bon jovi rocks, on occasion.
Yesterday, I left work at 12:30 pm, after making sure the board packets were packed up and waiting for FedEx to come and take them away, and after confirming with my bosses that I wouldn't be in today, as there was no need. Boss 1 told me to enjoy the concert, and I was on my way.
We* rented a limo so none of us (none of them, because I don't drive) would have to drive to the Meadowlands from all the way out in Selden, so that was nice, except for the fact that the driver picked the worst route to get there - he took the Throgs Neck to the Cross Bronx Expressway, where we sat in ridiculous stop-and-go traffic for at least an hour on the way to the George Washington Bridge. It was so bad that on the way, Mary Ellen got carsick. (He took the same route home, and again the traffic getting to the bridge was sick, even at that hour of night. Luckily, everyone but me fell asleep so there was no more vomiting.)
Just as we pulled into the parking lot at the stadium (the New Meadowlands? Really? I guess because they still haven't been able to sucker anyone into paying an exorbitant amount for naming rights), the skies opening and it started pouring. The weather report had called for passing showers in the evening, but this was not passing. This was a sustained heavy rain for a good ninety minutes. (I learned later that the Mets game was delayed for 2 hours; the Mets blanked the Phillies for the third straight game, though, so woo! [Hilariously, my dad, who in the past has been reluctant to text me with things like the score to the Giants games on Sunday afternoons when I was traveling and didn't have internet on my phone, because he doesn't have a texting plan on his phone and so pay 20¢ a text, texted me about the Mets winning. I found that amusing.])
So we got inside the stadium, and you know, I'm sure it's got lots of amenities the old Giants stadium didn't have (maybe?) but I didn't notice. Mostly I noticed that all the seats are gray, and the outside of the stadium is pretty. Anyway, we found the ladies room (there was a problem with water pressure in the sinks, which was poor), and our seats were pretty close to it, so that was a plus (we were in section 121, row 37), but they wouldn't let us up into the seats. Apparently there was some kind of situation? And there would be a 45 minute to an hour delay.
This did not surprise me.
Anyway, we hung around until they let us up to our seats, at about 7:45, I guess, and then Gavin DeGraw went on in the rain. He was pretty good; I will have to check him out. I always feel bad for the opening acts on these big tours, because they play to mostly empty houses and I don't even know why they try to get a call-and-response going, because almost none of the people in the seats at the time are there for them anyway (though I have gone to shows for the opening act on occasion).
Our seats were in the last row that was under the overhang, so even though it was raining, we were fine. (Mary Ellen and Abby, otoh, were about six rows in front of us, out in the rain). As it tends to rain when I go to outdoor concerts**, I was not surprised, but amazingly, it cleared up just before Bon Jovi took the stage.
It was a rockin' show. I enjoyed it. I didn't know a bunch of songs, but it wasn't hard to pick up the lyrics after a few lines, and I remembered the words to a bunch of songs I'd forgotten I even knew, so that was good. He looks great; he's completely adorkable up on stage, with the rockstar posing etc., and when he finally took his jacket off for the encore, we were all mesmerized by his shoulders and arms. Those are indeed good arms to have.
For me, the highlights were the big hits, of course: You Give Love a Bad Name, Living on a Prayer, and Wanted Dead or Alive, which is my favorite song of theirs.
the setlist (according to setlist.fm):
1. Blood on Blood (I think this is new? I liked it, anyway)
2. We Weren't Born to Follow
3. You Give Love a Bad Name (this was awesome)
4. Whole Lot of Leavin'
5. Born to Be My Baby
6. Lost Highway
7. We Got It Goin' On
8. Have a Nice Day
9. When We Were Beautiful
10. Superman Tonight (this definitely made me think of Sam and Dean)
11. Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars (??)
