Bon Jovi, Seb and his friends and the ****ing Meijers again!!!

Aloha !

So shiny happy people, here it is, the review you've all been waiting for with all the good details.

Oh well, couldn’t be bothered to get up early so after my alarm clock ringed at 7 in the morning, I decided to turn it off, turn around, and get some more sleep. After all, the weather sucked and my bed was warm. Anyway, I managed to get myself out of bed around 9 o’ clock, shaved myself properly for the first time this week and decided to actually wear a Bon Jovi shirt at a Bon Jovi show, for the first time in 4 years. Whoopdidoo.

When I arrived at the venue there were 2 queues waiting to meet me, but me, being polite as ever, greeted my friends first, and Thierry told me I needed to get a number in order to get in the queue. Anyway, seriously, it was fun to watch all those faces turn around when me and Thierry passed the entire queue, we’re clearly infamous. I noticed turning heads of people I don’t even know! Oh well, probably just scared to ask for our autograph, Thierry told me later.

But yes. Those ****ing Meijers started the number thingy again. I mean, what the **** is that all about? I got there around 2:30, and got number 467. Whoohoo, my lucky number. Or whatever. In case you don’t know who the Meijers are, I’ll give you a quick introduction. There are 3 of them at every show I visit. One ****ed up mother, and two ****ed up daughters, and they think they’re that important that they’re the ones who should organize in which order everyone should enter the venue. Fleur, the youngest brainwashed child, was writing the numbers on peoples hands, while one of the most ugliest girls wrote down my name (for what??). Ofcourse, the enthusiasm that I got from Fleur was awesome, and she quickly wrote down number 467 on my hand. She'd probably rather had given me number 666, and I now I feel sorry for her. Well Fleur, you can't get everything in your short but lived life. And now I’ll never wash that hand again. At some point, Fleur told one of her crew members to ask me to get back into the queue. What the ****, who do they think they are? I got my number, I did get it so I could get out of it, right? So no, I pretended I went back, turned around and walked back to the bar to some of my friends. Mwuahhaha. Losers.

Anyone without a lack of intelligence would understand that the entire number thingy doesn’t make any ****ing sense. So yes, I was number 467, and now could take a walk around to visit some other friends of me. Me and Thierry hung around, got some food, had a little chat, had some more chat, watched Inge (the godfather of Backstage) supervise both queues, and cracked a lot, and I mean, a lot of jokes about them. 2,5 hours later another friend of mine arrived and I personally got him number 468 with the marker I bought an our earlier for the banners I made. That’s right Inge, Fleur and Marijke, you’re supervising skills aren’t that great. And like everyone should and would’ve known, as soon as the doors opened, no one really cared about their numbers anymore (well maybe the Meijers did, but they were probably the only ones) and just ran to their places. As you all understand right now, they’re just a bunch of ****ed up brainwashed weirdos. But anyway, so far this story about The Meijers, I think this story has given you an idea of what happened outside the building before the show started.

Inside, there was a band playing. Around 6 o’clock the schedule had changed, and they hung up some papers on the windows that Bon Jovi would start at 9:15. While we were waiting inside we saw the crew putting the setlists on the stage. It was a set of roughly 17 songs, with 4 audibles. Me and Thierry were happy. 15 minutes later though, it was changed for a set of roughly 11 songs. Hmz. There was no movie played like they said there would, there was no actual listening party, and the band just entered the stage at 9:20. I will now give you a small song by song review.

1.Last My Standing
Still don’t think this works as the opener, but at least it blew me away for not kicking off with the usual Prayer shite. Jon was off key most of the times in the chorus, but the crowd was loud and made up for that! I read somewhere in the webcast topic that a few of you thought that the crowd didn’t seem to enjoy it, which was not true at all. This was truely the loudest crowd I’ve ever heard at a Bon Jovi gig. Last Man Standing simply kicked ass, and I really hope they’ll keep playing this the upcoming tour, it’s easy to sing for Jon, and the longer they’ll play this, the more improvising we’ll get I think, which means longer guitarsolo’s. Very, very good.

2.Bad Name
Oh well, not something completely unexpected now, is it? But this was good actually, and I actually started to remember why I became a fan of this band. I must say, the sound in the venue was stunning, I’ve seen a few concerts of other artists there, will be seeing Oasis there in November, and the sound is great there, which contributed a lot to the pleasure I had, and made me enjoy the songs a lot more. In stadiums the sound of the guitars always sound a bit muffed, but now it was almost crystal clear. It’s obviously autopilot, but I got the feeling that Jon actually enjoyed it a lot more.

