With a new album and a new tour, Bon Jovi paid a visit to San Jose’s SAP Center for a Wednesday night of rock and roll.
The lights finally went down in the arena around 8:30 and people scurried to their seats as the band broke into “This House Is Not For Sale” and a scrim dropped across the front of the stage. Immediately on their feet and arms in the air, the capacity crowd was clearly familiar with and no doubt pumped to hear the new material.
After a few moments, the scrim was removed and the arena lit up, revealing the full extent of the production. While the stage was predictably set up at one end of the arena, it was left open on all sides allowing for great views from the seats behind and to the side of the stage. Early on Jon joked that those folks would be forced to look at his rear for the next two and a half hours but shortly thereafter took advantage of catwalks to give those folks some love during “We Got It Goin’ On.”
What was unique about the show’s production was that lighting was hung all the way around the venue pointed at the audience. What that meant for the show was that it felt much more intimate than one would expect for an arena show … like you were watching it with 15,000 of your friends. Bon Jovi took maximum advantage of this, relishing in his interaction with the crowd as the lighting above the stage literally reconfigured itself differently for each song.
Not surprisingly, the setlist pulled heavily from This House Is Not For Sale. And while many bands will blast through their songs like the goal is to finish the set as quickly as possible, Bon Jovi warned the crowd early on to settle in for a long night. What that meant is he took a “storyteller” approach to the show, taking the time to introduce the new songs and explain a bit about the history of each. What came through loud and clear was a guy that couldn’t be more stoked to have a hit record after 34 years.
Of course it wouldn’t have been a Bon Jovi show without the classics and Bon Jovi made the crowd stick around to the bitter end, saving “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” for the last two songs of the encore. There’s a good reason this band is still selling out arenas after all these years … what a show!
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
THADEUS GONZALEZ
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
Thadeus Gonzalez
SETLIST
This House Is Not for Sale
Knockout
You Give Love a Bad Name
Lost Highway
Whole Lot of Leavin’
Roller Coaster
We Weren’t Born to Follow
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
We Got It Goin’ On
Who Says You Can’t Go Home
It’s My Life
We Don’t Run
God Bless This Mess
Scars on This Guitar
The Devil’s in the Temple
Lay Your Hands on Me
Born to Be My Baby
Have a Nice Day
Bad Medicine
Keep the Faith
ENCORE
Living with the Ghost
Because We Can
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin’ on a Prayer
