Boston!!! 7/27

OH MY GOD! I can't believe they've played Wildflower...really something unexpected!GreatGreatGreat!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!!!

p.s.:"I am" is probably the best song on the album,it's really bad they haven't played it so far,I really hope they'll do it tomorrow at Giants!

I can't believe they played Wildflower on the 2nd to the last show of the tour!!!

Is there hope for "I Am"?

I've read quite a few posts on Backstage that Richie was having an off night last night. I wonder if the short show had something to do with him having a problem?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/liv...nd_scores_big/

Bon Jovi plays it up in arena setting and scores big
By Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent | July 28, 2006

FOXBOROUGH -- Bon Jovi is all about big, bold strokes and big, easy-to-remember catch phrases: Livin' On a Prayer . Keep the Faith . Blaze of Glory . Wanted Dead or Alive . Like the New Jersey pop-metal band's sturdy, arena-ready hooks, you've heard all the lines before. But somehow, the meat-and-potato anthems -- because they bring back the promise, recklessness, and melodrama of youth -- still signify good times and a rock 'n' roll fantasy or two.

Bon Jovi has never pretended, or claimed, to be about anything other than those things. The romanticized, rock star-as-cowboy shtick has served heartthrob lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, and his sidekick, guitarist Richie Sambora , very well, and the ``chrome horse" of the band's tour bus has carried it to 20 years of sold-out stadium shows packed with fans who've purchased their own slice of the Bon Jovi fantasy by the tens of millions.

Bon Jovi's scored big again with its current ``Have a Nice Day" world tour (named after the band's triple-platinum 2005 album), and the handful of new selections -- the opener, ``Last Man Standing" ; ``Story of My Life" ; ``Wildflower" ; and the feel-good country crossover hit, ``Who Says You Can't Go Home" -- demonstrated that the band still believes in its ability to churn out a potent, sing-along power ballad tailor-made for paradise by the dashboard lights. If the crowd's reaction was any indication, the band has guessed right.

Flexing and flashing lots of skin, hair, pearly whites, and a stage-born showman's false modesty, Bon Jovi (the man, not the band) proved a consummate performer for an adoring crowd of nearly 50,000 whose appetite for Jon Bon's camera-ready smile and rock star flounce proved voracious. ``I refuse to be treated as just another boy toy," he quipped during an extended ``Bad Medicine" that segued into the '60's R&B chestnut, ``Shout," and back again. He was kidding, of course, and reveled in the attention. Sambora had his turn in the spotlight too, looking a bit like Stevie Ray Vaughan's younger brother , and tore off his best guitar solo of the night -- a bleary slice of blues-rock -- on ``I'll Be There for You."

Augmented by an extra guitarist and keyboardist on loan from Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes , Bon Jovi delivered exactly what was expected of them -- no more, no less -- with a bar band's work ethic and a stadium superstar's professionalism. So we got the faux bad boy attitude of ``You Give Love a Bad Name," a surprisingly lean, naively charming ``Runaway," the monstrously bathetic ``Livin' On a Prayer," and, of course, the encore opener, ``Wanted Dead or Alive." At one point, announcing that the New England Patriots were in the house, Jon Bon Jovi said he wished he were as ``pretty as [ quarterback Tom ] Brady and as smart as [ coach Bill ] Belichick." More false modesty. Bon Jovi is plenty pretty and plenty smart.

Canadian hard rockers Nickelback opened with a blaring set of indistinct alterna-rock that offered a reminder of what went wrong during the post-grunge years. Still, the group just keeps getting bigger.

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musi...ticleid=150337

By Jovi, he’s really got it!
By Jed Gottlieb
Friday, July 28, 2006 - Updated: 03:44 PM EST

This may seem obvious, but Bon Jovi is all about Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi that is.

While Jon and his band were a couple thousand seats short of a sellout, Jon didn’t have much trouble charming a massive audience of appreciative New Englanders last night at Gillette Stadium.

Most bands capable of captivating football stadiums need frontmen of enormous charisma. Yes, hits are important, but Foreigner has hits, Chicago has hits. To get to this level a band needs a face: A band needs a Bruce, a Bono, a Jon.

The show began with an average song, “Last Man Standing” off “Have a Nice Day,” but for Jon that wasn’t a problem. Strutting and strumming his black acoustic guitar, he circled a catwalk that extended a hundred feet onto the floor of the stadium. He had most of these fans before he even said hello.

