By Lauren Carter
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - Updated 7 minutes ago
The New Jersey rock outfit’s success is largely due to dogged perseverance, a reliable collection of mega-hits and middle-of-the-road rock that offends absolutely no one. Even if you don’t particularly like Bon Jovi, it’s hard to hate them. Love, on the other hand, is something the band gets plenty of, mostly from middle-aged women reliving their teenage years and suburban men who find the unobtrusive, marginally tough rock appealing.
Yes, there are bands with better songs and more stunning live delivery. But those bands don’t sell out arenas on their umpteenth tour almost 30 years into their career, as Bon Jovi did at TD Garden last night.
It didn’t matter that the band’s main soundboard blew out 30 minutes into the show rendering them nearly inaudible (though wildly energetic frontman and Bill Belichick BFF Jon Bon Jovi hardly noticed). Ten minutes after Bon Jovi went mute, the band hooked up to an auxiliary board and 17,000-plus fans returned to screaming and intermittently pawing and clawing at Jon.
Let’s not kid ourselves and say that Jon still looks 25 — he looks like a 49-year-old rocker who has aged extremely well and still possesses a killer smile that guarantees entry into the heartthrob club. His frontman work is part lead vocals — distinctive and serviceable, but not stunning — and part calorie-burning repertoire of one-legged hops, fist pumps, hip thrusts and one-armed windmill moves that had him sweat-drenched an hour into the show. During “Keep The Faith,” he appeared to do an onstage Tae Bo workout.
The two-and-a-half-hour show’s highlights came almost uniformly from early material: “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Bad Medicine” and a stellar “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Lead guitarist Richie Sambora’s husky vocals handled “Lay Your Hands On Me,” his talk box work dotted the explosive show-closer “Livin’ On a Prayer” and his muscular guitar solos immediately called up the Bon Jovi of yore.
But the band’s post-“New Jersey” material — such as “Last Man Standing,” “Have A Nice Day” and “Love’s The Only Rule” — felt nondescript, a sort of tame version of what the band used to be. A retooled, reheated take on the glory days?
Yes, and just maybe, that’s exactly what fans wanted.
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