Bon Jovi scraped through a potential PR disaster overnight with the late cancellation of the opening show of the Because We Can tour. The show at Mohegan Sun was set to kick off the widely anticipated tour, but with a severe blizzard in Connecticut, a state of emergency declared and driving bans in place, there was no way most of the ticket holders were going to get to the concert unless they'd somehow had the foresight and finances to arrive at the resort almost two full days beforehand.
Still, reports for most of the day were that the gig was going to take place as planned with no refunds offered to those who couldn't make it. Which would have been both greedy (Fans have already paid the money) and irresponsible (There are always people who are willing to risk their lives, not to mention a fine or jail time for driving during a ban, just to see their boys). The worst snowstorm in over three decades would have been a small gust of wind compared to the shitstorm Bon Jovi was facing if common sense hadn't prevailed, and I'm not sure even the band's most super-ardent defenders could have saved them from that.
Luckily, the right decision was made in the end, even if it took a lot of social media raging to get there.
The concert was rescheduled for October 25, 2013 and Bon Jovi performed a free gig for the approximately 2000 people who had managed to get to the venue. And the big kahuna himself,
Jon still came out looking like the good guy after being cast as the villain for most of the day.
The set for the free show was as follows:
Uncasville, CT, USA - Mohegan Sun - February 9, 2013
- You Give Love a Bad Name
- Lost Highway
- Whole Lot of Leavin'
- That's What the Water Made Me
- Because We Can
- Wild is the Wind
- It's My Life
- What About Now
- When We Were Beautiful
- We Got It Goin' On
- Keep the Faith
- Amen
- The Fighter
- Someday I'll be Saturday night - acoustic
- Army of One
- We Weren't Born to Follow
- What's Left of Me
- Wanted Dead or Alive
- Who Says You Can't Go Home
- Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars
Encore:
- Livin' on a Prayer
Oh, and Washington DC... You're now officially the first stop on the Because We Can tour. ;)
A couple of videos of new songs from the free concert:
Amen
The Fighter
What's Left of Me