12. Bad Medicine (they also sang a snippet of Bad Case Of Loving You at the end of this)
13. It's My Life (this was pretty awesome)
14. Love's the Only Rule
15. Lay Your Hands on Me (Richie Sambora sang this one; I'd forgotten this song even existed, but I remembered all the words)
16. (You Want To) Make A Memory
17. Bed of Roses (I had a hard time not snickering through these two power ballads)
18. Never Say Goodbye (acoustic)
19. Something For The Pain (acoustic)
20. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
21. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
22. Work for the Working Man (the video in the background looked like communist propaganda; it was hilarious, given the context)
23. Who Says You Can't Go Home
24. Keep the Faith (there were wicked cool fireworks shooting out of the rim of the stadium at the end of this one)
Encore:
25. Always (he seemed really into this one)
26. Wanted Dead Or Alive (totally worth all the hassle of getting there and the rain etc. Aside from fannish things, I have some good personal memories associated with this song, and hearing it live with 65,000 people singing along - we sang the first verse without him and he just stood there smiling - was fantastic)
27. Livin' On A Prayer (this was also a lot of fun)
I was a little sad that he didn't do Runaway, which he did on Wednesday night, apparently (along with a cover of Hallelujah (I'm kind of glad he didn't do that for us, to be honest; why don't more people cover Famous Blue Raincoat or I'm Your Man or A Thousand Kisses Deep or Suzanne?)), because Runaway was the first Bon Jovi song I knew, back in 1983, when I was still in grammar school. Heh. I forget that they've been around that long. And I have a fondness for I'll Be There for You, which he also didn't do, but I was satisfied with the show. Everyone else was over the moon about it - it was Abby's first concert, and I have to say, it definitely ranks up there in terms of good shows to have as your first concert experience (my first show, as I never fail to remind people, was Springsteen at Giants Stadium in 1985 for Born in the USA; my brother never fails to remind me that he took me to see it as proof of his awesomeness; it set a very high bar for concerts, I must say).
So yes, I'm glad I went, I had an awesome time, and I was reminded again of how music, especially live music, shared with a crowd, can reach someplace deep inside and lift me up in ways that nothing else can, and how much I love having that in my life.
On a fannish note, I couldn't help but think of Sam and Dean during many (many!) of these songs, not just Wanted Dead or Alive, and I totally believe Sam as a Bon Jovi fan (though I know it was Meg who chose the Richie Sambora alias in BUaBS), scribbling "Sam + Dean 4ever" alongside snippets of Bon Jovi lyrics on his Trapper Keeper when he was 13 years old. *snicker* And I don't even mean girl!Sam (though that works, too).
I guess it was about 2 am when I finally arrived back at the parents' and I tumbled into bed and slept for, like ten hours, which felt really good.
I've skimmed over the old flist and dwircle (I do not like that; dwroll maybe? dlist? hmmm...) and maybe now I will try answering some comments, so if you get a response to a comment you left three months ago, um, hi?
--
*we = my sister, Marguerite, my niece, Alyssa, my brother-in-law's sister, Mary Ellen, her daughter, Abby, my sister's friend, Fran, and me
**Elvis Costello & the La's, June 1991; Metallica and Guns n'Roses, July 1992; u2, August 1992; Bruce Springsteen, July 2003
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/174508.html.
people have commented there.
We* rented a limo so none of us (none of them, because I don't drive) would have to drive to the Meadowlands from all the way out in Selden, so that was nice, except for the fact that the driver picked the worst route to get there - he took the Throgs Neck to the Cross Bronx Expressway, where we sat in ridiculous stop-and-go traffic for at least an hour on the way to the George Washington Bridge. It was so bad that on the way, Mary Ellen got carsick. (He took the same route home, and again the traffic getting to the bridge was sick, even at that hour of night. Luckily, everyone but me fell asleep so there was no more vomiting.)
Just as we pulled into the parking lot at the stadium (the New Meadowlands? Really? I guess because they still haven't been able to sucker anyone into paying an exorbitant amount for naming rights), the skies opening and it started pouring. The weather report had called for passing showers in the evening, but this was not passing. This was a sustained heavy rain for a good ninety minutes. (I learned later that the Mets game was delayed for 2 hours; the Mets blanked the Phillies for the third straight game, though, so woo! [Hilariously, my dad, who in the past has been reluctant to text me with things like the score to the Giants games on Sunday afternoons when I was traveling and didn't have internet on my phone, because he doesn't have a texting plan on his phone and so pay 20¢ a text, texted me about the Mets winning. I found that amusing.])
So we got inside the stadium, and you know, I'm sure it's got lots of amenities the old Giants stadium didn't have (maybe?) but I didn't notice. Mostly I noticed that all the seats are gray, and the outside of the stadium is pretty. Anyway, we found the ladies room (there was a problem with water pressure in the sinks, which was poor), and our seats were pretty close to it, so that was a plus (we were in section 121, row 37), but they wouldn't let us up into the seats. Apparently there was some kind of situation? And there would be a 45 minute to an hour delay.
This did not surprise me.
Anyway, we hung around until they let us up to our seats, at about 7:45, I guess, and then Gavin DeGraw went on in the rain. He was pretty good; I will have to check him out. I always feel bad for the opening acts on these big tours, because they play to mostly empty houses and I don't even know why they try to get a call-and-response going, because almost none of the people in the seats at the time are there for them anyway (though I have gone to shows for the opening act on occasion).