The band bounced back and forth between favorites, such as “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Bad Medicine,” and material from their three 21st century albums for more than two hours. Unexpectedly, Bon Jovi was more comfortable with the newer songs, which have a buoyant, optimistic sound. Maybe the guys have lost a step, or some enthusiasm, but on some older tracks they almost sounded like a Bon Jovi cover band. Jon even looked short of breath on “You Give Love a Bad Name.”

The notable exception was “Runaway,” the group’s first hit, which Jon wrote in 1982. Before the song he asked the audience to climb in his 50,000-seat time machine and, for a few minutes, Jon’s voice was as fresh and eager as an 18-year-old’s.

But, occasional gasping aside, Jon is ageless. He joked with the crowd that he “refused to be treated like another boy toy,” but that’s kind of what he is - a less artistic, better-looking Springsteen whose little nods and winks electrify the crowd. If he’s made it this far on looks and hooks, why should he stop now?

Jon’s wingman in the band, guitarist Richie Sambora, hasn’t found the same fountain of youth. He’s still a great metal and blues guitarist with a decent mug, but that doesn’t really distinguish him from his peers. Sambora doesn’t shine like his counterpart.

As an opener, Nickleback did what they could, played their best stuff - mostly radio-friendly, postgrunge ballads including “How You Remind Me” and “Far Away” - but they didn’t have the talent it takes to engage an audience of this size.

Bon Jovi with Nickelback at Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, last night.

http://www.projo.com/music/content/p...v.10a2cc6.html

Bon Jovi's simple formula still works

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 28, 2006

BY RICK MASSIMO
Journal Pop Music Writer


FOXBORO -- Twenty-four years after their first single, "Runaway," Bon Jovi is still filling stadiums (drawing 50,000 to Gillette Stadium here last night) while the bands who thought they wouldn't last are playing Joey's Tiki Hut in Waukeegan (at best) and the critics who thought they wouldn't last are on Social Security. How'd that happen?

Well, let us count the ways: a classic frontman in Jon Bon Jovi who has lost nothing from his radio-ready voice, crowd-rousing athleticism or telegenic looks; a lead guitarist, Richie Sambora, who makes for a classic second banana and plays the most sing-along-able solos since The Cars' Elliot Easton; a straight-down-the-middle drummer in Tico Torres; and a keyboardist, David Bryan who leads the still-spot-on background vocals (along with a hired-hand keyboardist and guitarist). Of course, two-plus hours of mid-tempo, melodically simple shout-along choruses don't hurt, as long as you can still deliver them, which Bon Jovi did. (Well, they lost a couple inches on the fastball of "Runaway," but who's counting?)

Mainly, though, it's because, their music has grown up with their audience, from Ground Zero of hair metal to the adult contemporary of much of their latest record, Have a Nice Day. The classics, of course, had their spotlight last night -- "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Bad Medicine" (which had an unfortunate bit of "Shout" transplanted into the middle of it), "Wanted Dead or Alive," "I'll Be There For You" (sung last night by Sambora) and more. But a sizable chunk of their set list came from their 21st-century albums, including "Just Older," "Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars" and the hit "It's My Life," all from 2000's Crush, as well as the title track from Have a Nice Day, the hit "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and "Wildflower," which according to Bon Jovi hadn't been played live before last night. While the sounds have changed, the basic Bon Jovi viewpoint has stayed the same: I'll be there for you. We've got something to believe in, even if we don't know where we stand. You and me, we're invincible together. I like the bed I'm sleeping in. We've got each other, and that's a lot. (The country success of "Who Says You Can't Go Home" isn't really all that surprising, in this context.) With a few exceptions ("Runaway," "You Give Love a Bad Name") it's about fidelity and love and all the verities, as comfortable as an old sweater. It's more about reinforcing the things we all know are true, and unabashedly of this world. The very greatest bands create their own world, and make it a place you'd like to live in (or at least visit), and Bon Jovi isn't there. But with all the other above-listed ingredients, plus the healthy percentage of newer material in last night's show, they won't be heading to the Tiki Hut anytime soon.

Nickelback preceded Bon Jovi by toggling between angst-laden power ballads and mid-tempo rock-by-default celebrations of that same angst. The desired effect seemed to be the abrasive beauty of Nirvana; the actual effect was more like the by-the-numbers grunge of Bush.

Singer-guitarist Chad Kroeger's gravelly bray is an acquired taste, a voice for which the onomatopoeic neologism "yarling" must have been concocted. It overpowered ballads such as "Photograph" and "Far Away" (although the guitars helped on that one) and weighed down the otherwise grooving set opener, "Animals".

Thanks Becky!