Sunday was E's birthday, so after practice K and I went over to her house to make brunch and meet baby G (now three weeks old). We had scrambled eggs with basil and cream cheese and pancakes with strawberry compote. And OJ. E was very excited about the OJ. And I broke a baking dish :-( Oops.
There are pictures of this outing, but they're on E's camera. I'll post them when I get them.
Later that day...
Bon Jovi! L got us tickets to see Bon Jovi at Scottrade, and I'd have to say I'm two for two so far this summer as far as concerts go. It was an awesome show from a serious rock star! The place was sold out, so the crowd energy probably helped, but he rocked out for a really long set, and looked like he was having an awesome time doing it! There was lots of musical mojo happening, not to mention sweat flying everywhere. St. Louis was the last stop on the American leg of his tour, and I think we did ourselves proud.
The reviewer who wrote up the set list is totally right that watching him is a little reminiscent of seeing Bruce Springsteen (not that I have). But there's something weird about the way Bruce kicks his legs around and Jon does the same thing!
Jon started out the show on a side stage at the far end of the arena before braving the crowd to make his way up to the main stage. Once he got there, the hits just kept on coming; even the newer stuff that he played tended to be the songs that made it big off the albums. There are dozens and dozens of videos available on his YouTube channel, including the version of "Bad Medicine/Shout" that he did on this tour, although the YouTube video is missing the "Pretty Woman" interlude, and the version I saw was missing the Sambora guitar solo.
I took a couple videos at this concert too, but the sound quality is even worse than at Tim McGraw. Here are two short ones:
Sometime bassist Hugh McDonald, who occupies an odd position in the band, sings the tail end of "Oh, Pretty Woman" with Jon. There's a much better YouTube video of this from their show in Washington, D.C.
from "You Give Love a Bad Name"
Lyrics (since they're so hard to understand):
"Your chains of love got a hold on me
When passion's a prison, you can't break free.
Oh, you're a loaded gun..."
It's true, Richie is in rehab. Canadian guitarist Phil X[enidis] did an admirable job subbing in for Richie, despite having such big shoes to fill. Phil X has previously worked with the likes of Tommy Lee, Kelly Clarkson, Rob Zombie, Avril Lavigne, and Alice Cooper. And Jon himself is more of a musician than I previously gave him credit for. He definitely did more strumming than Tim did, and he did it well.
Our seats were way high up and to the the back right of the stage, but it actually ended up being okay. We were close to the stage to could see most of what happened, and there were enough TV screens to fill us in on whatever we couldn't get a good angle on. And speaking of all the TV screens, the stage was a technological marvel! There were lights and TVs and all kinds of equipment moving all over the place. The biggest one was in front of the stage to start the show and hide the band from most of the crowd as they came out. As the music started and the screen shifted around, I saw that it could be divided into as many as 96 smaller screens (yes, I counted; well, actually, I multiplied), with pictures playing all across them in different ways. Not complicated stuff from a viewing standpoint, but think about all the work that goes into putting it together for every show. And that was just one of them. Wowzers.
L and I didn't stay for the single-song second encore, so the last anthem we heard was "Livin' on a Prayer." This song was originally released as a single off of Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album, which came out in 1986. 1986! That's 25 years ago. This man and this band have been performing "Livin' on a Prayer" for almost as long as I have been alive, and they still put their hearts into it on Sunday night and brought the house down. At least they know what their fans like.
L, awesome idea! My faith in the American rock star has been renewed.
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