were about 48.000 people to see us and they were lucky we had organized a good band for the background music.

From the moment the boys entered the stage you could see them having fun already. We made banners for I Believe as you all know by now and Richie was laughing while he was entering the stage. He saw our banners and really smiled at us and he was looking at Tico, Dave and Huey if they saw it too. Jon came up and the crowd went wild. Jon was really ready for it, he had a hungry look in his eyes, ready to take the crowd to a higher level or something.

Some people over here have been to Amsterdam ánd Gelsenkirchen and when they say the German crowd is just as wild as the Dutch one they are lying. From the first words from Bounce untill the last words from Shout we Dutchies were willing to kick some ass.

As usual they opened with Bounce which was much louder as in Gelsenkirchen, just like Bad Name and Wild In The Streets were. Tico gave some extra fills during the drum intro from Wild In The Streets, and Jon was a bit surprised by that, since he was ready to anounce the crowd to put their hands together and so on. After Wild In The Streets they left the stage and we saw Richie pointing at some guitars. They came back and Thierry was really wondering which song they were about to play. It could only be Runaway or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, but it wasn't. It was I Believe. We almost couldn't believe it, they played a song just because it was on our banners. It was really unexpected and not on the setlist since the break between Wild In The Streets and I Believe was a little longer as usual. They gave the song 3 guitar solo's and lot's of stuff to sing along on. Kieets (the one who came up with the idea and chose the song) went wild since it's his favorite song of all time.
Livin' On A Prayer followed and though I Believe is quitte a hard song to sing for Jon he sang Livin' On A Prayer very good. Even the line livin' on a prayer before the guitar solo sounded very good and clear. Everyday followed and other people from Holland told me too that they thought the song didn't work in concert. Undivided was great, the last acoustic part from the song was sang totally by the crowd, Jon didn't need to help us, we knew it all. It sounds great to hear about 50.000 people sing Undivided. It really gave me thrills.
And there it was, Keep The Faith. Thierry and me were really wondering if they would play it with the jungle screams and yes they did. Not only jungle screams but Sympathy For The Devil was being played too. This was absolutely the best version of Keep The Faith ever, I can assure you. Wanted followed without the keyboard intro which sounded a bit dull, while In These Arms was played very, very well. It was a real good perfomance, and Thierry and I kept on smiling since we knew we were witnessing one of the best Bon Jovi shows every. It's My Life was loud, I could feel the bass drum in my entire body and Thierry and I even sang along on Misunderstood, which proves we had a very good time.
Runaway came quitte unexpected for the major crowd, and Richie's guitar wasn't ready for it, since it didn't work anymore. He changed it 3 times, and his third guitar worked right on time since he had to play a guitar solo. Joey was a big disappointment compared to Mannheim Thierry told me, the ad libs weren't as good as in Mannheim. I'll Be There For You with Richie on vocals was great, and when the song had finished Jon came on stage, the crowd kept on singing the last part, and Jon finished to song completely to follow with his solo song Blaze Of Glory.
Hook Me Up was the only song which keeps me wondering why the people didn't enjoy it as much as in Gelsenkirchen. It was actually the only song the German crowd enjoyed more as the Dutch crowd. Born To Be My Baby rocked followed by I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and another surprise : Rockin' All Over The World. The band didn't knew about it either since Jon just started with it while the rest of the band was ready for Raise Your Hands. No problems anyway, they followed Jon and the song was great, just like Raise Your Hands.
The encore was dull as usual though the whole atmosphere was so good that Thierry and I even danced on it. We just could't get enough of it just like the band. As much as I hated the performance of Just Older in Gelsenkirchen, as much as I loved it in Amsterdam. It was a very good version, and a little faster too I think. Bad Medicine and Shout followed and after that it was over. No These Days though the setlist shows it as an audible. Later on rumors were spread that the show wasn't allowed to last longer as 23:00u, that could be right, since it was exactly 23:00u when the credits appeared on screen.

So, if it's getting better and better this way Ostende (my next gig) or the entire UK tour might be the best shows Bon Jovi has ever given. I'll rate this show 4,5 stars out of 5.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan