By Jim Sullivan
Photo by Faith Ninivaggi
Somewhere, deep inside Gillette Stadium Saturday night, Bill Belichick was smiling.
It had nothing to do with the Patriots [team stats], and everything to do with a sold-out concert by the coach’s favorite band, Bon Jovi. He wasn’t alone. About 51,000 others were expressing joy.
Bon Jovi delivered two hours and 25 minutes of hit-packed, slick, polished arena rock, bumped up to the stadium level. (Bon Jovi also packed the Razor in 2003 and 2006.)
“This ain’t television, baby, get up out of your seats!” singer Jon Bon Jovi shouted early on, before “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
From their mid-’80s beginnings, main songwriters Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora wrote power ballads and rock songs to reach the far corners of wherever they played. Big, major-chord tunes, with broad-stroke sentiments and traditional rock-star strutting. Flashes of metal, but primarily an onslaught of pop hooks. Say this: Over nearly three decades, they have remained true to their roots.
Bon Jovi’s songs are essentially triumphant slogans. “It’s My Life” and the concert-closing “Livin’ on a Prayer” hit those easy-listening anthem marks with perfection. But they’ve taken on some weight lately, and two highlights were the elegiac “When We Were Beautiful” and the pounding “Work for the Working Man,” played near the end. In those, we heard rousing, Springsteen-esque Jersey populism.
Still, they’re not political. “We Weren’t Born to Follow” may have had a plethora of political images on screen - JFK, MLK, John Lennon, Winston Churchill - but Bon Jovi’s message was simply to take charge. Of what? Your life, presumably. Fight the fight and you’ll succeed. Call it vague activism.
There were few curves and numerous fastballs down the middle, from the opener, “Blood on Blood,” through encore selections “I’ll Be There for You” and “Wanted Dead or Alive.”
Bon Jovi’s forte is pushing the pop pleasure button again and again. They’re proudly old-school, and their Bob Seger cover, “Old Time Rock and Roll,” with opener Kid Rock joining them, was a salute to that school and style.
Kid Rock comes from a newer school. But he loves the classic hits too - and during his hourlong set he played Sly Stone’s “Everyday People” and Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever.”
But he is a genre masher, a poor man’s Beck. Kid and his Twisted Brown Trucker Band shuffled hard rock, rap, metal, soul and country. Kid Rock took a turn at the DJ console, scratching while pouring (and downing) a shot of Jack Daniel’s and saluting bad-boy behavior.
He had the hit seasonal song a year ago with “All Summer Long,” and it worked again Saturday. It boasts the Lynryd Skynyrd/Warren Zevon signature riffs, which anchor a nostalgic tune about misspent youth. Rock, shirtless and sweat-drenched by the end, is a reprobate with smarts, skill and showmanship.
BON JOVI, with KID ROCK
At Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Saturday night.
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