3.Prayer
Forget what Krycek says, Jon didn’t nail this one at all. To be honest, it was a pretty awful. The second chorus was even worse, and the big “livin’ on a prahayerr” before the guitarsolo was just terrible. I don’t know which gig Krycek was, but he must’ve been at another show, or partly deaf. Within 5 years Jon simply won’t be able to sing this one anymore. Or at least not in the way they perform it now. The cool thing about this one was actually again, the crowd. They’ve been playing this song in the same way for 15 years by now, and Jon does the chorus in a different way after singing, or at least attempting to sing, the normal chorus. This time Jon didn’t, but the crowd did, and Jon really enjoyed this, and was pretty surprised I think that the crowd knew how to take over. This was what made Prayer great.

4.Born To Be My Baby
Hmz. Wasn’t this supposed to be a listeningparty with a lot of new songs. Maybe the next songs would come up next. Anyway, this was pretty standard, and I started hoping that the set wouldn’t be same old.

5.Have A Nice Day
Very good. Sung a lot better than the last time, Jon pretty much nailed this one, he got tired near the end of it, but considering the terrible performance of this song last time, I must say I enjoyed it. Richie ****ed up the intro though. Bad, bad Richie. Boooo. After the song my new girlfriend held up the banner I made for These Days, David pointed at it, Jon looked and quickly turned away, so no These Days during this show. Booo, bad bad Jon.

6.It’s My Life
After such a fast song as radio you notice how slow It’s My Life is being performed nowadays, or actually what a slow song it is. The talkbox wasn’t loud enough in the beginning, and too loud during the solo. Jon didn’t seem to enjoy this one, he just became the robot after the guitarsolo, and did his standard I am so cool pose after the song was finished.

7.The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
Sort of expected this one, 2 of my friends attended the soundcheck and told me this one was rehearsed. After the intermezzo there were keyboards added and it made the song a lot better. Still, the chorus sounds just weak, but the overall performance of this one was very good. And again a lot of people knew all the words. Pretty impressive for a boxset song.

8.Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night (acoustic)
The second real surprise of the evening. Seeing them come on stage with 2 acoustic guitars Wanted was my first guess, but no, it was the acoustic version of Sat Night. It sounded great to be honest, but not really at it’s place during this show. It didn’t capture the intimate feeling it was supposed to get I think, and I think everybody sort of expected them to kick into the electric version. But thumbs up for seeing them doing something different then usual. And the crowd again knew all the words and was very loud!

9.Wanted
Ah, there it is. Again I started to wonder when the new songs would be played, but again, this was a very good performance. So far this was the highlight of the evening. Richie’s guitars were very good in the mix, and I now had the surprise that this would be the best Bon Jovi gig I’d ever been to.

10.Who Says You Can’t Go Home
A new song. And I must say, it really is a lot, lot better than it is on the album, and before I started typing this review, I’ve played it on my guitar, just because of the great memories I have. Me and my friends started the wave during this one. In case you’re interested, open the webcast and go to 01:07:00 and you’ll see me somewhere in the crowd. I’m in the yellow shirt. Whoohoo, mom I was on TV! Great solid performance, with some added improvising verses I can see this becoming some sort of Saturday Night.

11. Sleep
And for the first time Sleep just kicked ass. One guitar only, but it was sharp as a knife, and the band now was really into it, just like me and everybody else was. The band was spot on, and because this show was this great, we really expected it to last another hour, considering the fact that it was a listeningparty, right?

12.Raise Your Hands
Another spot on performance of the band. Jon was at the peak of his form during this one I think, and everything was just great. Richie was a killer during this one.

13.Keep The Faith
And during this one I went mental. Killer performance, though Jon had given too much during the previous songs as he clearly lost a lot of it, which showed during the second chorus. But still, Jon gave his all, and in fact that’s what matters the most I think. It’s still a shame he’s lost so much of his voice over the past 5 years, but still, as long as he’s into it, and the band is strong, it doesn’t really matter. And he was obviously into it, although you could see him realize that he wasn’t singing this one very good. Richie was spot on though, with a completely different guitar solo. Thierry and Alja told me after the show that I started tripping during this one, so honest, it was thát great.

