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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
My Review
Though I've been a Bon Jovi fan since 1986, prior to November 2000, my only concerts were in 1993 and 1995 when they came to Halifax. When the Crush tour was announced and Halifax was not listed, my sister and I decided to take a Bon Jovi roadtrip to Toronto and Montreal. The following reviews the Toronto concert.
Monday morning, November 27, 2000 we woke up at 4 AM to head off to the airport for our flight to Toronto. While sitting in the airport, and questioning our sanity for being up so early, we both suddenly got silly smirks on our faces as over the sound system we heard "Please Come Home For Christmas" sung by none other than the man we were going to see that night. Suddenly our sleepiness was gone and we were ready to rock and roll.
Once in Toronto we checked into our room at the Royal York and were
pleased to see that our window overlooked Air Canada Centre. Even though
it was only 9 AM, there were already trucks and buses parked and
people milling about, and after watching out the window for a while, we
decided it was time to get a closer look. We didn't see anyone important,
but it was still cool knowing show preparations were underway.Because we had 2 extra tickets, we headed back to Air Canada Centre around 4:40 pm to see if we could find anyone who needed them. Keeping in mind that it was still nearly 3 hours to showtime, we were shocked to see lots of fans already waiting, including some girls sitting on the floor making signs. A souvenir booth was even set up in the box office area, so we took that opportunity to buy t-shirts. Then we went outside to see if we could sell our tickets. Not really sure how to go about finding fans who needed tickets, we ended up selling them to a scalper for less than cost. We figured it was better than nothing and we did talk him up from his initial offer! So with that nasty business over with, we started back towards the box office area to head back to the hotel. On our way we passed some girls talking to a roadie, obviously trying to talk him into getting them inside the building, but he seemed to be just toying with them and eventually he walked away laughing.
Back inside the box office area, we suddenly heard music and we found ourselves drifting over to the closed doors behind which the music was originating. We pressed our ears to the glass to hear, and though the music was muffled, there was no mistaking that it was BON JOVI!!!! We had stumbled upon their soundcheck! We weren't the only ones straining to hear, and when one of the Air Canada Centre staff opened a door to exit, we all lunged towards the opening trying to get a better listen. Because none of us could figure out what song they were playing, we determined that it was not a Bon Jovi song.
Not sure how many songs they played, it really wasn't worth it to stay, so we headed off to eat with the plan to return after the opening act, and just before 8 pm, we were back. Our timing was off a little, however, as Less Than Jake were still onstage, so we walked around the concourse until they finished. Didn't really hear much of their set, but they did gain at least one new fan as we saw a guy buying their CD at the souvenir stand. Once in our seats we waited impatiently for 8:30 to come, and finally the lights went down, the elevator music started and everyone leaped to their feet and started to cheer.
The opening video segment, with the guys in the elevator was funny, and the silly grin Jon flashed at the camera was too cute for words. Finally the elevator door opened and after more than 5 long years Bon Jovi were again standing on a stage in front of me!
Our seats were 18th row on the floor centre stage, the best we've ever had, and though we couldn't see the entire stage all the time, whenever Jon stood at his microphone he was directly in front of us. The setlist was pretty much the same as for previous shows, beginning with "One Wild Night" followed by songs mostly from "Slippery When Wet", "New Jersey" and "Crush".
Prior to playing "It's My Life" Jon told us that unlike most shows, this time they had a soundcheck because they were filming "It's My Life" for Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show, and that "girls should fix their lipstick and gentlemen fix their hair" because we were going to be tv stars. Jon then proceeded to messily finger comb his own hair, before launching into the song with the crowd singing so loud it nearly drowned out the band.
I can't remember exactly where Jon's between songs banter fit into the show, but at one point he talked them being gone for 5 years and how people had had babies (Dave), solo records (Richie), art exhibits (Tico) and that he had gone to Hollywood.
He added that it was Toronto's fault he'd become an actor as the movie "Moonlight & Valentino" had been filmed in the city 6 years earlier.
He told a silly Hollywood story, or actually Hollyweird, about faking his kidnapping to get publicity and nothing happening. He also mentioned missing his 10 year high school reunion, and playing the Toronto club El Mocambo many years earlier.
