BY ELIZABETH WITHEY, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM JULY 16, 2010
Bon Jovi performs at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton July 15, 2010
Photograph by: Larry Wong/Edmonton Journal, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON — As soon as I heard the chorus of Bed of Roses, I was back at the school dance in Grade 10, a hormonal, desperate dreamer singing along while watching the cool kids slow-dance, ever hopeful some hunk might someday be willing to sleep on a bed of nails in my honour.
Yup. Bon Jovi can still pound a Prairie girl’s heart into mawkish mush.
Twas the perfect night for an outdoor trip down rock memory lane at Commonwealth Stadium: clear skies, just a sliver of moon, no coat required.
The epic rock band came on as the sun set and wouldn’t stop playing until after Cinderella’s bedtime, giving the sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 a serious hit of bad medicine.
“I’m just gettin’ warmed up,” frontman Jon Bon Jovi shouted after 40 minutes. The set, well over two hours, was everything fans could hope for: all the classics (and there are a LOT of classics), video bling and plenty of close-ups of the lead singer. He’s still got it, that Jonny: the voice, the hair, that sweaty V-neck sex appeal that makes an otherwise sensible woman want to pounce and paw. Not bad for a 48-year-old father of four who’s currently suffering from a torn calf muscle. Jon injured himself at a show last Friday in New Jersey; his stage movement was noticeably limited but he grooved as best he could, punching the air and doing one-legged hops while tossing self-deprecating comments to the audience.
“You got another leg?” he asked the band. “I could use one.”
Jutting out from the stage was a raised walkway making a half-circle into the crowd, with some lucky ticket holders tucked in the middle. Jon couldn’t prowl back and forth on the walkway but he sneakily hobbled out to the front of it while guitarist Richie Sambora sang Lay Your Hands on Me.
“I like the view out here,” Jon said. “Not easy to get here but it was worth the trip.”
Support act Kid Rock got the rowdy crowd riled and gave them plenty of time to tank up on beer with an hour-long set. Fans sang along with All Summer Long and I Put Your Picture Away as the rockin’-rappin’ renegade monkeyed around on stage, standing above a turntable and playing it through his legs while smoking a cigar.
“Woooooh!” he shouted. “That’s the redneck mating call.” The gel-nailed, handlebar-mustachioed masses hollered back.
But it was Bon Jovi they’d come for. Like kittens at a bowl of milk, they lapped up Jon’s bad-boy grin and husky sound as he belted out one anthemic hit after another: You Give Love a Bad Name, Dead or Alive, Livin’ on a Prayer. And I couldn’t help but appreciate his passion performing I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead — clearly, he means what he sings.
The Bon Jovi posse may be jowlier and wrinklier but their energy Thursday was unfaltering — Sambora was unstoppable, burning up yet chilled out, chewing gum the entire show while singing backup vocals, and drummer Tico Torres bashed out beats in a perspiration-soaked frenzy. Keyboardist David Bryan’s frizzy mop is so dated yet I’m not sure I’d want it any other way. The collective wildness quelled my cynicism about vintage bands touring for the money.
These guys still love what they do.
ewithey@thejournal.canwest.com
Kid Rock is like not the best looking man in Rock N Roll, he's not the worst either, of course the ugliest man in Rock in Chad Kroger from Nickleback. When God handed out Rock Star Pretty of course Jon was at the front of the line and by the time Chad got there (hell, even if he had been second in line) God let him know, 'Oops, sorry all out..." (I'm not insulting Nickleback as a band like some people do, I like their music, but Chad to me is U-G-L-Y).
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