Operation Bon Jovi headlines Savannah

Shout-out to the BJtours site for alerting me to the fun tidbit that this was Bon Jovi's first headlining show in Savannah -- the last time they played there was as an opening act for the Scorpions in 1984.

So here's what Bon Jovi played almost 38 years later.

Savannah, Georgia, USA - April 13, 2022

Enmarket Arena

1. Limitless
2. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. We Weren't Born to Follow
5. It's My Life
6. Beautiful Drug
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. This House Is Not For Sale
9. Just Older
10. Let it Rain
11. Keep the Faith
12. American Reckoning
13. Whole Lot of Leavin'
14. Do What You Can
15. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
16. Lost Highway
17. Wanted Dead or Alive
18. Roller Coaster
19. Have a Nice Day
20. Livin' on a Prayer
    
    encore:
21. Who Says You Can't Go Home
22. Bad Medicine

Selected videos from Savannah

"Wanted Dead or Alive". Although this was played, it was actually listed as an audible (along with "I'll Be There For You") which is wild:

"American Reckoning". Electric version as the sit-down acoustic portion of the show was dropped for the first time this tour:

"It's My Life". Okay, this is gonna sound like massive shade but the backing vocals are great:

---

Feel free to share your thoughts below. 😊

Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.

Sweet North Carolina - Bon Jovi goes back to back in Charlotte & Raleigh

That's right, it's a double show post 'cause Bon Jovi did back-to-back shows on the weekend (which is a little rarer these days than it might have been in tours gone by). Here's what they dished up to the fine people of North Carolina.

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA - April 8, 2022

Spectrum Center

1. Limitless
2. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. We Weren't Born to Follow
5. It's My Life
6. Just Older
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. This House Is Not For Sale
9. Let It Rain
10. Keep the Faith
11. American Reckoning - acoustic
12. We Don't Run - acoustic
13. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - acoustic
14. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
15. Beautiful Drug
16. Wanted Dead or Alive
17. Roller Coaster
    
18. Have a Nice Day
19. Livin' on a Prayer
    
    encore:
20. Who Says You Can't Go Home
21. Bad Medicine

Scroll down for videos.

Raleigh, North Carolina, USA - April 9, 2022

PNC Arena

1. Limitless
2. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. We Weren't Born to Follow
5. It's My Life
6. Just Older
7. Born To Be My Baby
8. This House Is Not For Sale
9. Story of Love
10. Let It Rain
11. Keep the Faith
12. American Reckoning - acoustic
13. We Don't Run - acoustic
14. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - acoustic
15. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
16. Lost Highway
17. Wanted Dead or Alive
18. Roller Coaster
19. Have a Nice Day
20. Livin' on a Prayer
    
    encore: 
21. Who Says You Can't Go Home
22. Bad Medicine

Selected videos from Charlotte

"American Reckoning". Bruce Springsteen is quite possibly my favourite live act, so I have a real soft spot for the use of "The Promised Land" harmonica intro/outro. Actually, Jon cranking out the harmonica was one of my favourite things about this song anyway. And the "New Jersey vs Everybody" shirt is a nice touch, ha:

"Let It Rain" with another harmonica outro. Harmonica, more like HarJonica, amirite? Okay, that was terrible -- I'll shut up now and let you watch the video (with bonus David Bryan facial expressions):

 "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is probably one of my less liked Keep the Faith tracks, but it's a fun song that made its tour debut in Charlotte:

Selected videos from Raleigh

"Story of Love". Big fan of this song, which made its tour premiere in Raleigh:

"Limitless". I'm still disappointed this was the lead single over "Beautiful Drug" but whatever. The song is okay and I don't mind it as the show opener:

"Someday I'll Be Saturday Night". Jon has a bit of a coughing fit in the middle of this performance but I'm fairly confident he hasn't re-contracted COVID. Anyway, I always dug the acoustic version of "Saturday Night" regardless of why they might be doing it that way now:

---

Feel free to share your thoughts below. 😊

Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.