During one of the songs, thousands of flakes of confetti fell from the ceiling and 2 nights later while watching the Toronto hockey game on tv, the announcer said that "this was the first time Bon Jovi ever had an affect on a game, because confetti was still falling from their concert the other night!"
Then way too soon, the encores started and after "Never Say Goodbye" Jon threw his guitar pick into the audience, and the band went into the elevator, signalling the end of the show.
While waiting for the crowd to clear a little we saw Obie O'Brien (the band's sound engineer) but we didn't talk to him. We were tempted to, especially when we saw him hand a setlist to a girl, but then we realized that just because he was familiar to us, from the webcast of the Crush recording sessions last winter, it did not mean that we knew him. Finally, we made our way up the stairs, and out of the building, and show #1 was over.
SetlistOne Wild Night
You Give Love A Bad Name
Captain Crash
Keep The Faith
Livin' On A Prayer
Born To Be My baby
Blaze of Glory
Runaway (acoustic)
It's My Life
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Thank You For Loving Me
Lay Your Hands On Me
I'll sleep When I'm Dead
Rockin' All Over The World
Bad Medicine
Shout
1st Encore
Next 100 Years
I'll be there for you
2nd Encore
Just Older
Wanted Dead or Alive
Twist & Shout
3rd Encore
Never Say Goodbye
Setlist from Backstage with Jon Bon Jovi
In politics of rock 'n' roll, it's ... Bon Jovi by a nose
By KIERAN GRANT -- Toronto Sun
"Are you sick to death of the sport of politics?!" Jon Bon
Jovi said by way of a greeting as he launched into his eponymous bands'
concert at the Air Canada Centre last night. "Have you had it up to here with the politics of sport?!"
What followed was a snappy, snare-laced, rock 'n' roll sermon straight out of the book of Springsteen (Ford Administration vintage). The long and the short of it was that, after a five-year absence from the mega-tour circuit, these New Jersey fellas were back to cleanse our spirits with a "religion we call rock 'n' roll!"
Testify!
Okay, so that sports-and-politics thing would get a little cloudy a few songs later, during new tune Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars, when the big screens behind the band started flashing scenes of, well, political and sporting events -- and political sporting events -- from the past half-century.
(Weren't we in here to forget about that stuff?)
Anyway, Bon Jovi's old-school rock bombast is nothing if not sloppy. Not as in technically sloppy -- far from it, actually -- but sloppy like a well-meaning and well-rehearsed golden retriever out to please its master, which in this case was 15,000 roof-raising, Bic-flicking fans.
The singer's opening testimony, for instance, could have dated back 15 years, but it no doubt echoed what a lot of voters in the crowd must have been thinking, just as polls across the city prepared to close.
Flanked by Bon Jovi's household-name guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres, keyboardist David Bryan, and bassist Hugh MacDonald, he danced a rubbery line between cartoon rock-deity and been-there, done-that troubadour. After all, the guy can hardly act like the past five years, during which he released a solo album and became a regular in Hollywood movies, didn't happen.
But he was also in touch with the over-the-top Bon Jovi that made him famous in the '80s, streaking through requisite anthems Runaway, You Give Love A Bad Name and Livin' On A Prayer early in the set.
And, if all that hype about the group moving with the times seems a bit "Emperor's New Clothes," it didn't seem to have any effect on last night's performance.
Sure, they appear in suits on the booklet of their new CD, Crush, and the poodle hairstyles have been appropriately toned down (Bryan excluded). But new opening tune One Wild Night and the fist-pumping It's My Life slotted properly alongside the high-gloss pomp-metal of the old hits.
As Jon Bon proved during a drawling, drawn-out monologue later, this band was his theatre before he ever went Hollywood.
Like any flip-through of an old year book, the evening wasn't totally wince-free -- did they really need to accompany the ridiculous Blaze Of Glory with footage from Young Guns II, the film it originally promoted? Young Guns II?
Still, it's clear, even for someone who spent high school trying to avoid this stuff, that Bon Jovi remain resolute in their cause: Being Bon Jovi.
From the November 28th, 2000 edition of the Toronto Sun
Continue to part 2 and my review of the Montreal concert.
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