5/21/11

Bon Jovi: Concert Review: Hit-packed show finds Bon Jovi at top of game

By Mark Jordan

Friday, May 20, 2011

“Lady Gaga,” Jon Bon Jovi scoffed Thursday night before a sold-out crowd at FedExForum. “I remember her grandma, Madonna.”

The lead singer of the eponymous rock band was referencing a just-released Forbes magazine list that ranked the pop newbie as No. 1 on its list of “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities,” ahead of Oprah, U2, and, at No. 8, a certain New Jersey four-piece.

“What’s been the one constant all these years?” Bon Jovi went on during a breakdown in the song “The More Things Change” off the band’s 2010 greatest hits collection. “You’re looking at it.”

If the boasts don’t convince you, the numbers surely will. Thirty-one years into their career, by Bon Jovi’s own count, the band is at the top of its game. Their 2010 tour was the top grossing of the year, raking in more than $125 million. And their current run looks to match it. With 15,912 people in attendance, not counting the packed suites and skyboxes, Thursday night’s Memphis stop had the highest paid attendance of any event in the seven-year history of FedExForum.

It is easy to see why crowds are flocking to see Bon Jovi. The band put on a crowd-pleasing, hit-packed, visually stunning 2 1/2-hour arena rock show the likes of which is all too rare these days.

To paraphrase the band’s own “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” last night Bon Jovi saw 16,000 faces and rocked them all.

What’s even more impressive is they did it while down a man. Late last month, longtime guitarist Richie Sambora checked out of the tour and checked into rehab. In his absence, former Triumph guitarist Phil Xenidis joined sideman Bobby Bandiera in picking up most of the six-string responsibilities. Whether or not this last-minute reshuffling caused the band to rethink its approach to songs, the show did feel short on the kind of lengthy guitar flights a player of Sambora’s stature surely would have brought. Still, given limited opportunities, Xenidis did distinguish himself, especially on an epic “Bad Medicine” that featured interludes of rock classics “Pretty Woman” and “Shout.” And even Bon Jovi, not known as a picker, delivered a solid solo on the band’s early hit “Runaway.”

The 49-year-old Bon Jovi looked youthful and fit in his sleeveless leather shirt as he careened around the stage, a camera tracking his every move for display on a moving, segmented video display that gave every seat in the house a good look. After a strong first half that included rockers like “Lost Highway,” You Give Love A Bad Name,” and a gospel-infused “Lay Your Hands On Me,” Bon Jovi appeared on a satellite stage that arced out from the main one, sending throngs of women rushing up for a close-up picture as he worked through ballads like “Bed of Roses.”

Much of what followed, including the underwhelming “Have A Nice Day” and “Keep the Faith,” felt like filler leading up to the encore, which closed with “Wanted” and “Livin’ On A Prayer,” on both of which Bon Jovi stepped back and let the audience sing part of the song.

In what was a treat for the Memphis audience, Bon Jovi disappeared midway through the show to allow keyboardist David Bryan, who moonlights as a Broadway composer, to deliver a solo rendition of “Memphis Lives In Me,” one of the songs he wrote for the Tony-award musical “Memphis,” which will launch its first national tour here in October.

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