12 Nights of Work for the Working Men of Bon Jovi Yields Fond Memories

Review by Mark Taylor
Photos by Jenny Simpkins

Once upon a time I was a massive Bon Jovi fan, first witnessing them live at Castle Donington back 1985. A year later Bon Jovi turned the rock world on its head with the release of “Slippery When Wet,” an album that featured the slick global hits of “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer.”

I later went on to see the band over 25 times, impressed by their exhilarating live shows. Since Bon Jovi became a stadium band I lost interest in ever seeing them live again, last time being on the “These Days” tour some fourteen years ago.

I’m here on night seven of a twelve-night residency where, over the nights, Bon Jovi will perform 72 different songs from their extensive catalogue, although second album “7800 Fahrenheit” has been hairbrushed out.

Judging by the set lists from the other nights, I was in luck tonight with many tracks from those glorious late 80s performed, reminding me of happy times when I was a teenager impressing my new girlfriend in my car whilst listening to Bon Jovi on a C-90 cassette tape with “SWW” on one side and 45 minutes of “New Jersey” on the other.

“Wild In The Streets” made us go wild in the aisles. The biggest surprise was “Wild Is the Wind” which they didn’t perform back on the “New Jersey” tour; it was one of the biggest highlights tonight. The only song from the debut was the now rarely performed “Runaway” which brought the house down. The band especially seemed to be enjoying this rocking starlight.

Something was amiss though. These days, Jon Bon Jovi tries so hard to be like Elvis it’s painful to watch. Often standing on tip-toe with bending knees, shrugging his shoulders and tilting his head with arms outstretched, the man should be shackled to a jailhouse rock for copyright infringement violation.

Ritchie Sambora is still top of his game, but I feel that at times he was pushed to the sidelines by the second guitarist the band now have with them whilst on tour. Bobby Bandiera - who was away from his day job as a member of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, and who, in the past, also performed with Bruce Springsteen (Doh!….I was trying not to mention the Boss in this review) - played a predominant role, later becoming the human jukebox segueing “Paint It Black” and “Oh! Pretty Woman” into “Bad Medicine” to good effect.

Sambora took over vocal duties for “Lay Your Hands On Me,” and was later joined at the rim of the circular stage by Jon Bon Jovi to perform some acoustic ditties, including “Diamond Ring” from the very underrated “These Days.”

From the new album, “Work For The Working Man” with its punchy chorus which saw JBJ raised high at the back on a platform amongst the neon lights worked very well in the live environment. “It’s My Life” is the best song Jovi have come up with in the later years and is a great sing-along anthem. The girls were kept happy when JBJ got his maracas out for set-ender “Keep The Faith.”

During the encores, the couple next to me were enjoying one of their first-ever concerts. The girl asked her boyfriend to take a picture of herself with me because she wanted a picture with a male rocker with long hair. She was loving it.

“Livin’ On A Prayer” blew the roof off with everybody singing along to Whhoooaaahh we halfway there, whhhhhhhhoooooooaaahhhh livin’ on a prayeeerrr… It brought the memories flooding back for me, making me realize why I used to love this band so much.

The band took their bows and left the stage. As I was walking away, Elvis Springsteen came back onto stage to soak up the last of the applause. I did find myself asking the question “Why? Whatever happened?” But I suppose 100,000,000 can’t be wrong.

Glad I came along tonight. It was good to see Jovi and the boys once again in an indoor venue and Tommy and Gina next to me went home happy, hand in hand.

Set List: Happy Now / We Weren’t Born To Follow / You Give Love A Bad Name / In These Arms / Born To Be My Baby / Wild In The Streets / Wild Is The Wind / Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars / Runaway / We Got It Goin’ On / Bad Medicine / Lay Your Hands On Me / Open All Night / Diamond Ring / I’ll Be There For You / Love For Sale / Work For The Working Man / It’s My Life / Who Says You Can’t Go Home / Keep The Faith  .. encores..  Something To Believe In / Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night / Wanted Dead Or Alive / Livin’ On A Prayer