We're all alright! Hello Wisconsin! Bon Jovi in Milwaukee

Sorry about the title, I was just thinking about That 70s Show for some reason. 😜

But after two identical sets to start the tour, we got a few set list changes when Bon Jovi played in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA - April 5, 2022

Fiserv Forum

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. I'll Be There For You
10. Let it Rain
11. Keep the Faith
12. Lower the Flag - acoustic
    
13. We Don't Run - acoustic
14. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night - acoustic
15. Who Says You Can't Go Home
16. Lost Highway
17. Wanted Dead or Alive
18. Roller Coaster
19. This House Is Not For Sale
20. Have a Nice Day
21. Livin' on a Prayer
    
    encore:
22. In These Arms
23. Bad Medicine

Selected videos from Milwaukee

"Bad Medicine". Well, Jon's moving around a bit, the backing vocals sound pretty good, and the band members seem to have a good vibe with each other:

"Lower the Flag". One of my favourite songs from 2020, and I'm glad it's made its tour debut. Plus, Jon's current tone actually kind of works to convey the mood of a song like this:

"Just Older" comes with added "sha-la-las" on this tour:

"In These Arms". Part of me wants David Bryan to sing this one permanently, but unfortunately that would just highlight the difference between him and Jon vocally:

"I'll Be There For You". This is an emotional experience for me, honestly, but probably not in the way it's supposed to be:

Anyway, we're a week into the tour but no dates have been announced beyond this month so I don't know what happens after April. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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The same sunrise, it's just another day for Bon Jovi in St. Paul

Okay, that title came across snarkier than I intended. (But it's a reference to "The More Things Change", which was probably my favourite previously-unreleased track from the Greatest Hits album that came out in 2010.)

I know I'm running behind already but given the second show of Bon Jovi's 2022 Tour featured the exact same set list as the first, it's not like I made y'all miss much! (Also, this blog isn't really a "breaking news" kind of space -- there are other fan sites and social media pages covering that sort of thing.)

Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA - April 3, 2022

Xcel Energy 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. 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

 

Selected videos from St. Paul

"We Don't Run". Sharing this one again because I said I wasn't sure about the arrangement after Show #1 but it's growing on me. And because I kind of think an acoustic/unplugged tour might be the best way to go after April, but that's another post for another time:

"Keep the Faith". Look, I don't think there's any point pretending that was an outstanding vocal performance, but I always love the band on this song:

"Let It Rain". Ooh, that harmonica outro is cool:

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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.

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Jon Bon Jovi and the Wallflowers

Good to see Jon appears to be fully recovered after his recent bout of COVID. 

He's out of quarantine and recently celebrated the JBJ Soul Kitchen's 10th birthday. (There's an upcoming virtual event dubbed the 5-10-15 Anniversary Celebration to mark the 15th anniversary of the JBJ Soul Foundation, 10th anniversary of the Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, and 5th anniversary of the Soul Kitchen in Toms River.) He was also presented with the Intrepid Museum's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in this space.

And... at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, Jon joined Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers on stage. Here they are performing "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding":

The Stone Pony also posted some photos from the show.

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JBJ gets COVID, show gets canned

As you've probably heard by now, Jon Bon Jovi tested positive to COVID-19 during the Runaway Tours Halloween trip to Miami.

JBJ and the Kings of Suburbia each took a rapid antigen test for COVID before their concert and Jon's came back positive, resulting in the decision to cancel his gig at Loews South Beach. Jon had been at the Halloween costume party the night before, dressing up as Gomez Addams and posing for photos with fans, so that was some cause for concern too. But at least Jon is double-vaxxed and was reportedly feeling fine.

Here's the moment Matt Bongiovi came out and broke the news to the waiting crowd:

COVID previously touched the Bon Jovi camp last year, with David Bryan and Everett Bradley getting it fairly early on in the pandemic. Jon posted a short video on social media to mark Day 6 of his quarantine period, confirming he was feeling okay and urging people to take the virus seriously. 

Runaway Tours has since confirmed that fans who went on the trip will get a full refund.