No April Fools, it's 2022 - Bon Jovi's "2020" tour begins in Omaha

And we're back! And by we, I mean Bon Jovi, but I've been MIA for a long time as well. I haven't decided how I want to approach the tour at Blame It On The Love this time around, but we'll figure it out over the course of this leg, I guess. 😀

After two years on the sidelines, Bon Jovi finally began their tour in support of the 2020 album -- on April Fool's Day of all days. Kelli McDonald, Hugh's wife, made Jon's American flag leather jacket. And this is what the band played:

Omaha, Nebraska, USA - April 1, 2022

CHI Health Center Omaha

1. Limitless
2. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. We Weren't Born to Follow
5. It's My Life
6. Just Older
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Beautiful Drug
9. Let It Rain
10. Keep the Faith
11. American Reckoning - acoustic
12. We Don't Run - acoustic
13. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - acoustic
14. Who Says You Can't Go Home
15. Lost Highway
16. Wanted Dead or Alive
17. Do What You Can
18. This House Is Not For Sale
19. Have a Nice Day
20. Livin' on a Prayer
    
    encore:
21. Love's the Only Rule
22. Bad Medicine

 

Some nice inclusions there, including: 

• "The Radio Saved My Life Tonight" for the first time since 2015;
• "Just Older" for the first time since 2011, and
• "Love's the Only Rule" (aka The Circle song they should be playing all the time) for the first time since 2013.

Cheers to Bon Jovi Updates for the heads-up on how long it'd been since those songs were played, 'cause I'm so not keeping track of that stuff.

 

Selected videos from Omaha

"Beautiful Drug". I like this song a lot and I'm bummed we haven't gotten that single and music video for it:

 

 

"We Don't Run". The This Left Feels Right-style acoustic version was dedicated to the people of Ukraine. I'm in two minds about the arrangement but I like Jon in acoustic mode:

"American Reckoning". I alternate between thinking this song is too ham-fisted and thinking it's beautifully sad. But anyway, here it is, with a bit of Bruce Springsteen's "The Promised Land" as a harmonica intro/outro:

"Livin' on a Prayer". This has been transposed to a noticeably lower key but I'm honestly fine with that:

"Love's the Only Rule". Won't lie, this is a bit of a vocal mess. But I still maintain that every time Jon goes to put "Born to Follow" in the set, he should take it out and put this in instead. Or maybe "Superman Tonight". I know he doesn't really rate The Circle anymore, but it's got some good tracks on it:

 

Got other videos from the show you want to share or highlight? Add a link in the comments.

---

Feel free to share your thoughts below. 😊

Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.

2020 deluxe version + GMA, iHeartRadio

In what seems like a weird move, a deluxe version of Bon Jovi's 2020 album has been quietly released to download and streaming services three days after the standard version came out. In addition to the 10 tracks on the original version, the deluxe edition contains three bonus tracks:

• "Do What You Can" - duet version with Jennifer Nettles
• "Shine"
• "Luv Can"

The latter two were already on the Japanese edition of the album. I had ordered a CD from Japan but it'll take a while to ship to me so I'm very happy to be able to get the tracks in the meantime.

"Shine" and "Luv Can" have been circulating online for the last couple of days, so the sudden release of the deluxe album might be in response to that. Or maybe it was planned. But hey, I would've liked a 12-track album in the first place. 😉

Anyway, there's obviously a new album to promote, so I'll be posting some of that on this blog over the coming days/weeks.

Here's Jon's interview with Good Morning America, where talks about 2020 and collaborating with Jennifer again, among other things:

And here's Bon Jovi's performance on the show of "Do What You Can", with Jennifer Nettles joining remotely and Greg Mayo filling in for David Bryan:

Jon also joined Jim Kerr on iHeartRadio to celebrate the release of 2020. The segment featured an interview with Jon interspersed with recordings of recent live performances. It included the live debuts of "American Reckoning" and "Beautiful Drug", as well as "Do What You Can", "It's My Life", and "Livin' on a Prayer":

 

---

Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.

