Well, first of all, despite it's glaring faults, it was a superb performance by the band; what was played was played in top form--Jon's vocals were top notch (he cut out on living on a prayer, but it doesn't matter, you couldn't hear him over the thousands singing over him in the chorus anyway; that doesn't bother me). I went into this after not attending a Jovi convert since the ridiculously bad concert at the Soaring Eagle a couple years back.

The All American Rejects did a great job; they really wanted to get the audience going. The guitarists jumped all over the stage with the vigor and orgasmic excorsisms of Richie in the eighties. The singer ran into the audience and sang and jumped on chairs. They really put on a great show and Bon Jovi could learn something from them, though they did run around the stage a bit. But The Rejects wanted it so bad, it was great and I enjoyed them. I was really sad that Jon didn't invite them out to sing It's My Life acoustically as it would have made perfect sense and sounded fantastic.

Now, the venue or the sound, I am not sure, was very poor and the harmonies being sung couldn't be heard very well with Bon Jovi and couldn't be heard at all with the rejects which was really disappointing since they both rely heavily on vocal harmonies. It was really bad.

Bon Jovi came out and seemed in great shape and in great moods; I don't know why the setlist was cut short at all. They seemed happy throughout the show; the audience was incredibly in to them and louder than the last show I saw during the Bounce tour here. Hearing BTBMB was so electrifying, I thought this show was going to hold some surprises, and it did. Hearing the Lost Highway tracks live at a stadium is something much more powerful than hearing them on the CD and I enjoyed them all. Like I said before though, they rely heavily on harmonies since they are much more quiet songs, and the harmonies weren't really good tonight. The only song I really lost interest in for a minute was Captain Crash. I don't understand why that is in any setlist when it could be replaced by any loved or rare song and get a better audience response. For instance, when Richie took on These Days, the audience went nuts; it was one of the loudest reactions of the night. This happened for Memory and, the biggest surprise, Bed of Roses. That was fantastic to hear.

I have been to five shows and never heard this song, so even though you have all heard it several times, it was like a curse was lifted from me tonight, so that was great And Jon hit ALL the notes.

Then, all of a sudden, we were in the encore, and there was no amount of fan cajoling and shouts (which were truly deafening they were so loud) that were going to make this band continue their set and add something really special for the diehards. I shouted more at the end of the concert and during the encore than I did all night (as did everyone in that stadium) and it meant nothing. And then hearing that the curfue was a half-hour later and seeing the $100 price tags on shirts afterward really just made me want to save my money next time by ripping their CD from the net and just going to the show and buying the shirt.

So, that was it. I took my girlfriend and it was her first concert and she thought it was the best thing she has ever done. This concert really was a fantastic show and everyone, myself included, left happy. However, once I started thinking about it afterward and came down from the cult-like high, I think any real fan, like myself, felt a little bitter and pissed that the band comes back home and goes in to autopilot every God damn time.

I mean come on; Captain freaking Crash but no rarities or special songs? This audience adored you.

**** that.

Did you know that Jon has a special mandate that no bottles or cans of beverages may be sold because he is afraid of being hit by them? The people at the Palace informed us of this and it makes me think Jon is sitting in some ivory tower and just out of touch.

Well, anyway, I really enjoyed the concert but now I am a pretty bitter about the whole thing. But I can't deny that it was great show (I FINALLY got to hear a song from These Days which, even though unsurprising, was still quite a great experience for all of my friends and I, and I really like the Bluesy version of it), and it was much better than the Soaring Eagle debacle.

B