Last night, Mark, Kim, Laura and I went to see Bon Jovi at the San Jose Arena. My first concert in 1987 was Bon Jovi and Cinderella at the Shoreline Amphitheater. Mark took me. We saw them again in 1989 on the New Jersey tour. I hadn’t seen them since so I thought it would be good to take them last night. This would be Laura’s first arena concert.
The show went well. It was a polished, slick show last night, though no pyrotechnics. Jon Bon Jovi did great crowd interaction going into the crowd on numerous occasions which is difficult to do in an arena. But, what I don’t understand is why they had to play most of their material from the last two albums (the last five years or so)? It is horrible. Maybe 45 minutes of the 2 hour 15 minute show was pre-1990 and the rest was the new stuff. Even some of the old stuff was toned down. Very disappointed in that. Yes, many people knew the newer songs but everyone got into it when they would play the songs off the Slippery When Wet and New Jersey albums. These albums are what made them popular.
A lot of bands who didn’t have a career in the 90’s are making a come back. But, some bands think it’s cool to play new songs. That’s crap. I saw Motley Crue last year and they played all old stuff except for a few songs, which were horrible. Of course they are going to fall in the same trap as Bon Jovi and record a new album. It’s not worth it. These bands need to look at people like James Taylor and Neil Diamond who stick to the past hits and the crowds keep coming back.
