Wouldn’t it be cool? Love’s the only rule.
Getting “it” for the first time in the back seat of a car, feeling that virgin beer or pot buzz, seeing Star Wars back in the beginning when absolutely every human being on Planet Earth was going through the same thing at the same awesome moment in time: these are the intensely personal, emotional, epiphany-type experiences that are right up there with being a Bon Jovi fan at a Bon Jovi concert.
– Lonn Friend, ‘One Wild Night Live 1985-2001′ liner notes
I’m finally reasonably recovered from seeing Bon Jovi on Wednesday. The show was amazing, but I got back home at 3:30 Thursday morning and was up for work at 6:20. Good lord, I was so useless that day at work. Worth it, though. Worth. IT.
I knew our show was going to be awesome because it was a hometown show, and there’s a totally different energy seeing Bon Jovi in Jersey versus seeing them in Philly or some other venue. However, I totally didn’t realize that Bon Jovi was the first act or event to play the New Meadowlands Stadium, and that we were there on opening night, which was pretty damn cool. The set list was really good, even though they didn’t play Captain Crash for me (but they played it the other two nights at Meadowlands. Why hurt me, boys? I love you). They played some stuff I haven’t heard live before. They opened with “Blood on Blood,” and did “Something for the Pain” acoustic, which was pretty badass, especially because they brought Tico (the drummer) and David (the keyboardist) out front. Tico played a freakin’ washboard and David played an accordion and it was awesome. The biggest surprise for me was that they did “Dry County” as their first encore. I LOVE that song; it’s off Keep the Faith and it’s just awesome. I lost my mind when I realized that’s what they were playing. I don’t know what possessed them to include that in the tour, but I’m glad they did! (Side note: as I was going through YouTube videos to find a good one for this post, I was hearing people in a good portion of the videos going, “OH MY GOD THEY ARE PLAYING DRY COUNTY!” That was totally me.)
Before I saw the live show, I was convinced I wasn’t really crazy about the new album, The Circle. Admittedly, a lot of the songs sound really similar to each other or to other songs the band’s recorded in the past. It wasn’t nearly as strong as Have A Nice Day had been. You can tell Jon had a theme he was going for, and you can sort of tell which songs fit in that theme and which don’t. I had kind of hoped it would grow on me like Lost Highway had, but it just…didn’t. The album as a whole is more mellow than a lot of their more recent stuff had been. But they did such a good job with the songs from The Circle that they played live - “We Weren’t Born to Follow,” “When We Were Beautiful,” “Superman Tonight,” and “Love’s the Only Rule” – that I figured I must have been missing something. Not gonna lie, what really won me over was the live performance of “Love’s the Only Rule”. I don’t know, something about the way Jon got us all to sing the “whoa-oh-ohs” got me. I love audience participation at Bon Jovi concerts. There is something too cool about singing with your favorite band with thousands of other fans who love them just as much as you do.
I don’t love the new album as much as some of their others, but I definitely enjoy it more since hearing some of the songs live. I would have loved to have heard “Fast Cars” live, but I don’t think they’ve done that one yet. Overall, the show really reminded me why I love Bon Jovi. I hadn’t listened to them very much this year at all, because I’ve been so caught up in other things and with other artists. I just forgot how much I love them and how much of my life I have invested in them. I haven’t missed a tour since 2003, and I’ve seen them more than once on some tours. That’s pretty crazy; there isn’t another band or singer I’ll follow to the extent that I follow my boys. I don’t know if it’s because we’re all from Jersey, or if it’s because I really got into them when I was a junior in high school, when I was finally starting to be comfortable with who I am, but this band totally has a piece of my heart. I will always love my boys. <3
