In the end, no, it wasn’t the Jon Bon Jovi concert music fans had been promised.
But, yes, it was history.
If there’s one promise now defunct promoter Paper Rain Performances delivered on, it was putting one in the Vancouver music history books forever.
“Who says you can’t go home?” Bon Jovi sang during the opening number of the same name.
Bon Jovi was “home,” back in the city where he and his namesake band had recorded three of their most famous albums (Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, and Keep The Faith). The journey, for both the New Jersey-bred rocker and his fans had not been easy.
“Did you miss me?” Bon Jovi asked after Lost Highway, and the standing crowd, which could reasonably be estimated at approximately 7,500-8,000, answered with the noise of a packed house.
Instead of an outdoor show at Brockton Field (it would have been a perfect evening to have it there), it was inside Rogers Arena that Bon Jovi rocked his fans. And it was electrifying.
The makeup show was a celebration, a tribute to the fans, and there was a driving energy on stage and in the stands, Bon Jovi backed by his excellent 14-piece “second band” The Kings of Suburbia.
Augmented by violins, horns, backup singers, keys and electric and acoustic guitars, the set had a much more party-oriented, jam-driven flavour than a Bon Jovi band set.
“No long-winded speeches, OK? You’re here. I’m here. Let’s have a big block party.”
Bon Jovi handed out a set filled with classics from his catalogue (You Give Love A Bad Name, It’s My Life, a crowd-heavy Wanted Dead Or Alive) and some of his own favourite influential songs (Sly and The Family Stone’s Everyday People and a brassy bar brawl version of The Letter by Alex Chilton and The Box Tops).
Bon Jovi got more comfortable as the concert went on. Much like during his 2013 performance in the same room, older material felt more difficult to nail vocally. Bon Jovi, now 53, was more at ease on lower register material and more recent songs. A ballad-y version of Some Day I’ll Be Saturday Night was spot-on, as was a cover of Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man, awash in keys and horns. We Got It Going On was a monster party jam. And The Who’s Baba O’Reilly, complete with Bon Jovi in the crowd taking selfies and getting his butt grabbed and a mesmerizing solo by violinist Lorenza Ponce? Gold.
Bon Jovi later expressed his disappointment at not being able to play Stanley Park, a place where he said he had run 200 miles over the years. Most of all, he said he was sad he would not be able to join forces with guitarist and hero Robby Krieger, before leading his band into The Doors’ Touch Me.
(Scheduled opening act Andrew Cole and a band including The Doors guitarist did not perform.)
Ultimately, you have to applaud Bon Jovi’s management team for wrangling the ticketing situation (and re-assigning everyone to arena seating without creating too many headaches) and delivering a last-minute concert that, for so many reasons, is now the stuff of legend.
