A Couple of Evenings with Bon Jovi

Day 247

I never went to concerts when I was a teenager. The only concert that I had went to was when the Beach Boys came to Logan. They played after the Utah State/Hawaii football game. It was a great concert only it was so hot! You could tell who was at the concert, half of them were sunburned.

It was many years after that I went to my next concert and that was on a whim. Kristy's friend Kristi Pixton, whom she taught P.E. with at South Hills Middle School down in Riverton wanted to go and we all thought that sounded fun. So I bought tickets off the Internet and off we went.

That experience totally made me a fan of going to concerts. I didn't think it would have been that cool but it was. Bon Jovi was also Kristy's first concert too. I was really impressed with how the band energized us all and they gave it everything they had to make sure we all had a good time watching the show. One of the best parts of concert-going is also one of my favorite past times. I love to people watch and the people that came to the Bon Jovi concert didn't disappoint. We spotted a daughter, mother and grandmother all dressed in the same slutty outfit. I would have loved to have snapped a picture of that, it was a sight to behold.

The first time Kristy and I saw Bon Jovi was on the Wild Night Tour at the Delta Center on April 28th, 2001. The band SR-71 opened for them and they were alright. I always feel bad for the opening act, rarely I want to see them and nowhere near the amount I want to see the main event band.

I was familiar with most of the setlist.

One Wild Night

You Give Love A Bad Name

It's My Life

Keep the Faith (Sympathy for the Devil)

Livin' On A Prayer

Born To Be My Baby

Mystery Train

Blaze of Glory

Someday I'll Be Saturday Night

In These Arms

Just Older

Blood On Blood

I'll Be There For You

Lay Your Hands on Me

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Bad Medicine (Shout)

ENCORE

I Got the Girl

Wanted Dead or Alive

SECOND ENCORE

Tequila

Twist and Shout

I was taken surprise by their second encore. They said that if the audience is really into it they will keep coming out. I would totally see them live again.

In fact, I did.

Pixton told us that Bon Jovi was coming only this time our brother-in-law Eric and Terry (another teacher at their school) came. We met at Applebees and grabbed some food and then rode the train up to the Energy Solutions Arena and waited for them to take the stage. The Goo Goo Dolls was the opening band and I thought they did a solid job but we were all excited for Bon Jovi.

I am not a huge fan of Bon Jovi. I like their music and I have a couple of albums but I would consider myself a casual fan. But I was way excited to see them come out! They had a pretty cool stage, they had these three large satellite dishes (like on the album cover) and they were just TV screens.

Setlist:

Bounce

You Give Love A Bad Name

Wild In the Streets

Livin' On A Prayer

Everyday

Undivided

Runaway

Just Older

Wanted Dead Or Alive

The Distance

It's My Life

Misunderstood

Right Side of Wrong

I'll Be There For You

Blaze of Glory

Someday I'll Be Saturday Night

Born To Be My Baby

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Raise Your Hands

ENCORE:

Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars

Bad Medicine (Shout)

Sadly no second encore. But I was really happy that they included Runaway, one of my favorite songs of theirs. It was a good show and I would go see them again.