Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - Zurich review

I´ll leave the travelling and tourist nonsense out of this and get straight to the show day although Zurich really is THE place to visit in europe. I suppose The Girls will post their review sooner or later and cover the whole experience.

We got to the queue about 9pm and got numbers 008 - 010. (me being number eight so before The Girls and so fücking proud of it :D) as always there was a lot of inconvenience about where the FC should queue. Local security monkeys didn´t know a thing (but did have big machineguns, didnt want to mess with them) so we just made a line on the back of the stadium and slept there. Light show was pretty nice as they were testing the stage whole nigth and the sky was colored every now and then. It was very warm night. Minimum temperature was around 22 degrees celcius. During the night I slept and when I woke up there were something like 40 fc members in the queue. The Girls took over the organizing project and did one hell of a great job there. Gotta respect everyone who has ever did that. As a real gentleman I concentrated on drinking as it was HOT (36 degrees in the shade) and watched The Girls do the dirty job. Some german (I think) girls helped The Girls and The List filled up one by one. Everything was great. We were in the rows of four already and nicely in line. Although we had absolutely NO information where we should line up. time was about 10am or something. Someone told us that the info desk should be opened at 11 and that then we would get to know the needed facts.... well... that never happened. We knew nothing until Kevin (from BJ staff) came over and took the list and told us where to go. We moved to the VIP entrance and at this point we didnt have the list and the line was getting pretty ugly... and some people were there without numbers etc. But it sorted out well. Thanks to The Girls and the german helpers. Then after a little wait we were let inside the gates but not really to the stadium because local security had fücked up and they didnt know anything about the FC so they didn´t let us in even though Kevin told we would walk in 10 minutes if the local monkeys couldnt get their sh!t together. and that we did. nice and smooth. Until some Italian jerks started running from the back and tried to get in front. The line was stopped in the middle of the stadium and people were put in order. Then we started walking again nicely but when we got to the pit entrance things got out of hands. people were running to get in barricade and I quess I was the only one doing as it was told to do.. and I was a little "out" so I didn´t realise it until some woman was next to me and getting ahead. that´s when it hit that this time we have to fight for our spot on the front. And we did that well :) no details needed here right? :) *cencored* We ended up right in the middle. although I was the one how was furthest away from the centre although I had smaller number on my hand than The Girls... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Next to me was some Italian without a number, yes she probably came to queue when we were already let inside the gates and still got in the front. on the other side of our group of three was another Italian with the number 52. German girls behind me had numbers like 168 or so. That got really messy yes. The woman that tried to get pass me when we were walking ended up in the front row but far away from the centre. I smiled, sorry :)

Then the wait... it was something I dont wanna memorise. It must´ve been around 60 degrees of celcius in the sun and there was no shadow places available in the pit. the floor was hot as hell and so was the barricade.there were lots of people around so the wind couldn´t blow any air to us. It was pretty painful yes. Opening acts were good. I really liked the Swiss band called POSH and their singer (woman, girl maybe) had a nice ass :P. The Girls of course didnt like the band because they have an attitude towards unknown musicians especially when they are not men. But for me it was great to hear some fresh music as an opener. LIVE were also good although the sound wasn´t really good. The new songs and Dolphins rock. I think I gotta buy the "Pirds Of Prey". So very nice supporting acts in general. Got my mind a bit away from the heat that was causing people to faint in GA and also in the pit only couple of minutes before BJ entering the stage. Just before the intro started the sun had gone down behind the stadium roof so it was easier to breath.

Bon Jovi - time!!!!!!!

Bounce started a rocking night off. You probably all know the usual songs and how they are performed so I only tell you about the stuff that was unusal... well... at least for me. The first thing was the audience. Zurich audience was great.. I mean GREAT.. everyone knew where to sing out loud and really gave their all although the long day in the HOT sun must´ve tired some up. In the pit there were some teenagers that were screaming also when not supposed to but the main thing is that everyone was singing when supposed to. Something that I hadn´t seen in my previous concerts (Finland 2000, Sweden 2001).

