After two days off, Bon Jovi made it to Indianapolis. Everett Bradley, an Indiana University alum, was back from his recent bout of COVID. This is what the band played.
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA - April 19, 2022
Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Limitless
The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
You Give Love a Bad Name
We Weren't Born to Follow
It's My Life
Beautiful Drug
Born to Be My Baby
This House is Not For Sale
Just Older
Let it Rain
Keep the Faith
American Reckoning
Whole Lot of Leavin'
Do What You Can
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Lost Highway
Have a Nice Day
Livin' on a Prayer
encore:
Wanted Dead or Alive
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Bad Medicine
I mean, after two whole days to think about it, you probably could've chucked "Love's the Only Rule" or something back in, but whatever. 😜
Selected videos from Indianapolis
"You Give Love a Bad Name" with the 'get up off your seats' spiel:
We're at the halfway mark of Bon Jovi's 2022 Tour since no further dates have been announced after April as yet.
Since it was back to back shows again this weekend, I was going to combine the two consecutive Florida shows into one post like I did with Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina.
And then Bon Jovi went and skipped their national anthem "Wanted Dead or Alive" and I just had to put down my hot cross buns and chocolate eggs (Happy Easter, by the way) and say something. Anyway, let's breathe first, and look at what was played.
Tampa, Florida, USA - April 15, 2022
Amalie Arena
Limitless
The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
You Give Love a Bad Name
We Weren't Born to Follow
It's My Life
Beautiful Drug
Born to Be My Baby
This House Is Not For Sale
Just Older
Let It Rain
Keep the Faith
American Reckoning
Whole Lot of Leavin'
I'll Be There For You
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Lost Highway
Roller Coaster
Have a Nice Day
Livin' on a Prayer
encore:
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Bad Medicine
"Wanted Dead or Alive" was actually in the printed set list -- it was supposed to open the encore but they just straight up didn't play it. I guess this scenario was flagged in Savannah, when "Wanted" was listed as an audible (but did end up getting played). Still, it's a Bon Jovi show. You can't not play "Wanted"! Jon, my love, if you need to preserve your voice then please drop some of the other songs that literally no one goes to a Bon Jovi show to hear.
In other news, percussionist and king of cool Everett Bradley didn't take to the stage after testing positive to COVID, along with some 15 crew members. Everett's backing vocals have actually become really important to the current Bon Jovi live setup so I don't know if that played a part. But seriously, no "Wanted" is a no-no and I cannot stop thinking about this.
Selected videos from Tampa
"The Radio Saved My Life Tonight". This is one of my favourite songs from 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong so a legit joy of this tour has been seeing it in the set:
"Just Older". Been good to see this one in the set too. David Bryan's vocals seem so much higher in the mix here but that's maybe not a bad thing:
"Livin' on a Prayer". This is another song that you can't just not freaking do at a Bon Jovi concert, even if you have to lower the key:
"I'll Be There For You". I don't think it's a secret that I'd prefer Phil X to be taking all the solos:
In today's episode of Things I Never Thought I'd See, Jon Bon Jovi covered The Killers and Black Eyed Peas. It was part of Hampton Water Cares -- a virtual concert featuring Jon's other band, the Kings of Suburbia, and lots of bottles of Hampton Water rosé. The show was streamed on Facebook and raised money for World Central Kitchen's COVID-19 relief efforts.
Jon was joined at his studio (with plenty of social distancing) by Everett Bradley on percussion, Lorenza Ponce on violin, Greg Mayo on guitar and Carl Gentry on keyboards. Jon's son and Hampton Water Wine co-founder, Jesse Bongiovi, hosted the broadcast.
I really like Jon in acoustic mode these days. He sounds pretty good and it's the only time we can realistically expect him to pull out bonus tracks like "I Will Drive You Home". Plus, it was unexpectedly cool to see him having a bit of fun with "Mr Brightside" and "I Gotta Feeling", even if he flubbed the lyrics. I've affectionately renamed the latter song "I Gotta Feeling (Oh No, Somebody Sing the Chorus)".
Jon also indicated during the after party on Instagram that there are plans to broadcast the 2020 album being performed live, in lieu of a tour.
Bon Jovi took their tour to Munich's Olympic Stadium and here's what was played:
Munich, Germany - Olympiastadion - July 5, 2019 set list
This House Is Not For Sale
Raise Your Hands
You Give Love a Bad Name
Born to Be My Baby
Roller Coaster
Lost Highway
Runaway
We Weren't Born to Follow
Have a Nice Day
Keep the Faith
These Days
Who Says You Can't Go Home
In These Arms
It's My Life
We Don't Run
Wanted Dead or Alive
Lay Your Hands on Me
Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Bad Medicine
Encore:
I'll Be There For You
Livin' on a Prayer
Videos from Munich
"These Days":
"In These Arms" - David Bryan sang the first verse, though his mic was turned down at the beginning so you couldn't hear him initially:
"Runaway":
Feel free to share your thoughts, other videos, etc. 😊
Extras
Phil X posted a picture of himself with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen ahead of the Munich show. I usually only ever see images of Collen on stage with his shirt off so I probably wouldn't have recognised him had X not specified who it was. 🤣
And finally, Phil responded to a fan request to demonstrate how he played the "Born Again Tomorrow" solo. Wouldn't mind the band playing this, since this is supposed to still be the This House Is Not For Sale Tour. 😉
Bon Jovi's music video for "Walls" -- the second new track on the re-release of This House Is Not For Sale -- has dropped exclusively on Tidal. When Jon was on Facebook Live last year, he alluded to one of the new songs being shaped by the current political climate, and the "Walls" video reflects that. John Shanks and Everett Bradley, who were both in the video for "When We Were Us", are in this one as well. They've also appeared on tour merchandise but as far as I'm aware they're not considered "official" band members. On the other hand, Hugh McDonald was left out of a lot of videos and promotional materials until he was made official in 2016. So that's... interesting.
