Top 5: Bon Jovi concerts (that I attended)

Barcelona 2011 ~ by me

Although you will probably read this much, much later I am currently high above the world, somewhere near Ottowa according to the screens on this plane, trying to ignore the tiniest of bumps that most of the other passengers probably don’t even notice. I hate flying and even though my level of anxiety has been way worse and will be worse than it is as I am writing this, I am still nowhere near relaxed enough to fall asleep. So that’s how I ended up here, because as I am listening to Bon Jovi’s 2013 Cologne show I realise once again that they are the only thing that at least kind of succeeds to calm me down at moments like these. 

I also realised that Cologne probably still is one of the best shows I have seen them play. And that is how we ended up here. So without further ado I present to you my top 5 favourite Bon Jovi shows (that I attended). 

 

Amsterdam 2003 - I wish I remembered more of this show but apart from this being my first ever Bon Jovi show, I was also only 11 years old, so I don’t think i’m really at fault here for having only a couple of distant memories from this show. Looking back at it now though I realise that it was pretty freaking awesome. Killer setlist, killer guitar solos, killer vibe. I do recall the exact moment there and then, high up in the stands of the Amsterdam Arena, as the tiny dot that was Richie Sambora sang his version of I’ll Be There For You, that I decided that this band would change my life for good. 

Amsterdam 2008 - This one was that one Bon Jovi show of the decade that everybody who was there still talks about and everybody who wasn’t still wishes they had made different life choices at some point. I think that during every show I ever saw them play there was at least one moment where I thought to myself ‘this is the best one I have ever seen’ (except maybe Lisbon 2013, that one was pretty shit wasn’t it?) but in all honesty out of all of the ‘the ones’, this has to be the queen of them all. Magical atmosphere, my favourite performance of Saturday Night ever and of course the absolutely legendary spontaneous rendition of Stick To Your Guys, what the hell. We realised it then, we realise it now, that show was about as good as it can get for us and the band post These Days decade. 

Lisbon 2011 - Continuing down that line, there was Lisbon in 2011. Not just the last show of the European tour but also the last show of the entire tour. And holy crap they treated it that way. The venue was perfect for it too. Beautiful Bela Vista up on that sweaty hot hill in a pretty scary part of Lisbon. Many tears were shed as they performed It’s Hard Letting You Go, I Believe (my signature favourite), This Ain’t A Love Song and hell, what not. It was magical, and the most beautiful video of the legendary I’ll Be There For You performance was created that night too. Up until this day, five years later, I don’t think I have ever watched it without crying. That video resembles so well what it is like to be at their shows and I feel like no video was ever able to capture it like that before. Also sadly, without me knowing it at the time, this turned out to be the last time I ever saw them as a whole. With Richie. 

Cologne 2013 - ‘I got a lot of surprises in store’  is what Jon just said in my ears through my headphones as I continue to listen to the bootleg of that night. And God, let me tell you I am always skeptical whenever Jon says something like that because we all know a surprise to him might as well mean It’s My Life acoustic or a cameo from whatever obscure support act they brought with them that night. Not in Cologne though. That night he actually surprised us all with the best setlist of the entire tour as they blew us away with I’d Die For You, Wild Is The Wind, Living In Sin, Radio and Love Song. Let me also just grab this opportunity to mention the cutest moment ever when Jon proudly threw his own confetti at the exact right moments during Captain Crash and how they opened up with Rocking All Over The World. I do have to say though that as sudden as he remembered they made better songs than the ones the entire world knows the words to, he also seemed to have forgotten them again because they were never to be heard again. 

Milan 2013 - Italy knows how to throw a Bon Jovi party. They have proven this time and time again. I love my Italian Bon Jovi friends a lot and this show was the first time I ever got to witness it in real life. And God was it worth it. And God I honestly have never loved Jon more than that night. Which says something because we all know I already love him a good amount on my worst days. I think it’s because a lot of Jon’s emotions we see on stage are part of the show but they are never a trick. And it’s safe to say that it is very unlike Jon to burst into tears in front of an 80.000 people crowd in a sold out stadium. Which is why it was extra special when it happened. Jon does not do that. So when he does I don’t know whether I should implode or explode or do it all at once. My beautiful inspiration, the man who has been in my life almost as long as my own goddamn father, is up there on that stage and suddenly shows that honestly he really cares a fucking lot about us too. I will cherish this night forever and knowing that he will too makes that this show has deserved its spot in this list. 

Mannheim 2011 ~ by me

Then, even though this is an 7 hour flight and I technically had enough time to think about this, a couple of reasons why I shouldn’t have made this a top 5:

Frankfurt 2008 - The best freaking performance of Blood Money. Great night overall too. The Lost Highway tour must have been one of my favourites I have been to anyway.

Zeebrugge 2011 - Now this may be weird but I think this was the first ever show that i genuinely sobbed at. During Never Say Goodbye. I don’t know where it came from but there was no stopping it. Ugly crying at its worst as they performed one of my favourite songs right in front of me. 

Barcelona 2011 - Holy shit, Barcelona honestly should have made the top 5. One of the best setlists of the tour, one of the best spots of the tour, Jon looking his best in his black sleeveless tee and his sweaty hair. A very, very unexpected appearance of I Believe that literally almost killed me. And i’m only just getting started.

Madrid 2013 - I’m not sure if this one counts because the setlist was pretty basic but then, if there is anything I have learned in the last 16 years of my life it’s that setlist don’t only make a show. Madrid proved it. Dancing barefoot at the back of the pit will always be one of my favourite memories. Also, just like every night during that goddamn tour I cried my eyes out during Always and felt the most alive I have ever felt during Love’s The Only Rule. God yes. 

So I ended up doing this pretty quickly after all. Probably for the better too because it would have become impossible otherwise. This only just leaves me wondering what you guys think the best BJ shows you have ever attended were. Let me know! 

Love (a slightly less scared) Anjelica