Then, something incredible happened. Never in my entire life had I felt such emotion with what I saw next. It was a reminder of what dreams are all about. With Richie and Tico setting the tone in the background, Jon grabbed the microphone and said “I wanna take you on a little ride with me. I got 18,000 seats on my time machine. It’s warm inside and I got enough seatbelts for everybody. Inside is 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, look out 2000. Its 98, 97, 96, 93, 92, 91, 1989, 88, 87, it’s 1986. 85, 84, 83, 1982, STOP. Back in 1982 off the Long Island expressway just outside New York city, some young punk kid pulls into a parking outside a TV radio station, gets out of his car and kicks the door open and grabs the guy by the collar and says “Hey Mr DJ, I got right chords and a cool melody. What do say you do a little favour for me, cause after three minutes and thirty seconds, what ur gonna see is a rocking roll star””. When he said that (and the way he performed the time warp), I was absolutely breath taken. I felt I was being removed from the face of the earth by this time machine. As I was literally still in Jon’s time warp in the year 1982 (funnily I wasn’t born until 1984), it was a very emotional moment for me personally as a diehard fan because it not only triggered memories of my time as a fan, but also, revealed what the band is all about and how far they have come over the years, from the days of Slippery When Wet and New Jersey and then to Keep The Faith and These Days, and then to the Post 2000 era. It made me realise how one man’s self confidence and belief not only redefined the whole music industry but also, the lives of many, including my own. It was all about ‘the dream’ and to ‘never forget this dream’. 24 years later and they are rocking Australia. What made his time warp even more moving was that he was referring to himself, and to me, it was inspirational to know that this “punk kid” was a bloody confident kid who backed himself and believed in dreams. That carries extreme significance. It was a feeling that I will never forget, utterly unique. Truly special!!! Then, a split second after the words “rocking roll star” softly exited his mouth, BANG, the piano introduction for RUNAWAY was triggered. It just brought shivers down my spine. I really felt part of the band as much as the band was part of me because they have been such a huge part of my life. The band’s journey from 1982 until now has been like an endless roll coaster ride, and I’m so damn glad to have jumped onto the ride back in the year 2000 as a 16 year old kid who was ready to conquer the world.

After that extraordinary performance, the emotions were running high. At that point, I hoped they didn’t play Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars because they had played it in Melbourne at that point in the show. So, I was surprised and pleased when they played THE RADIO SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT. With an unusual track name, it was indeed a great song, and went down really well live. Lyrically, it was superb and it is quite hard to believe it didn’t make any of their main albums. I loved it when the song breaks down to the slow verse and Jon sings softly “The radio saved my life tonight. It was the sad song that the DJ played that made me feel alright, as I drove down that lonesome highway just me and my dashboard light, the radio saved my life tonight….”. It sounded quite moving and triggered the emotions. The lyrics were quite true in reality.

Another song concluded and I was in a dream world. The scream levels were sky high and the crowd was the wildest crowd I had ever seen. Every move the band made was received with holy cries. Not once did they stop. That made the night even more special and the band responded and gave it back a million times. At that point, I was hoping they didn’t sing ‘Summertime’, as I wasn’t a big fan of it. I was hoping to be surprised. As Richie blasted through the next song’s introduction, I was that carried away from the proceedings beforehand that I was slow to recognise the introduction to BLOOD ON BLOOD, as I never in my wildest dreams expected it to be played at that point. When realising, I went crazy. Again, this song is a personal favourite and was special live. The lyrics signify so much, especially about mateship and growing up. It reminded me of my schooling days and my closest friends with which I grew up with, and the 1980’s. It felt good listening to it in Sydney and knowing my mates were there to also experience it. It meant a lot more. The piano in conjunction with the drum and guitar work was awesome. The best part was when Jon explained vocally “Now Bobby, he's an uptown lawyer, Danny doing best that he can, and me, I'm still a singer, in a long haired rock'n'roll band” and smiles in agreement about his own destiny. The crowd exploded when they heard/saw that. One thing I noticed in the Sydney concert that was not evident at the Melbourne concert was that Jon’s voice sounded much better and he wasn’t afraid of trying to reach the high notes. In my opinion, he reached them and sounded good. I guess that’s proof that Jon wanted to give the Sydney fans everything he had after witnessing the gigantic reception from the Sydney crowd at the start of the show and continuously thereafter, and in my opinion, he did. I was surprised from that point of view because I was one of many who were critical (worried) of his current vocal range before the concert (in comparison to These Days, KTF, NJ era) after viewing recent performances on DVD and the internet and felt his voice was weakening. Yet, when hearing him live, he sounded much better. Therefore, it pleased me to come to the conclusion that yes, his voice is ageing, however, not weakening. It is still as strong as ever. My fondest memory of the song was when I heard the live version for the first time. It was an audio file that was recorded at a concert performed in Holland during the New Jersey Tour. What made it special was that before the main song was played, a spine tingling beautiful piano introduction was played, where Jon used it to say a few moving words, as follows “This is a song about innocence. It’s about truth. It’s about growing up and never growing old. It’s about convertibles and endless Saturday nights. And anyone who tries to forget em or tries to put em down I feel sorry for em cause I’ll tell you the truth, those are best times in your life. So when those Saturday nights come, don’t let them go to waste. Turn them up to ten and let that volume blast, and if it makes your mother just a little bit crazy, that’s ok, cause it’s only rockin roll and I like it. So tonight, a dedication, it’s called Blood on Blood”. This specific performance nailed me to the song forever. I must say that the best version I have physically watched on DVD was the Moscow 1989 performance (). That was incredible, quite special.

By that point, I was still coming to terms with where I was and what I was experiencing. It felt so surreal but at the same time so real in many ways. I was on a high after hearing one of my all time favourites and all I could remember crossing my mind at that point was that every single body present at the Acer Arena was extremely lucky, as they were not experiencing any ordinary show. It was truly special.