If you're not a subscriber, you'll just get a preview, but when the whole video makes its way to YouTube in a couple of weeks' time, I'll add the link to this post.
Bon Jovi took their This House Is Not For Sale Tour to Salt Lake City, where Hugh McDonald's stepson Jake was the opening act, performing with his band Jake J and the Killjoys.
Bon Jovi's set list was... exactly the same as that of the previous show in Denver. One key difference was John Shanks messing up the beginning of "We Weren't Born to Follow", which resulted in Jon restarting the first verse and chorus as an acoustic piece. (There's a video of it below.) Said acoustic version turned out to be way better than the original IMO, and I kind of wish he'd done the whole song like that.
Salt Lake City, UT, USA - Vivint Smart Home Arena - March 16, 2018
This House Is Not For Sale
Knockout
You Give Love a Bad Name
Whole Lot of Leavin'
Lost Highway
When We Were Us
Born to Be My Baby
Who Says You Can't Go Home
It's My Life
We Weren't Born to Follow
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
We Got It Going On
Keep the Faith
Amen
Bed of Roses
Lay Your Hands on Me
God Bless This Mess
Have a Nice Day
Bad Medicine
Encore:
I Love This Town
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer
This show happened to take place on Everett Bradley's birthday, which the band acknowledged when he got on the plane.
"It's My Life". Probably one of the better performances of this in quite some time. Jon wasn't glued to one spot and he went for some high notes. I'm keeping the faith that the JBJ we know and love is on his way back:
If you'd like to share any videos from Salt Lake City, feel free to link to them in the comments. 🙂
I'm going to leave the final word on this post to Phil X. If you frequent Wikipedia, specifically the Phil X article, you may have seen his name listed as Philip Eric Xenidis. That isn't his name, however, as he confirmed earlier:
ok. listen up. regarding @Wikipedia , my middle name has NEVER EVER been Eric. i’ve had friends correct it. heck, my own brother even changed it last month but low & behold, it was Eric this morning. my full name is Phil Theofilos Xenidis. Theofilos. it means “friend of God”.
Bon Jovi headed to Tampa, Florida for Valentine's Day on their This House Is Not For Sale Tour. I'm a bit disappointed there was no love song for the occasion -- like "Always" or "Bed of Roses"... or even "Real Love", which is easier on Jon's voice and has the benefit of promoting the current album. I don't expect Bon Jovi to be Bruce Springsteen, but the Tampa set list is exactly the same as what was played in Atlanta a few days ago...
Set list: Tampa, FL, USA - Amalie Arena - 14 February 2017
This House Is Not For Sale
Knockout
You Give Love A Bad Name
Born To Be My Baby
We Weren't Born To Follow
Lost Highway
Roller Coaster
Work For The Working Man
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
We Got It Goin' On
Who Says You Can't Go Home
It's My Life
We Don't Run
God Bless This Mess
Scars on This Guitar
The Devil's in the Temple
Lay Your Hands On Me
Blood on Blood
Have a Nice Day
Bad Medicine
Keep the Faith Encore:
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer
Here's Jon talking about old radio stations before kissing a woman in the crowd:
And a video of "Scars on this Guitar", which I guess is technically a love song, albeit to a guitar. While I like the song, I think my favourite part of the video was watching Everett Bradley in the background 😜:
Bon Jovi just played the first of four TIDAL X shows, in which they'll be performing their upcoming album This House Is Not For Sale in its entirety. This October 1 show took place at Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey.
The current lineup of Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Tico Torres, Hugh McDonald*, and Phil X were joined by John Shanks on rhythm guitar and Everett Bradley on percussion. Most Bon Jovi fans know Shanks as the producer or co-producer of every album since Have a Nice Day; he also did most of the guitar work on Burning Bridges. Everett played on Jon's Destination Anywhere solo tour; a reasonable percentage of this blog's readers might also have seen him with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the Wrecking Ball or High Hopes tours.
Jennifer, a fan who was at the gig, streamed most of the TIDAL X: Bon Jovi show via Facebook Live. On first listen, I like "Roller Coaster", "The Devil's in the Temple", and "Scars on this Guitar". But I'll wait until we hear the studio versions of the tracks to make a proper judgment. I have a bad feeling that none of the good songs will be official singles, and all the terrible ones will be. (I still dislike "Knockout" and I can't see that changing anytime soon.) Prove me wrong, guys. :P
A few videos have also already surfaced on YouTube.
