Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - Gelsenkirchen review.

Aloha !

About the support act :
Live is very famous in Holland compared to the rest of the world. They can easily sell out a gig for about 8000 people over here while they have to be happy with 600 man in Germany or so. I don't like them that much. Most of their songs sound the same and the guitar player has got absolutely no qualities I think. They've got a few good songs though. I went to the gig with 6 other people who were all from Holland and I think we were the only one who were enjoying it that much. Most of those Germans looked at us and did not know why we were enjoying it that much. Like I Do was good, I Alone was good, but as soon as they had played half an hour Thierry and me had enough of it and started looking for the toilets.

About Bon Jovi :
I have to say that I was impressed how good it all sounded. A much better sound as the sound from the OWN or Crush tour and all of the older songs did sound better as usual. When Jon entered the stage the first thing he did was throwing a glass of water towards a photographer and you could see he was pissed about him. We still do not know why.
As usual they started playing Bounce and everyone was into it. Just like during the OWN tour the opener was a great sing-along song and after Bounce Bad Name, WITS and Prayer followed. No talkbox intro but a guitar intro which sounds great and I'd like that intro to last a bit longer. Everyday isn't really a song on which you can jump or clap because it just does not have the right beat the jump on. Undivided was played with the acoustic intro again which I don't like because it makes the song slower. Compare the Shepherds Bush version with the one from any particular show in the US. Those in the US are much slower just like it is in Europe now. Runaway followed and was played good and then finally Keep The Faith. It's my favorite track and it still hasn't lost it's energy and power over the years. No Jungle medley in the break but the song was still great. Sambora was God during this song.
During this tour Wanted isn't played as anything special. No Midnight Rider, No acoustic intro, it's just the keyboards and it starts. Jon let's us sing the first couplet and chorus though the German people didn't know the words at all.
I know In These Arms is a crowd favorite but they don't need to play it anymore from me, because this song has lost all it's power. There is no enthousiasm anymore so I wouldn't mind if they'd start skipping it. It's My Life was played very good, no talkbox problems during the intro. Misunderstood was really the highlight of the show. NOT They should be ashamed of playing such a song. And the most stupid thing about it was that the crowd liked it. They do not sing along on Undivided or Wanted, but they dó sing along at Misunderstood. Right Side Of Wrong was played and they made at least one person happy with it (Thierry) Later on that evening we found out it was replaced for The Distance since they didn't play that song. I was happy about that. Richie sang I'll Be There For You smoothly and though it sounds very good, without the harmonies it's no real I'll Be There For You. Blaze followed because when Richie does his thing people should not forget Jon has got two solo albums too. I almost fell asleep now, since we had four slow songs in a row. Jon must have realized that too when he wrote the setlist since they started playing Hook Me Up. For me it was together with Faith the highlight of the show. I expected Bounce or Undivided to be the best song from Bounce in concert, but it was Hook Me Up that did that. You can easily compare it with classic songs like Bad Name or Prayer and I really wonder why they don't play it everynight and if they'll keep it in the set next tour. I really really hope so. Born To Be My Baby, Sleep and Raise Your Hands really kept the tempo going and we were finally back to the roots from Bon Jovi : Rock. Not for long though. Raise Your Hands was the end of the first set and the first encore started with a weak and a bit to slow version of Older followed by a very good version of Sat. Night. The break has gotten better this time and when you hear it you'll know what I mean. There's a lot more power in it this time. End of encore I, start of Encore II. Captain Crash isn't my favorite but again the crowd liked it a lot. I realized the big show was over when Bad Medicine and Shout followed. We got one extra thing, All About Lovin' You in an acoustic way. Bonjovi.com tells you it was Richie and Jon on stage, though Dave was there too. The song itself isn't that great but it would have fit right before Hook Me Up.

Cons :
-After the first 11 songs the tempo was slowed down too much.
-Setlist, but we all know that so I won't start a discussion about it.
-Like I mentioned a few times before, the crowd. What is wrong with you people in Germany ? When you're attending a gig in Holland you'll see what I mean with a great crowd. This wasn't a good crowd, there were moments it looked like the US.

After all it was still a great concert. Every song was played very good, and at some moments it was almost a different band like the one on the OWN tour. And I don't mean that in a negative way. If I had to rate it it got four stars out of five.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan