I picked up tickets for myself and a friend to the Bon Jovi concert in Stanley Park. It was half that I like Bon Jovi but I'm certainly not a massive fan. The other part was that it was to be a spectacle in Stanley Park, a beautiful venue that was to launch a concert series in Vancouver.
It became a highly publicized disaster as the Tuesday before the Saturday show I got a call from my friend that it was cancelled. I immediately went on the refund path, which landed me an interview with a local newspaper from my tweeting to the local idiots in charge. The original word from the Bon Jovi camp was that the permits weren't in place, which the City of Vancouver backed up. Also, there hadn't been any payment to any of the important parts of concert organization, such as the band, the crews and the staging people. There was no communication from the local company, Paper Rain and Urban Forest (really, the same company) and I was angry and also scared of being out the $212 for the two tickets with no concert to show for it. The day after the cancellation I finally received an email stating that the concert was back on, Runaway Tours was doing the show still. Thirty seconds on their Facebook page, however, revealed that the show would be for their own ticket holders since they had bought a weekend package through the Bon Jovi subsidiary company. It wasn't exactly rocket science. Not long after that I received another email from Paper Rain that basically amounted to "Oops, we screwed up... again."
A day of mud slinging ensued in the media and everyone blamed each other, some people were angry at the Bon Jovi camp for bringing him here anyway to do a show for his fan club people and no one else (I certainly wasn't faulting him for this. I'm very aware of the logistics and cost of putting on a large show in just a few days. At the same time, I would have liked a show too.) The next day, the local promoter, after issuing no refund information at all, declared bankruptcy. That left everyone with tickets thinking, 'Well now what?'
What happened next was unexpected and made me a Bon Jovi fan for life. The following day (we're up to Thursday now for those keeping score) the Bon Jovi camp announced that the show would go on, for all 7,500 ticket holders, at Rogers Arena here in Vancouver. Now, let's be clear here. They hadn't been paid from Paper Rain, hadn't received money from ticket sales. They did this on their own dime, having to pay for all of the gear, staging, venue and staff up front. I'm sure that they'll be suing the pants off of Paper Rain, but there's no guarantee that the bankrupt company can pay them. They weren't in the middle of a tour, it's not like they just took a detour with their rigs and rolled to Vancouver. Bon Jovi is on a touring break and are heading over to Asia next month. This gig was a one-off. A LOT of planning. I have absolute respect for Bon Jovi for making this happen and he has certainly gained a fan in me through this.
The show itself was actually exceptionally well organized for any kind of timeline. It was even more amazing when people realized they had two days they had to put it together. It was a stark contrast to what we experienced in the week leading up to the concert.
Upon arrival at the arena, the lineups outside were snaked all the way around the building and them some when I went by around 6:15. Doors were at 6:30 and the show started at 8:00. We were told via email from Tickets Tonight (the actual ticket seller) that the seating would be rush. My friend showed up just after 7:00 and by that time the line was gone completely.
They didn't check my bag and we scanned our tickets directing us to signage as to where we would be allocated with our previous tickets. We were 'Lawn 1' originally, behind the extremely expensive seated people but not all the way at the back. Our new assignments were 104/5 or 118/19. I suggested we to toward 18/19 because it was further from where the masses were entering. We got around there to find that our seats were right beside the stage. The general area for our tickets were those entire sections minus the first three rows. We got down pretty close and had a great view of the stage. Bonus was that we noticed there was a trombone and a baritone saxophone sitting on a riser close to us. Yay for horns.
We headed for some provisions, two "beer" (Budweiser isn't beer) and a tiny Pizza Hut, 4 slice pizza (the size they used to sell at McDonald's) for $25. Highway robbery but that's Roger's Arena for you. Hard to fault them on a night like tonight.
We went back and sat and the lights dimmed promptly at 8:00pm, if not a few minutes before. The antithesis of the disorganization we saw before. There was no opener for this show. In the park it was going to be Robby Kreiger from the Doors, but it didn't happen when the fiasco ensued. No complaints here, I was just happy to get a show.
Jon came out just after his band to a wild round of applause starting with "Who Says You Can't Go Home". I couldn't help but feel this is a sonnet to his feelings about Vancouver as he'd said this was home for him while they recorded a couple of albums here. He rolled right into Lost Highway and was well into the set before taking a second to welcome and address the excited crowd in front of him. I was curious to see how he would handle the fiasco but Jon graciously just invited everyone to join the "block party" and the only allusion to the problems in the week before was the acknowledgement that he wasn't going to talk about it. "No long-winded speeches".