Our seats were in the last row that was under the overhang, so even though it was raining, we were fine. (Mary Ellen and Abby, otoh, were about six rows in front of us, out in the rain). As it tends to rain when I go to outdoor concerts**, I was not surprised, but amazingly, it cleared up just before Bon Jovi took the stage.
It was a rockin' show. I enjoyed it. I didn't know a bunch of songs, but it wasn't hard to pick up the lyrics after a few lines, and I remembered the words to a bunch of songs I'd forgotten I even knew, so that was good. He looks great; he's completely adorkable up on stage, with the rockstar posing etc., and when he finally took his jacket off for the encore, we were all mesmerized by his shoulders and arms. Those are indeed good arms to have.
For me, the highlights were the big hits, of course: You Give Love a Bad Name, Living on a Prayer, and Wanted Dead or Alive, which is my favorite song of theirs.
the setlist (according to setlist.fm):
1. Blood on Blood (I think this is new? I liked it, anyway)
2. We Weren't Born to Follow
3. You Give Love a Bad Name (this was awesome)
4. Whole Lot of Leavin'
5. Born to Be My Baby
6. Lost Highway
7. We Got It Goin' On
8. Have a Nice Day
9. When We Were Beautiful
10. Superman Tonight (this definitely made me think of Sam and Dean)
11. Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars (??)
12. Bad Medicine (they also sang a snippet of Bad Case Of Loving You at the end of this)
13. It's My Life (this was pretty awesome)
14. Love's the Only Rule
15. Lay Your Hands on Me (Richie Sambora sang this one; I'd forgotten this song even existed, but I remembered all the words)
16. (You Want To) Make A Memory
17. Bed of Roses (I had a hard time not snickering through these two power ballads)
18. Never Say Goodbye (acoustic)
19. Something For The Pain (acoustic)
20. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
21. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
22. Work for the Working Man (the video in the background looked like communist propaganda; it was hilarious, given the context)
23. Who Says You Can't Go Home
24. Keep the Faith (there were wicked cool fireworks shooting out of the rim of the stadium at the end of this one)
Encore:
25. Always (he seemed really into this one)
26. Wanted Dead Or Alive (totally worth all the hassle of getting there and the rain etc. Aside from fannish things, I have some good personal memories associated with this song, and hearing it live with 65,000 people singing along - we sang the first verse without him and he just stood there smiling - was fantastic)
27. Livin' On A Prayer (this was also a lot of fun)
I was a little sad that he didn't do Runaway, which he did on Wednesday night, apparently (along with a cover of Hallelujah (I'm kind of glad he didn't do that for us, to be honest; why don't more people cover Famous Blue Raincoat or I'm Your Man or A Thousand Kisses Deep or Suzanne?)), because Runaway was the first Bon Jovi song I knew, back in 1983, when I was still in grammar school. Heh. I forget that they've been around that long. And I have a fondness for I'll Be There for You, which he also didn't do, but I was satisfied with the show. Everyone else was over the moon about it - it was Abby's first concert, and I have to say, it definitely ranks up there in terms of good shows to have as your first concert experience (my first show, as I never fail to remind people, was Springsteen at Giants Stadium in 1985 for Born in the USA; my brother never fails to remind me that he took me to see it as proof of his awesomeness; it set a very high bar for concerts, I must say).
So yes, I'm glad I went, I had an awesome time, and I was reminded again of how music, especially live music, shared with a crowd, can reach someplace deep inside and lift me up in ways that nothing else can, and how much I love having that in my life.
On a fannish note, I couldn't help but think of Sam and Dean during many (many!) of these songs, not just Wanted Dead or Alive, and I totally believe Sam as a Bon Jovi fan (though I know it was Meg who chose the Richie Sambora alias in BUaBS), scribbling "Sam + Dean 4ever" alongside snippets of Bon Jovi lyrics on his Trapper Keeper when he was 13 years old. *snicker* And I don't even mean girl!Sam (though that works, too).
I guess it was about 2 am when I finally arrived back at the parents' and I tumbled into bed and slept for, like ten hours, which felt really good.
I've skimmed over the old flist and dwircle (I do not like that; dwroll maybe? dlist? hmmm...) and maybe now I will try answering some comments, so if you get a response to a comment you left three months ago, um, hi?
--
*we = my sister, Marguerite, my niece, Alyssa, my brother-in-law's sister, Mary Ellen, her daughter, Abby, my sister's friend, Fran, and me
**Elvis Costello & the La's, June 1991; Metallica and Guns n'Roses, July 1992; u2, August 1992; Bruce Springsteen, July 2003
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/174508.html.
people have commented there.