Bon Jovi in Nashville 18/2/17

Bon Jovi headed to Nashville as they continued their This House Is Not For Sale Tour. Hugh McDonald's stepson Jake Johnson was the opening act, while Bon Jovi reportedly set an attendance record for the venue.

Here's what they played:

Set list: Nashville, TN, USA - Bridgestone Arena - 18 February 2017

1. This House Is Not For Sale
2. Knockout
3. You Give Love a Bad Name
4. Lost Highway
5. Whole Lot of Leavin'
6. Roller Coaster
7. Work for the Working Man 
8. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
9. We Got It Going On
10. Who Says You Can't Go Home
11. It's My Life
12. We Don't Run
13. God Bless This Mess
14. Scars on This Guitar
15. The Devil's in the Temple
16. Lay Your Hands On Me
17. Born To Be My Baby
18. Have a Nice Day
19. Bad Medicine
20. Keep the Faith
    Encore:
21. Blood on Blood
22. Because We Can
23. Wanted Dead or Alive
24. Livin' on a Prayer

I was kind of expecting "I Love This Town" given the song is supposed to be about Nashville, although I'm not exactly crying that it wasn't played. I was, however, hoping for "Always" or "Bed of Roses", both of which were played in Nashville on the Because We Can Tour.

Here's Jon talking about the stories behind the album and some of their other songs, before performing "God Bless This Mess":

This is "Whole Lot of Leavin'" from Nashville:

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UPDATE 20/2/17:

"We Don't Run" from the Nashville show (with a decent view of the messages on the big screens):

And here's a photo of Bon Jovi with the Jake Johnson Band (on Jake's Instagram, originally posted Bon Jovi's Facebook).

Thank you, @bonjovi! Last night was a true full circle moment. #bridgestonearena #bridgestone #jakejohnson #whothehellisjakejohnson #thinfs #thishouseisnotforsale #thinfstour #bonjovi

A post shared by Jake Johnson (@officialjakejohnson) on Feb 19, 2017 at 4:28pm PST

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Were you at this show?

Whole Lot of Leavin'

"Whole Lot of Leavin'" is Bon Jovi's most recent single from Lost Highway, but I thought it was only released in Europe. Later it surfaced VH1 but today, I heard it in Australia for the first time (on 96fm in Perth). This might be old news -- I don't listen to the radio that much nowadays -- but the title track is the only song from Lost Highway that I had heard on the radio here. It was played to death in the two months leading up to Bon Jovi's Aussie tour. The "Make a Memory" and "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" videos did get some decent airplay on musicMAX and CMC though.

Anyway, it's always nice to hear a Jovi song other than "Livin' on a Prayer" on the radio every now and then, so I thought I'd post about it! The "Leavin'" video was a bit controversial when it was released a couple of months ago -- Some fans didn't like the style or feared a rift between Jon and Richie Sambora -- but I love it. It's dark, mature and artistic... The only Bon Jovi video I can think of (off the top of my head, at least) where Jon doesn't flash his blinding pearly whites for the ladies. The vocals were also re-recorded live, which gives the whole video a raw, emotional touch.



Bon Jovi (especially Jon) gets compared to the Boss too often but I wonder if "Leavin'" was at all inspired by Bruce Springsteen's "Brilliant Disguise" video? Both use live vocals instead of the studio version; both shot in black and white; both focus on a guy in a room with a guitar; both very cool. :)