9th June 2013 – Best Day Ever...so far! Is all I can say
but that would be a very short post. Bon Jovi’s Because We Can concert was
probably the greatest ever performance at Villa Park and I’m an Aston Villa
fan. I have never seen JBJ in my home
town and for him to be at my football team's ground made it extra special.
Being a member of the fan ‘Backstage with Jon Bon Jovi’ Fan
Club we brought the Diamond VIP Backstage packages (450$ - diamond circle
ticket, backstage tour, journal and programme).
Gold stars for the fan club everything was well organised, staff were
helpful and polite and our ‘guide’ on the 25 minutes tour knew her stuff. The
backstage tour was exactly what it was – roadies explaining how the gadgets work, we saw the instruments, including
Jon’s guitars, and a sneak peak into
Jon’s dressing room where he had a
picture of Frank Sinatra and a framed motto – ‘Play like a Champion’ (now my
motto too). Being a Villa fan too walking on to the stage had a double meaning,
one – I was walking the steps my idol would 4 hours later and two I had the chance
to be pictured saying ‘Good Evening Villa Park’ with the Holte End behind me.
Jon's Guitars Backstage View
The 2 hours and 50 minutes show was non-stop, none of these
costume changes and video clips in between songs the younger acts have, Jon and the boys was on full
power with only one and half encores (they never actually left the stage for the second encore) and Jon went off stage for a few minutes in the middle of Keep The Faith to change
this jacket once. Without Richie Sambora, Jon
spend most of the show with playing his guitar in the centre of the stage, he
only went out into the crowd along the walkway (which also had my foot print on
it) once for In These Arms. This is a
biased review and I can’t think of any Bon Jovi which I don’t like, I do get bored of listening to Shout in the
middle of Bad Medicine but they didn’t perform it and Who Says You Can’t Go
Home can go on for ever but this time it wasn’t the extended version. I did miss Richie and for Wanted Dead or
Alive his absence was very noticeable.
There usually no point to looking at previous Bon Jovi concert set
lists as apart from 10 to 15 songs , the other 10 change from concert to
concert. Born to Be My Baby is my
all-time favourite so a highlight of my night along with my other favourites
It’s My Life, Have a Nice Day and Livin On A Prayer. I hadn’t heard Bed of Roses or Always for a
few tours so it was good to be reminded how great these songs are live and I
loved the new songs from the What About Now album – I think Because We Can will
be a concert favourite for future tours it really went down well with the
crowd.
There were only three negatives about this amazing day, band and concert, of course no Richie, Jon constantly spitting over my football
ground and only one merchandise stand on the pitch which came with a 5% credit
card change and an one hour wait to be served. Other than that Bon Jovi played like champions
and it still was the Best Day Ever!
Villa Park Set List - 9th June 2013
- That's What The Water Made Me.
- You Give Love A bad Name.
- Born To Be My Baby.
- Raise Your Hands.
- Lost Highway.
- Runaway.
- It's My Life.
- Because We can.
- What About Now.
- We Got It Going On.
- Keep The Faith.
- Amen
- Bed Of Roses.
- Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen.
- We Weren't Born To Follow.
- Who Says You Can't Go Home.
- Rockin' All Over The World.
- Sleep When I'm Dead.
- Bad Medicine/ Old Time Rock And Roll.
- Dry Country.
- Wanted Dead Or Alive.
- In These Arms.
- Happy Now.
- Have A Nice Day.
- Livin On A Prayer.
- Always.
- Blood on Blood.
