This show was just as good as any European show, and the only thing that disappointed me was that it wasn't treated as a show that opened a building. Back in the car we all realised that if Springsteen had opened this show he probably would've played at least another half hour and although some people might say it's unfair to compare the 2 bands, Bon Jovi and Springsteen are both artists of the same area and play in the same venues and probably have the same audience. I didn't get why Jon didn't want to go on longer. The acoustic set could've been longer, a rare song or 2 could've been played in between there and I do think that the reason why all things were done the way they were done is because he gets too focused on the production. Still,

Rating on the Supersonic’s all mattering Bon Jovi review index:
***** The ****ing bollocks!!!
**** Top show.
*** Yeah, well that was alright...
** Piss poor performance. Nnngg!!!
* Jon you cunt I hope you go bald within 1 day!

By now I'm in Chicago and have to wait for my connecting flight to Calgary to meet Bang_A_Drum, also known by his friends, family and enemies as Erik. Once again there's plenty of free wifi available but all connections are so poor at the place where I'm sitting right now that I can't really do anything apart from just typing my review, which is what I'm doing right now. The laptop is charging and on my right I see the planes landing and taking off. I'm sitting here thinking right now how much my life has changed in such a short time. About a week ago they finally told me I graduated but I wasn't even thinking about it anymore. All I thought and think about is Kathleen's daughter Katherine, and who would've thought I'd meet someone in America of who I'd just know that she would be my wife someday? The reason why I'm including all the flight details and everything is because I honestly can't understand why travelling this much can be boring to many artists. I'm just sitting here on the floor with a laptop on my knees hoping it gets charged on time before I have to get on the plane to Canada, but they're having all the luxury in the world and I don't understand how you could get bored over something like that. The only thing that I start to realise is that all this traveling can make you very tired, yet they've got all the luxury aboard of the plane as well. I've been lucky to have been able to sit near the path between the chairs so far, but I was also able to see the chairs of the 1st class. You can easily fall asleep there and sleep as comfortable as you can in your own bed. So really, I don't see why there's any reason to complain about traveling to and from the shows. Us Europeans think traveling to a show that's over 45 minutes away is a bitch, yet it easily takes you 45 minutes to get to Giants stadium, even if you live in New Jersey. So what's all the talk about their homecoming show about then? All the talk on how “they don't have to travel for those shows”, when most of the band don't even live in New Jersey anymore? To me it comes across as complaining for the sake of complaining.

Night 2
Anyway, those are just things I start to realise now that I've started to travel this much. I'll review the second show now, a show of which a lot can't really be said, apart from it being a lot more fun than the first show. I reckon Jon felt the pressure was off. On the way in the car I started to predict all the changes and sadly I was right because I guessed 5 of them as they'd been changing the same songs every time they played 2 consecutive nights in a row. Still, there were a few surprises as in Never Say Goodbye, a song of which I don't think it was planned as apparantly the wrong lyrics came up on the teleprompter, this resulting into Jon messing up the lyrics once he realized he needed the lyrics of the second verse, and they weren't there. And even though it's appaling that he can't remember the lyrics to his songs it's these little things that make the show more fun. He messed up and it's not a bad thing, this is a moment during which anyone just thinks “Oh well, who cares”.

So yeah, this show was good, a fair amount of setlist changes, a few more rare songs in there and really the only downside was that Terri let Katherine in the pit which meant there was no way I'd be able to be at this show with her, even though we hadn't planned it that way either. I was there with Alana, who, I'm ashamed to say this, took a piss break. Now Alana, you know I like you but you lost a lot of my respect because no matter how bad the show is, piss breaks are a thing only bad, baaaaaad people do. She took one during Memory and I honestly don't understand why Jon thinks a show like Memory needs to be played at a show like this. I know he wants his solo spot but then why play absolute shit songs there like Memory and Hallelujah? And why does he even need that solo spot? Over the years the “this is a man band” has turned into a “I am the fearless leader of a bunch of muppets who will just have to accept everything I do” band, a thing that became very obvious in the documentary. So no, Memory or Hallelujah don't need to be played at these shows. Do them in your own time, and judging by the crowd reactions to Memory it's clear that I'm not the only one who seems to think so. Yes, there's people who like it, I know Kathleen likes Hallelujah, but seriously, why at every show? Why should it be a regular? And why should Memory be it's standard replacement every time Hallelujah is out of the set?

I feel the same about the acoustic set. There's just so much more they can do and it's cool that Something For The Pain is performed every night, but the acoustic version of Sat Night? Is this once again the “one for you, one for me” theory? Why not make the acoustic set something during which they jam a bit? At the jam sessions after the first show I played a shitload of stuff on my acoustic guitar and I just showed that it is possible to rock out on an acoustic guitar. Heck, Bon Jovi showed it in the nineties when they did acoustic versions of Little Bit Of Soul and These Days. If my acoustic rendition of Blame It On The Love Of Rock & Roll works in a room of die hards and casual fans, it surely should work in a stadium performed by a full band. So why not make it more fun? Once again the spontanity suffers from the production. It's all a little too perfect, from the “Tico people have been waiting for 25 years to see you stand” to the “sexiest accordion player David Bryan” comment. Sure, it works, but there's no way they sold out 4 shows to 240.000 different people. It's a bit appaling that Jon gets stuck with the same songs and even the same comments in between the songs because he slowly becomes a caricature of himself when doing that.

Anyway, enough rambling for now. Because unlike what you might think, I honestly think it was a good show. It's just that I can't help but feeling that it could be a lot better. Still, Keep The Faith was, apart from the one in Amsterdam 2003, the best Keep The Faith I've ever heard. Jon gave everything and during this performance it became obvious that this was a man possessed by his own song. I have never, ever seen a singer try to give everything he had as Jon did that night. Yes, we all know that the vocals weren't perfect, but he was trying and succeeded. His vocals right now are at the level you can expect of a band who toured that much in the eigthties. He's about to be 50 years old, Keep The Faith is 20 years old, so this is more than acceptable. I told Alana that she'd be surprised at how amazing the pyro would be and I hoped it wouldn't be just for the first night, but no, once again we had the pyro that made it special on the first night, and tonight Jon was a very tired, but happy man when he left the stage for the main set. I was hoping for a huge surprise in the encore but Jon in a way played it safe by opening with one of their biggest hits. By now most of you have seen how his voice was failing near the end of the song but once again, that's alright considering he struggled with it already on the 1996 tour and unlike what many of you think, his voice is better on Always now than it was back in 1996. Yes, he was able to do the screaming near the end, but apart from that his voice was a lot thinner back then. He now hits the chorus with full power, and I can live with him struggling to make it to the end when the rest of the performance is that good. Sadly, the “More hits than the Soprano's” comment had to be made afterwards, which once again is him going directly back to the same routine. When Wanted started we knew there would only be a 3 song encore but it was alright. Alana told me it was the best she'd ever seen. Me being the almighty European I have to disagree with that but I can understand why an Amurrecan would be impresssed by this when comparing it to the bog standard auto pilot stuff they usually get. So yeah, good show, and better than night 2.

Rating on the Supersonic’s all mattering Bon Jovi review index:
***** The ****ing bollocks!!!
**** Top show.
*** Yeah, well that was alright...
** Piss poor performance. Nnngg!!!
* Jon you cunt I hope you go bald within 1 day!