Anyway, I'm glad Jon seems to have had mild symptoms, and I hope everyone who was in attendance is fine too. COVID flipping sucks.

Not sure if/when things are going to get back to "normal" around the world, but when Bon Jovi the band were the surprise guests at a private event for trucking executives in October, I allowed myself to dream of an upcoming tour. It all feels an extremely long way off though. 😔

Oh, by the way... that book I talked about in an earlier post? Black and Blue is a contemporary coming-of-age story written by, um, me! The main character loves Bon Jovi and the book is out now.  

Find Black and Blue at your preferred online retailer if you're so inclined. Thank you for indulging my shameless plug and goodnight. 😀

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You can sing the melody to me and I can write a couple lines

Right off the bat, I'm going to admit this is a very self-serving blog post -- but hopefully it's of interest to some of you too!

In one of my other lives, I fancy myself as a writer. And now my debut novel, Black and Blue, will be released into the world on November 1! It's a contemporary coming-of-age story and the main character, Jade, just so happens to be a huge Bon Jovi fan among other things because... why not? It's something I clearly have a lot of firsthand experience of. 😀

Jade is 18, and this band saved my life when I was a teenager -- and I wanted to honour that in some way. Especially since I didn't know if I'd ever publish another book after this one (and technically I still don't, but I certainly intend to).

Anyway, like I said, this post is shamelessly self-serving. The point of it is basically to tell you all that I have a book coming out and you can pre-order it now if you want to.

Learn more about Black and Blue and find it at your preferred online retailer. 🙂

Now, you might have noticed the title of this post and concluded that I don't care about SEO. But to bring it all back to Bon Jovi, it's also a lyric from "(You Want To) Make a Memory". I love the song, but the music video is also one of my faves and it was recently remastered. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a great reason to watch it again to me. 😉

  

And one month before my book comes out, Diana: The Musical -- with music by our favourite Tony award-winning keyboard player, David Bryan -- will make its debut on Netflix.

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Hey, man, I'm alive...

I haven't blogged here in quite some time. Aside from the busyness of life getting in the way -- which I'm extremely grateful for because not everyone has been lucky enough to keep working throughout the pandemic -- there just hasn't been a huge amount for me to talk about when it comes to Bon Jovi. I mean, individual members have their own projects, but the band obviously hasn't been able to get together and tour.

But 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of Bon Jovi's breakthrough album Slippery When Wet -- a record that I think deserves a lot more celebration than it's currently able to get. To honour the milestone, Bon Jovi digitally remastered the "Wild in the Streets" video and uploaded it to YouTube for the first time.

Cool, but... I would love something more. And no, cheap-looking merch does not count as "something more". 😜

In Perth, where I live, a local band -- also called Slippery When Wet -- paid tribute to the anniversary by playing the album in its entirety at a recent gig. I shot a video of "Never Say Goodbye" on my phone:

It was beautiful and actually kind of emotional getting to see Slippery performed in its entirety, albeit not by the real Bon Jovi in their prime.

Will Bon Jovi (current lineup or otherwise) tour again? It's hard to say anything with any certainty these days. 

In the absence of touring, it looks like Jon's going to keep doing the Hampton Water Makes a Splash online gigs -- the "second annual" charity concert, in support of The Roots Fund, took place back in July. I neglected to write about it at the time, but if you're yet to watch it and have about an hour to spare, here it is:

Set list:

1. Help! [The Beatles cover]
2. You Give Love a Bad Name / Hit the Road Jack [Percy Mayfield/Ray Charles cover]
3. Do What You Can
4. American Reckoning
5. Watermelon Sugar [Harry Styles cover]
6. Livin' on a Prayer
7. It's My Life
8. Fast Car [Tracy Chapman cover]
9. Story of Love
10. Lost Highway
11. Who Says You Can't Go Home
    

I feel like this sort of thing suits Jon more these days but man, I'd still really love a Bon Jovi show. 🥺

But I'll end this "hi, I'm still here" post on something different... Phil X plays guitar on Kurt Deimer's version of "Have a Cigar" (originally by Pink Floyd), which was released in August. Phil is also in the music video:

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