Bon Jovi 2020 is out now

A month out from the US election, on a day that the incumbent tweeted that he had tested positive to COVID-19... Bon Jovi: 2020 was finally released and you can download or stream it now.

I mention elections and presidents because the album cover was inspired by a shot of John F. Kennedy, and the album title partly inspired by the fact that it's an election year in America. Funnily enough, I never mentioned the cover on this blog even when 2020 was originally meant to come out in May. It's a cool photo of Jon, though I'm not sold on it being the album cover... I guess I'd prefer something a little more abstract. Or band-oriented. But hey, we all know Bon Jovi is Jon's ship, so whatever.

Now onto the music.

It's early days but I am really loving 2020. I know it polarises people when Jon "gets political" or "tries to be Springsteen"... but screw that. Besides, much of the world is pretty effed in 2020 and if you're going to call your album 2020, you might as well make it a little time capsule of the world as it is. 

When "American Reckoning" dropped, I had discussions with a few people about whether or not it was too on the nose. Certainly, there's no mistaking what it's about. But I actually like that Jon got specific. There are plenty of generic Bon Jovi songs already ("Have a Nice Day" was supposedly a sneaky diss track aimed at George Bush, but you'd never know it).

My first-impression faves from 2020 are "Beautiful Drug", "Story of Love", "Lower the Flag", and "Blood in the Water".

But I'm digging the album as a whole. Considering I was very lukewarm about "Unbroken" and "Limitless", the rest of it has ended up sounding pretty damn good in my ears. I could be getting caught up in the moment, of course. But as of 2nd October 2020, I approve. 👍

What are your early impressions of the album?

---

Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.

Bon Jovi releases American Reckoning

Bon Jovi has dropped a very topical new song, "American Reckoning". And here's the lyric video:

The lyrics are not at all subtle, making specific reference to the death of George Floyd, which sparked a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests in the US and around the world.

The harmonica solo was unexpected and cool, although it helps draw inevitable comparisons with fellow New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen. And once again, this sounds more like a Jon Bon Jovi solo track than a band song.

Speaking of Bruce, one of my favourite Springsteen songs is "American Skin (41 Shots)", which was also inspired by the death of a black man (Amadou Diallo in 1999) at the hands of police. I think "American Skin" is a better song than "American Reckoning" but I don't dislike "American Reckoning". Besides, if you're going to release an album called 2020, you might as well sing about stuff that's happening in 2020.

I know it often polarises fans when a musician "gets political", especially if they disagree with the views expressed or they see music as a way of escaping the harsh realities of the world. Jon's views have not been a secret though, and they've come through in his music before, albeit not as overtly as this.

Here's what Jon had to say about the song on Bon Jovi's website:

“I was moved to write American Reckoning as a witness to history,” said Jon Bon Jovi, “I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us.”

Now, Jon could be completely apolitical if he wanted to be -- he'd probably make a lot of people happier if he stayed away from these issues. And he's in a privileged position where politics aren't likely to have a significant impact on him personally. But for some people, what we call "politics" could literally be a matter of life and death. Or as Jon puts it:

"I'll never know what it's like to walk a mile in his shoes
And I'll never have to have the talk so it don't happen to you"

"American Reckoning" will be added to the upcoming Bon Jovi 2020 album, which is now slated for release in October (although my iTunes pre-order says 'Expected 31 December 2020'. What?).

"American Reckoning" is available for download now. Net proceeds will be donated to Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to people who have been wrongly convicted, unfairly sentenced or abused in prison.

What are your thoughts on the song?

--
Want to stay connected? You can find us on Facebook @blameitonthelove, Instagram @blameitonthelove and Twitter @bonjoviblog.