Originally Posted by life_of_agony
I'm still on a high from this show. Unfortunately, I only had a chance to see this gig as we had already booked our flights back to Adelaide before the second and third shows were announced (and quite frankly, we probably wouldn't have been able to afford it anyway) and although the setlist from last night seems a lot better than this shows, I must say that this was probably the best concert I have ever seen. This is probably going to be a long post, so I apologise in advance!
I got to meet Richie Sambora before the show, which was such a huge moment for me. I am nearly 31 and have been a massive Bon Jovi fan since I was six years old so this is right up there with my biggest life highlights. It almost seemed like it wouldn't happen, though.
The Richie meet and greet was something that has been on the cards since the Australian shows were announced. It is a long story, but my wife had been liaising with Richie's manager via e-mail for some time organising this, but I always had this little bit of doubt that it would occur. I had this feeling in the back of my mind that something would go wrong at the last minute.
Anyways, we received an e-mail on Friday morning with our instructions to meet the great man. We were told that there would be an envelope left for us when we picked up our VIP package tickets that would have backstage passes and further instructions that had been left by Bon Jovi's ticketing manager. The e-mail also gave us a couple of contacts, including the head of Bon Jovi's security name, telling us to instruct security to get on their walkie talkie and call one of them should there be any issues. All sounded good to us, and my wife and I were very excited.
We arrived at the venue and went to collect our tickets. There was no envelope with the passes and instructions, however. We hoped this was just a little glitch and that the girl had them behind the counter. She didn't. We then approached security and told them our predicament as instructed, they then referred us to the stadium office. We showed them the e-mail, they advised they hadn't heard a thing and referred us to the box office area. We went to the box office area, they listened intently but said they didn't have anything for us and referred us back to security. We spoke to security again and asked if they could call either of the two names that we had as a contact on their walkie talkies - the security guy advised he could not do it and had to speak to his supervisor. His supervisor came over and we showed him the e-mail. He said he was not familiar with any of the names, but said he would ask if anyone knew the head of Bon Jovi's security on our behalf - he then said he had to leave as he had work to do. At this point I was shattered. Everyone was looking at us like we have been ripped off by someone - I don't think anyone believed us. My wife then went to our VIP area to check if there was anything left there for us - there wasn't. I thought that was it, but my wife then went to the BSWJBJ tent and spoke to them about the e-mail. They knew who we were talking about, got on their walkie talkie and organised for us receive a phone call from who we needed to speak to. RELIEF!! We were then referred back to the ticketing area as Bon Jovi's ticketing manager had just dropped off our backstage passes. Once we had them in our hands we were finally relaxed, we received a phone call from someone associated with the band who advised he will call us when Richie was ready to meet us. We went to the VIP area and had a drink and relaxed for the first time. About 10 minutes later, we received a call and were told to go the front of the stage, where we would be met by someone who would take us backstage. We waited there and then were taken backstage to meet the legend himself. While waiting, Bobby Bandiera walked past. It was so cool to be hanging out backstage, but bloody nerve wracking at the same time.
Richie then arrived to meet with us and he was super cool. Very friendly and laid back and seemed more than happy to have a chat. He was happy to sign everything we had with us (we didn't want to push it and had originally asked him to sign two things - he then said if there is anything else you want signed to bring it on!) and to take some photo's with us both. We had some general chatter and I didn't make too much of a dick of myself. He also commented on my t-shirt, saying it was very cool (I had a Moscow Peace Festival shirt on). We then said our goodbyes and while were being walked back out, the mighty Tico Torres walked past. Awesome.
We then went back to the VIP area on a big high, I enjoyed a few drinks while we waited for the show to begin. They had a Bon Jovi quiz in the VIP section (the winner would receive strings played by Richie, drumhead by Tico etc) which we won with 9 out of 10 questions answered correctly....unfortunately there were about 6 or 7 other winners as well which they didn't anticipate. We were told to give them our seat number and they would drop a prize off for us during the show. We ended up getting a copy of The Greatest Hits as our prize. Ripped off, but didn't really care at this stage!
The show was fantastic. I was wondering whether I would feel ripped off for spending so much money on the VIP package. I didn't. Our seats were great and we had an absolute ball. I would definitely do it again, if the bank balance allowed.
The band were on fire. JBJ looked like he was having a blast and he sounded fantastic, there were times during the show where I closed my eyes and he sounded like the old Jon Bon Jovi that I grew up listening to. There were many highlights for me. I was not at all expecting to hear "These Days" and I thought their performance of this track was flawless. I also really dug "I'll Be There For You" and it was great to hear all the big songs that you would have expected anyway..."Wanted", "Prayer" etc.
I'll be honest, if I saw this was the setlist before the show, I would have been kind of spewing. But being there I didn't give a rats arse. The bottom line is they looked like they were having a ball, the crowd were great and we were in the fifth row of The Circle. I loved every bloody last second of it.
Sorry my post was so long. I would post the photo's I have if I knew how. Can anyone help me? Bless ya's!
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12-20-2010, 12:34 PM
CONGRATS !!!