BOUNCE
Great workout here
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
Great audience here
WILD IN THE STREETS
The usual, Jon very energetic running across the stage and waving to people.
LIVIN' ON A PRAYER
Nice new beginning with Richies guitar. Also great audience in the beginning. Best version of this song I´ve witnessed live.
EVERYDAY
Great lasers. better than the song. nothing to mention here.
RUNAWAY
Was my first time to hear this live electric. stunning performance. Richie really kicked ass and jons vocals really handled this one well.
KEEP THE FAITH
No jungle-part but the scream was there although I don´t get what´s so special in it :) also some neverbeforeseen shadowboxing and I think richie improvised at some point. dunno for sure though
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
Usual. Great crowd again. Sang the whole first verse and new the lyrics. Was great to be part of this.
IN THESE ARMS
same as in 2001.
IT?S MY LIFE
During the usual performance jon went down to every band member and told something. The Girls lipread that he said One Wild Night so we were waiting something special to happen in a minute.
ALWAYS
And this was the speciality. Worked for me at least cause I had never witnessed this one live. Richie had some new guitar parts and sounded tremendous. They really nailed Always. One of the highlights in the show definately. Nice lightshow too. Stage went completely red at some points etc.
SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT
no slow intro which I missed. I love the slow intro. Pretty long version though... Jon added one verse totally and richie got to improvise again.
JUST OLDER
They went straight to this one from saturday night... pretty cool I think.. would like to hear that again. otherwise the usual.. crowd went crazy during the silence part. The Girls thought that was unappropriate. how boring...
UNDIVIDED
Slow intro... who played the violin??.. didnt see any on stage :) Images on screen... well.... bono - like preaching was avoided at least.. Great song live. One of my favourites and the crowd sang the last shorus amazingly... never heard anything like that before. Great to be part of this.
I?LL BE THERE FOR YOU (Richie Sambora on lead vocals)
Amazing, sensitive... and still rocked the hair off my a$$. pretty cool yes. And the lightshow with the colored "stars" on the back... great great great.. and audience... wow... amazing, amazing, amazing. Richie came in the center stage to just stand arms wide open and take all the audience chanting in... great vibe I must say... and I think I have picture of that too.
I'D DIE FOR YOU
This came from the sky like a lightning... I was still waiting and chanting the end of IBTFY when they suddenly striked to DIE4U and I was totally mentally out of there so I missed a bit from there. Got there pretty quick though and heard the amusing heart-ripping, guts tearing solo from richie. Great live performance. Really great. Hope you hear it too.
BLOOD ON BLOOD
Thought it was captain crash, but then it hit me... now how could this part of the show get any better.. the original version on BOB and great solo as usually by richie and the song itself... it can´t be bad.
BORN TO BE MY BABY
Two, three, four! usual performance but when the song ended the crowd was still singing the nanananaa - part so jon came to his mice and shouted the nanananaa and the crowd followed.... well... so did the band.. and they played the chorus one more time and richie improvised once again with guitar. Great version. Best I´ve heard.
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD
The usual. I don´t really get into this anymore. I decided to have a lunch break and concetrate on holding my "It´s all about the music" banner in front of all the "You are so sexy, I love you" banners ;)
RAISE YOUR HANDS
Thought they were gonna do wild in the streets again :)... similar beginning with ticos drums... but the song... great workout... and the crowd... wow.. images on the big screen.. everyone and I mean EVERYONE in the stadium was raising their hands and punching the air during chorus. Richie was really impressed by this you could see it in his face.

Encore:
CAPTAIN CRASH & THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS
BAD MEDICINE
SHOUT
The usual... I really am getting sick of this encore... although Crash had a nice speech of jon talking about how this hand-waving habit during this song started 2000 in this same stadium and that it has never been done better so he want´s to see it again the way it´s done on the DVD. Then he said he always thinks about Zurich when he sees that waving done in concert... yeah right... we believe you jon.. :)

Great show, great rock show, great light show... shitty encore and the lack of Bounce songs really pissed me a bit but overall it was really great. But seriously on BOUNCE world tour I would´ve thought they would´ve played more than 3 songs out of that album. One encore more and The Distance and RSOW and I would have been sold. Anyway.. this was my best Bon Jovi show and in couple of days I´m going to my first Bruce Springsteen show and he gotta do a lot of work to top this one.

After the show we were exhausted. It was still hot although it was already night.

Rock on!

M