Encore. Hmmm. So far we’ve had 3 new songs, so the encore will probably start with a new song.

Bad Rx.
14.What the ****? To be honest, this spoiled a lot of the fun. Too ****ing predictable. Now don’t get me wrong, I truely had a great time during the show, but Bad Medicine was all automatic pilot. It was a completely different Jon Bon Jovi after he had returned from the break between the encore. The fun thing was that Jon noticed me not moving, and he looked at me, pointed at me, and had that look like “why don’t you join?”. Oh well, all for Jon then, and I joined. So now I’ve had my Jon moment. Myyyyyyyy Jon moment. Jon Jon Jon!!!!

And then it was over. 14 songs, 3 new ones and no talk about the new album except for the little chat before Have A Nice Day. He’d seen the banner for Novocaine, seen the banner for These Days, but no real interaction with the crowd, no real talking like Shepherds Bush. Somehow it felt rushed.

Some inside information not a lot of you know:
- There was a soundcheck. Last Man Standing was done about 5 times, Radio was done, It's My Life, Who Says and Saturday Night, which at one point had Richie singing background vocals only, as Lumpy was fixing his guitar.
- The original plan was completely different. First a movie, then a few new songs, then a Q&A, and then the oldies. This was changed for unknown reasons. When the doors opened Tico was still inside the big hall and left as soon as he could. The band had just finished soundchecking, so they were obviously behind schedule.

Overall, the show was really great, fantastic to be honest, but way too short. It just felt incomplete. Which was a shame. Had it lasted 30 minutes longer, this would’ve been the best Bon Jovi show I’d ever been to. But all you people over here at Jovitalk were wrong. You didn't see this coming, now did you? I have to say though, I just watched parts of the webcast, and there's no way that this shows what the show was like, a feeling I have with all the "professionally" mixed Bon Jovi shows. None of them capture the true Bon Jovi atmosphere and from watching the webcast I can understand why you lot thought that this was a bad show. This show was very, very good, and I indeed remembered why I still am a Bon Jovi fan. If the shows during the tour next year will be this great performance wise, with the exception of Bad Medicine, this tour will be a lot, lot better than the Bounce tour. Fingers crossed.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

In relation to Prayer, when I said he nailed it, I don't mean he did it aswell as in 96 or even 2000 but he did it pretty much (from what I could tell in the middle of a screaming crowd) as good as is possible these days. While he certainly didn't hit those high notes with the ease and precision as the olden days he didn't miss a note and he didn't screach it so he nailed it in that he probably couldn't do it an better. I agree though that the crowd did save the song and shock horror, I actually agree witht just about everything you said. ****.


Phil

It was an awesome show, with an awesome crowd (atleast from my point of view).

Oh maaaaan I'm stunned.... I relived that ****ing great night... an I totaly agree with you on the bad medicine part... but hey that you know (and more ).
We had such a great day and evening and night and my stomach still hurts because of all the laughing we did.

Your review is as always briljant and I'm glad I've met you!!!
xxx

thanks for the review, slightly surprised you seemed to enjoy it so much, what with all we've all come to expect from you in the past with regards your criticism of the band.

the crowd did seem a bit subdued on the webcast i thought, but im interested to hear that you say it was actually very loud. Must just not have the crowd miced up as much as im used to.


andi

Who are you and what did you do with Seb? lol

Seriously though good review. I only saw part of the webcast myself but I managed to download it earlier so I'll watch it tomorrow probably. I haven't been to any shows before, I missed out last tour due to exams, and the tour before I wasn't really a fan enough, so hopefully when they get here next summer I'll be able to go, and if you can still enjoy a show Seb despite how much you seem to hate the band sometimes I bet I'd love it, I can't wait.

"When I arrived at the venue there were 2 queues waiting to meet me, but me, being polite as ever, greeted my friends first, and Thierry told me I needed to get a number in order to get in the queue. Anyway, seriously, it was fun to watch all those faces turn around when me and Thierry passed the entire queue, we’re clearly infamous. I noticed turning heads of people I don’t even know! Oh well, probably just scared to ask for our autograph, Thierry told me later."

OK - Could someone please explain this? I'm not being mean to Seb or trying to start an arguement, so put down the pitchforks. But what's this all about?

That was something that was really great to see

I really enjoyed reading your review.

But after the amount of time you devoted to the Meijers, don't ever bitch at me about one of my rambling reviews again.

Becky