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Aloha !

Here's the first review, I just got home. So here you go. A real update from your very own superhero. This one is for you, in case you missed me.

What a crap show.

Actually, it wasn't at all. I'm still excited about the gig. For me, it was without a doubt the best Bon Jovi show I've ever seen. **** all the American shows, I've heard the bootlegs and they all sucked. **** the Japanese shows, they weren't that great either.

Tonight, there really was magic in the air. Instead of Avril Lavigne half of the latest Audioslave CD was played over the PA before Nickelback came on. (Some people from here would've loved it). Nickelback by the way, are gay. Totally gay, dude. With their stolen Metallica riffs and their pussy hard rock ballads. Next, after Nickelback, Avril Lavigne came on, but was turned off again, and AC/DC was put over the PA. And a lot louder than usual. Finally, no more Linkin Park/Limp Bizkit aka RyanBounce06 hardrock.

The crowd was absolutely superb, I did not expect the German people to react like that to the first song. To be honest, I didn't expect Bon Jovi to play the **** out of the songs either. For the people saying that it was predictable: It wasn't. Many of you know that I keep up with the stuff closely, and this order of songs was very different compared to the American/Japanese shows. The only show that comes close to this order was the last show in Japan.

This was the first Bon Jovi show for me since my first gig in 2001 of which I could not predict the next song. "This will be Complicated" and Crash was played. Jon forgot the words during Crash, but who the **** cares, it's a crap song anyway, and I just had a blast during the opener. Jon was 5 feet away from me, grabbed me and kissed me! Actually he didn't, but I've got to make this interesting for the ****ing backstagers somehow.

http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/IMAGE_00523.jpg
Jon during Last Man Standing, using the catwalk.

Ah yeah, about the stage. It looks like a combination of the Crush and Bounce stages and it looks crap in daylight, but looks stunning with all the lights and stuff on. A lot better than the techno hifi Bounce stage for Europe.

My next guess was "This will be Story Of My Life" and I'd Die For You was played. It was played very early and came as a surprise to many people and it was greeted with a nice cheer. Jon did the guitar solo on it together with Richie. It's a nice try but it failed miserably. "This will be Runaway" and The Radio Saved My Life Tonight was played. Boy I've never been so wrong during a Bon Jovi gig. Novocaine was the next HAND song that appeared in the set, and no silly "Women rule the world" speech. Whoohoo. Women do not rule the world. I rule the world. And Jon should know that by now.

The place was jumping right from the start, but I had a feeling it really started during In These Arms, a song people probably didn't expect. And it was performed much, much, much better than the terrible version of the song during the Bounce Tour. Yomama would've loved it. However, Bobby B had to do the solo, which he of course ****ed up, it was like Noel Gallagher playing a Bon Jovi guitar solo.

Then the first real disappointment of the night came. Joey. Except for Thierry probably nobody wanted to hear that song, so it was time for our banners. Unlike the banners a friend of mine posted on the Dutch board with ideas like "Are you a pussy or what - play Damned you twat", "Ill buy you a six pack of beer - If Bad Name doesn't appear" and the likes (people got upset about it, and got scared that Jon might be going on auto pilot and stuff, idiots!, I'd never hurt Jon and his feelings) The first banners in fact were:

Be a rock band and rock our socks off
Play a killer version of Hey God

No Hey God tonight, but during the ad libs you could see Jon reading the banners, smiling and singing "hey god, hey god, the kids they want hey god". How lovely. So everytime you hear Jon sing this on the bootleg, you will be thinking about me from now on.

It's My Life was the second disappointment. I can understand the reasons why they play it, but it just totally sucks live. It's slow, boring and overplayed. So time for the second series of banners.

Like to see my girl have multiple orgasms?
Give her One Wild Night.

How cheesy. Jon read it, and laughed a lot during It's My Life. Oh yeah, he read it again, let's hope he does something with it! I expected the acoustic part to take place as an acoustic bass guitar was placed on stage, but none of it all happened. Oh yeah. No TLFR shite. Richie started I'll Be There For You and it really was his moment. For all the people from America saying that he doesn't look happy; they're right. He doesn't. He looks like shit and completely worn out, and I'll Be There For You definitely was the moment on which Richie shined the most. You could see him enjoying it the most. And when he had finished it, Jon returned on stage and did a reprise of it on the acoustic guitar, just like during the Bounce Tour.

