Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - My São Paulo and Rio adventure + opinions about the band´s moment

Ok ... I´ve calmed down now, my hands and legs stopped shaking, so I can finally write a full review about what happened to me between October 6 and 9 of 2010.

First, let me assure you that I don´t want to start another discussion about which crowd (US, Europe, Asia, South America) is better… I´ll go back to this later.

Well, I´ve been to 16 Bon Jovi concerts in the US, and I enjoyed every one of them very much. I live in a city 300 miles away from São Paulo, and when I heard about the possibility of a show here in Brazil, I couldn’t know what to expect. So I got tickets to São Paulo and Rio and hoped that my first concert in my country could match up to what I´ve seen in the US (especially Soldier Field night 1 and 2 last July). When I saw Buenos Aires set list, I almost fainted. The first thought I had was: “This is it … If I´m ever going to hear These Days, this is it! It has to be it!”. I heard always, blaze of glory, damned, dry county, diamond ring, turn the page, roulette, shot thought the heart, get ready live before, and I went completely crazy when it happened, but my passion for These Days is beyond that.

I got a hotel in São Paulo, and I decided to leave for the show around 16:00, since I had a premium GA ticket. I went to the hotel front to get a taxi, and what I saw was unbelievable: a business convention had just ended, and around 100 people had formed a line for taxis. I stood in line for two hours and five (yes, FIVE) taxis arrived. So I decided to walk to the avenue in front and try to get a taxi there. I tried for another hour and every single one was taken. I looked at my watch and it was already 7 pm. I had two hours to get to the stadium, which was 6.5 miles from where I was. I said: f*** it, let´s run ! And so I ran … There were times when my legs were hurting so bad but I thought: “you want to miss These days live? Keep going”. I can´t precise the exact time that I arrived at tMorumbi stadium, but I can tell you that exactly ONE minute after I found a spot to stand the lights went out and the circle intro began. Only then I realized that I had made it.

Now I´ll talk about the highlights of the concert (IMO):

. Blood on blood: I´ve heard that as an opener in Seattle, San Jose and Chicago and I thought it was very nice. But here, it was a shock. Those opening notes represented 15 years of absence, waiting, watching the band go everywhere in the world but here. Those notes made those 65 thousand people realize that the band they love the most was there after 15 years, and for most of them, for the first and probably last time. So everyone bounced, screamed and sang the entire song on their feet. It was heart touching, really … The tone was set …

. Bad name/ Born to be my baby / It´s my life / Bad medicine / Runaway: I know those songs are overplayed and stuff. But as I said, most of the audience had never heard them live before. The band got impressed by the reaction of the crowd. Imagine 65.000 people jumping and screaming (not singing) the words for those two songs. It was epic.

. Always: It´s always nice to hear always. But it´s even nicer to hear it accompanied by 65.000 voices.

. We got it going on: YES … believe me … The end of this song was epic. The crowd got so much into it that even made Richie take out his cell phone and start filming us. I´ve never seen that happen in my entire life. They´ve been touring for almost 30 year now, and Richie felt like he had to register that moment. Can you imagine what meant to us ?

. These days: When the band finished prayer, I thought: “This is it !”. I know it will sound silly, but I started to imagine Bon Jovi playing These Days in front of me for the first time ever, and I started to cry. Really ! This happened during the time the band left the stage and prepared to come back. People started to sing “oooooooooo we´re half way there”, and they came back. I was looking desperately for Richie and Jon trying to see what guitars they had. When I saw Jon without a guitar and Richie without his double neck, my legs started to shake. It was either These Days or Dry County. I looked at Dave and waited, waited, waited … Until I heard the first piano notes … I swear to you guys: it was the happiest moment of my life. You have no idea what this song means to me. I couldn’t scream or jump. I stood still the whole song, I didn´t blink my eyes for one second, I didn´t sing a word, all I could do was cry and thank God and my legs for allowing me to run for almost 2 hours to get to the show. 30 years from now, when Bon Jovi is no more and I look at my These Days record standing close to my São Paulo ticket; this is the moment that I will remember.

. Saturday night: I could not hear Jon singing this one. The crowd was so loud, it was huge. And during the ad lib part, in the very end, Jon looked as if he was possessed by something. Really, I´ve never seen him like that. He looked like that guy who has just formed a band and is playing for a big audience for the first time. He was so into it, and that was the moment when I realized that you can still love your job after 30 years. That was the most genuine and sincere reaction that I´ve ever seen Jon Bon Jovi have. That was the moment when I stopped to think that, behind those million dollar faces, contracts and scripts, there´s still those five guys who are just like you and me, but they had the luck and guts to put a hell of a band together.
After that, I was done. Really, prayer, wanted and roses were great, but the recent memory of these days and Saturday night was still occupying my mind. When I left the stadium, I wished I could thank Bon Jovi for not only the best show of my life, but for one of the best moments of my life.

I went back to Belo Horizonte (my city) next morning and decided that I would go to Rio driving, since it´s only a 4 hour drive. So I left Friday at 1 pm, and when I was in Juiz de Fora, which is the midpoint between Rio and Belo Horizonte, I blew 2 tires. I managed to fix them, but it was almost 7 pm when I finally got back on the road. So, as a result, I had to drive 140 miles and go through an entire city of traffic on a Friday night in less than 2.5 hours. When I got to the gate, I saw the circle intro being played on the big screen. I ran like hell and managed to be there for the opening song: Lost Highway. OK, I like the song, but it´s nothing worth running for.

Well, what can I say about Rio gig: the floor was pretty much packed, but as previewed, there were lots of empty spaces on the side. But the crowd was brilliant: jumped and singed along to every song. The band was clearly tired after two 3 –hour- gigs. It was visible. But it was also visible that they were giving all they could for us. Really, Jon was very happy to be there. You could tell from his reactions. They played 3 requests (Happy now, love´s the only rule and what do you got). He turned the original set list into small pieces of paper in front of us. After that, it was nice and funny to see them talking to each other between every song, deciding what to play next. Even though it was a short set (in comparison to Buenos Aires and São Paulo), a set containing Radio, Just Older, Always, Thorn in my side, Love´s the only rule, Happy Now, Homebound train and THESE DAYS is a spectacular set IMO. This time I was able to sing these days, even though I cried again …

So here´s my final opinion about this leg of the tour and the band: I think that over the years, the more the production and the contracts got bigger, Bon Jovi has lost a lot of spontaneity. Of course, they still show it sometimes (Montreal 2010, Frankfurt 2008 and so on…) But everything has became part of a very well rehearsed process that still is very fun to watch. As I said, I enjoyed every single concert that I went in the US. But there are some situations that can take them out of that process and put them back where they truly are: the best band in the world. I know Jon is an asshole sometimes, that over the last decade they released some crappy songs along with very good ones, but who hasn´t? I can´t stand to listen to Paul McCartney or Elton John latest releases, but for me they are two of my favorites musicians of all time and every time I go to their concerts I have a great time. Inspiration is not something you have all the time. If it was, McCartney would write a new “Yesterday” every month and Bon Jovi would release another “Prayer” every month too. But this South America leg showed them that they still got rock and roll running through their veins. It was epic.

Now, about the crowds: I think it´s very wrong to say: “US crowds are lame, European crowds are great and South American crowds are nuts”, because they are different people with different cultures, different financial conditions, and different ways of enjoying what they get. So I think that we should respect the fact that everyone has their own way of feeling happy.