Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - Personal Review of 19th June @ O2

Originally we were booked to head down to the O2 on Saturday 26th June for the last show of the residency, with upper tier seats booked.
However, we decided last weekend that money cannot be an all deciding factor in how we live our lives. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and take a risk. It’s been pretty much 2 years since we had a proper evening away from the kids, so we needed to make the most of it.
The result – 2 tickets in A3 for Saturday 19th June.

We headed out from home around 3pm with the intention of parking at Stanmore and getting the tube straight down to the O2. First problem – Green Day at Wembley Stadium. Didn’t plan that very well did we?! Took 45 mins just to get a parking space. The omens were mixed too, as a driver leaving the car park handed us their ticket to use. Unfortunately the parking attendant ripped it up – all for the sake of £1!
Karma came round very swiftly though as someone getting off the tube handed us their travelcards to use, so free travel for the day.

We arrived at the O2 just after 6 and received a text saying the band were just arriving at the pier. Ran round, only to find that they were already in the cars and about to transfer – oh well, worth a try.

So on to our seats – with my wife not trusting my word that we had arguably the best in the arena. I’ve never seen her react like she did when we found Row D…. Especially as there was no Row A! Let’s just say that she owes me for life!!!
Top of her bucket list would be to stand front row at a Jovi show.
Other than the 4/5 rows in the pit there was nothing/no-one, just the walkway and the safety barrier. And with the security guys ensuring only the end seat on the row could stand against the barrier, there was no crush of people against her.

Roll on the 8.30 start and what a start it was!
Seeing that huge screen lower down in front of the stage, with the video of the circle – time for the hairs to start standing up on your neck. We could see Bobby to the side, so knew the guys were ready to go – and straight into Happy Now – frickin’ awesome!
I could see the tears rolling down my wife’s face – mission accomplished!
She’d blown Jon a kiss and he seemed to spot it and smile back (God, do I have a lot to live up to).
I’ve not seen Jon and the boys open a show with such enthusiasm in a LONG time, just completely full of energy.

The crowd were completely into We Weren’t Born To Follow and if this is how the show opened, we had to be in for a classic.
Now, personally I like to claim that I hate Bad Name and, when I hear it on the iPod I skip it. However, on Saturday I loved it again! There’s just something about the energy it brings into the arena with everyone singing along.

The pace slowed a little with In These Arms, and I kind of hoped we would get Dave singing a bit (by which time incidentally, Dave had acknowledged my wife waving at him).
Now come the Slippery/Jersey classics – Born To Be My Baby, Wild in the Streets and then Wild is the Wind. Holy crap!!!
Again, I confirm, I’ve not seen this level of happiness and fun in a performance since 2000 at Wembley. The option of not travelling every other day has definitely paid dividends.

Many people don’t like having Captain Crash in the set, but again, it’s one that gets 100% crowd interaction – I love it…..
From Crash into Runaway – crowd went MENTAL!!!
I’m not a particular liker of We Got It Goin’ On , but what it did do was let Jon interact with the fans behind the stage. Seeing those video screens transform into a mini stage/walkway – WOW! I still think the line of “getting down with Big & Rich and Richie and Jon” could be changed to incorporate Tico & Dave.

Now comes the 2nd song that I detest when I hear it – Bad Medicine. Yet again though I’m drawn into loving it live. Full of energy and then the “jukebox” and what a jukebox it was. Firstly we have Paint it Black and then Pretty Woman. I’m not sure which went down better, but again the crowd loved it.
I’ve never noticed how intently the rest of the guys watch Jon during Bad Medicine. They are 100% focussed on his lead, especially where he tries to catch them out with the single note, single beat moments going into the jukebox. Absolutely spot on with every indication from Jon and that comes purely from being a tight unit.

Time for Jon to have a very well deserved break from duty, and let Richie take the mic. I didn’t know what to expect with his version of Lay Your Hands on Me, but it was again fantastic. No argument from me there…

Now comes the moment we’ve been waiting for. The moment we booked walkway seats for…. Jon comes down to sing Open All Night. You know something? It worked – stepping down from a lot of high tempo songs into a quiet ballad was a solid move.

Richie joined for Diamond Ring and I’ll Be There For You (queue more tears from the wife).
By now I’m thinking block A2 would have been better as it was front and centre. Cant’ have everything in life though!
Lastly, Dave & Tico joined in with Love For Sale.
A nice little 4 part set on the walkway, though I do have one BIG criticism.
We had seen that previously, Jon had used the walkway in it’s entirety during some songs, but this time they stuck to the middle of it, meaning no coming along to our end. A shame, but not a killer. Maybe it was because the bloke next to my wife was getting more and more drunk and therefore more and more vocal!

Back up to the stage for Working Man…. Worst song of the night, especially when you’ve paid a shit load of money for those seats!
Seems like a fair chunk of the crowd agreed with these sentiments too…
It’s My Life brought the spirit back up to full though, full of zest once again.
It has to be in there, as it’s their biggest UK hit!

If the crowd were into IML 100%, then Who Says You Can’t Go Home had them at 120%. Never heard it sound so good, from band vocal or crowd interaction.
Keep The Faith heralded the end of the main set and I have to admit that I was VERY happy so far.

Now, I’d seen on here that the guys had soundchecked Something To Believe In, so there was a strong chance it would make it’s appearance at last. All I could think was of the guys here who had mentioned they wanted it their night, but feared it would happen before then – and it did!
I could tell who the fellow boardmembers were around me, just by the yelp of joy when the intro started!
I’m not sure if Jon deliberately restructured the song or whether they just made a mess of it in the middle, but it didn’t sound at all right.
Vocally Jon nailed it, which is hard for him to do with most songs from These Days.
Again, coming back into the chorus repeat, they didn’t seem that tight.
But again, what they hell, who really cares when it’s not been played for so long.

Much like WSYCGH was the best I’ve heard from them, so was Saturday Night. Maybe it’s because it actually was Saturday gave it that little extra kick.
What can you say about Wanted & Prayer that hasn’t been said many times already?!
It’s the most obvious closer that they can have, and has the crowd entirely to the last note.

We definitely walked out of the Arena having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and happy that we paid the money.
A3 was the place to be in terms of having Jon come over. Because Hugh was over by Richie it left less room for Jon to roam around on that side. Instead he was constantly over by us.
We took over 400 photos between us, so it says it all that we are still not entirely happy that the 140 best aren't quite crisp enough!

I would have loved to see/hear Dry County performed, especially as out of the 11 previous shows, I’ve yet to hear it! Same with These Days, although we did have Richie singing it 2 years ago.

It’s pretty safe to say that our seats and the performance could never be bettered. It’s tempting to say that we would never go to another show again, as comparing it would be pointless. We know that will never be the case though as that buzz will stay with us.

If one thing spoilt it, it was the family on the row in front.
The dad/husband got more and more intoxicated as the night went on and couldn’t keep still for a minute. He was intent on getting his 8 year old son noticed by Jon, and I think this put Jon off coming to our side.
Not like he could complain though, the kid managed to leave with a guitar pick that Obie gave him, one of Tico’s drumsticks, and the setlist!

Now comes the hard part, deciding what to do on 25th.
We were in the lucky few to get the £5 tickets with the plan of taking our 6 & 4 year olds along. The 6 year old is well up for going, but the 4 year old would rather go to Legoland (go figure).
The noise level was incredibly high down at the front, but not sure what it’s like from 110.
I don’t doubt for a moment that neither will last more than an hour, but at £30 for the 4 of us that’s not an issue.
We’re ensuring that the ipod only plays Bon Jovi, just so they learn the songs properly.
It’s just a shame that they won’t get noticed by the band – I’d love for Jon to pick my daughter out and either wave at her or pull her up for a dance!

In summary – from the 12 shows I’ve been to in 14 years, 19th June 2010 ranks as #3 in my list, just behind the 2 nights at Wembley in 2000.
Considering everyone’s 10 years older, that’s not a bad position to be in!