The horn section showed up for Everyday People, a well orchestrated cover and we got to see them in action quite a few times throughout the night. A highlight for me was a cover of the Joe Cocker version of The Letter as well as the encore performance of Superstition. The horn section was powerful and well balanced and I appreciated the solos they were allowed to have as part of the show. The baritone saxophonist also dubbed on keys and had a epic disaster during the opening of Baba O'Riley wherein he flubbed the first, opening, epic keyboard chord. He cleaned it up quickly as it's a repetitive ostinato but after the song he made a hasty exit from the stage. At the very end of the show he made sure he met up with Jon as they left and my friend and I were pretty sure we saw him apologize. We had been joking that we'd see Jon lean forward and fire him as they walked off the stage.
Bon Jovi can sure put on a show, even if he gets some help with the higher vocal parts from either his band mates or the crowd. He tends to turn the mic out for the real high 80's parts. I understand he needs to keep these charts in his lineup to keep the fans coming, but I also really enjoyed his low range singing. He did a beautiful performance of Make A Memory that left me with chills. Also, the unique cover of Cohen's I'm Your Man was spot on. He lamented with a smile before the song that he wishes he'd written it. The new version of 'lighters' arrived in the crowd a few times as people held up cell phones during a couple of ballads. Extra points to the woman a few rows ahead of us that couldn't seem to figure out that you have to turn the phone AROUND so that the flash isn't pointed at you.
Speaking of smile, even from where we were sitting (standing), when he smiled we could see the contagious 5,000 watt smile from where we were. Every time he smiled out at the crowd I felt like I got why people gravitate to him. Very warm and welcoming, even from a ways away.
The up-beat hair charts are what gets the crowd going and he jumps around the stage channeling his 53 years instead of letting them keep him down. He made a visit to his left side crowd while a barn-burner of a violin solo happened on stage. People were taking selfies and he posed, staying there quite a long time. One back on stage he joked about people grabbing his ass, including one of the guys over there.
The anthems were great, mostly in their original key, and the crowd went particularly wild for You Give Love A Bad Name, It's My Life and Wanted, Dead of Alive (which currently holds a special place in my heart because I've become a fan of the Vancouver-shot Supernatural in the past months and the boys sang it when Dean was headed for hell after selling his soul. To be honest, I had originally thought that the actors may be at the gig since Ackles does love classic rock, but they had a convention that weekend out of town)
Toward the end of the set Jon finally mentioned Stanley Park by name saying that he would have loved to play there. He admitted to jogging 200 miles there over the year and said he really enjoyed it. Also, he was excited to get a chance to perform with Kreiger (THAT would have been an amazing encore), but he wanted to perform the Doors song the band had rehearsed for the event. They chose Touch Me, which is a fine song but on this night, discovering that Jon's low range is as great as it is, I would have loved to see something that showcased it with a little more melody. No complaints as he nailed the song as it was written but it's just not my favourite Doors chart because I feel like it's not terribly through-written. I'd rather have seen Light My Fire or even Hello, I Love You in this space. However, he nailed the one he chose, kudos for that.
The 4 song encore was well put together. Jon seems to really appreciate his band and he let his guitarist carry a chart toward the end of the main set as well as having 2 of his backup girls come down and take a verse and some harmonies during the Ike and Tina Turner version of Proud Mary. By this time the horns were EQ'd perfectly and I was so excited from the opening notes of Superstition, a chart that has long been on my personal favourites list. The close of Livin' on A Prayer was excellent and I thought that maybe we'd get another song or two when the house lights didn't immediately come up after the band left the stage for the 2nd time. The crowd seemed to have had enough though, and was willing to let the band go with the 22 set song they'd played on the night that almost didn't happen.
Highlights: Everything! That the show went on, the surprise of Jon's low range, the King's of Suburbia, organization after disaster.
Lowlights: Fucking potsmokers that make me cranky and give me a headache. Stop being so damn selfish. If you want to do drugs, don't make the rest of us have to smell it too. Losers.
Setlist:
- Who Says You Can't Go Home
- Lost Highway
- Whole Lot of Leavin'
- Everyday People
- You Give Love a Bad Name
- Born to Be My Baby
- The Letter
- It's My Life
- Because We Can
- Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
- I'm Your Man
- We Weren't Born to Follow
- We Got It Goin' On
- Baba O'Riley
- Wanted Dead or Alive
- I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
- Touch Me
- Bad Medicine
Encore: - (You Want to) Make a Memory
- Proud Mary
- Superstition
- Livin' on a Prayer
Created with flickr slideshow.
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