Next of my guesses was something like "This will be Bad Medicine" and there was a short but great, powerful rendition of Saturday Night, followed by a version of Keep The Faith that got a little messy in the middle, but they still played the **** out of it, including the powerful jungle screams (no nasal Jon this time), ánd a version of Sympathy For The Devil on which improvised with singing the lyrics in a different time structure which made it more interesting as well. Bad Medicine did have the "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait" teaser in it, but Shout wasn't played. Thank God. Raise Your Hands was good, Prayer was good, it was all good. Very good.

The encore opened with a nice rendition of Bells Of Freedom and by this time I realized that the turd Compligayted would not be played tonight. Hooray. About ****ing time. Bells is much better live than the album version and actually all the songs from Have A Nice Day (we got 5 of them) sound a lot better when played live. Sleep was to me the most boring song of the evening, it sounded messy and what followed next were one of the best moments during a Bon Jovi gig ever.

I expected the show to end by now. They'd started at 20:20, and the curfew at a lot of venues is 23:00. They had 7 minutes left, so I expected Wanted, like most people did. During the time the band had left the stage, people came on stage putting about 6 feet of paper in front of Jon's mike. Would this be the moment? Jon returned. No acoustic guitar, so no Wanted.

"This is for all the die hards." And then the intro of Dry County started. The pit went crazy, everyone loved it. Everyone. The last time it was played was in 1996. And not 1995 like someone else mentioned in the "official Dusseldorf topic that doesn't even have the setlist on the first page" like on all the other "official xxxx topics". Anyway...about the song.

It was tuned down I think. There's no way Jon is able to sing it in the original key. But who cared? Except from Jon cheating on the paper for the lyrics, and Richie making some tiny mistakes, it was magic. It really was. Everything about it was great. There was no speech, but it didn't need one anyway. It was fantastic like it was. From start to finish. From the first vocals, to the completely different guitar solo to the drums that followed "night after night after night after night..." They were immense! I always expected the song to be special when it's played live, but never this special. Being there, while one of the most appreciated songs of Bon Jovi makes it's return to the set, being there with so many die hards, backstager or not, realizing that what we're getting is aimed at us, the fans, is truely amazing. I don't know why Jon has decided to get it back in, something must've caused it for sure, and it finally felt like the "here's to 20 years of your friendship, support blah blah blah di blah blah - speech" was true by rewarding it with something special like Dry County.

Anyway, getting back on the ground, Wanted followed, Richie sang the second verse, the band went off, came back on and Jon ran over the catwalk singing Treat Her Right while shaking hands with the crowd.

http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/IMAGE_00527.jpg
Jon during Treat Her Right, using the catwalk.

And then the show ended. So, no requests were played. But the return of Dry County, Keep The Faith with as many ad libs as you could imagine, Jon being in good shape, Jon smiling at me with "The Smile ©" made all up for it.

Well that's it. This is what happened tonight. If they can keep it up like this, this will be the best European Tour since the These Days Tour. Bon Jovi have never rocked this hard since 1995. It's really worth your money. If anyone is still thinking about going, go.

One last thing. We, the Europeans, got Dry County. That is because we, the Europeans, are the best fans in the world. You yanks stink. Goodnight.

Setlist:
1. Last Man Standing (Jon on catwalk)
2. You Give Love A Bad Name
3. Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars
4. I'd Die For You
5. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
6. Novocaine
7. Everyday
8. Born To Be My Baby
9. Story Of My Life (Jon on catwalk)
10. Joey
11. In These Arms
12. Have A Nice Day
13. Who Says You Can't Go Home
14. It's My Life
15. I'll Be There For You (Richie on lead vocals) + Jon reprise
16. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
17. Keep The Faith ~ Sympathy For The Devil
18. Bad Medicine
19. Raise Your Hands
20. Livin' On A Prayer

Encore #1:
21. Bells Of Freedom
22. Runaway
23. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Encore #2:
24. Dry County
25. Wanted Dead Or Alive

Encore #3:
26. Treat Her Right (Jon on catwalk)

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan