Bon Jovi serves musical bon bons to big crowd

Rockers rip through hits, new songs

By BOB PURVIS
bpurvis@journalsentinel.com

Posted: July 6, 2007

Bon Jovi rocked a sold-out Marcus Amphitheater crowd for more than two hours Thursday night, in a set list that spanned the group's lengthy career.

Summerfest

Review

Photo/Rick Wood

Bon Jovi performs before a sold-out crowd Thursday at the Marcus Amphitheater. The New Jersey rockers kept the frenzied crowd on its feet with a mix of familiar hits and new songs.

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The band's ageless frontman, Jon Bon Jovi, strutted onto the stage in a sleeveless black T-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots with the band already playing the opening notes of "Livin' on a Prayer."

The crowd sang along as Bon Jovi worked them into a frenzy, strutting and pumping his fist.

Thursday's show came 22 years after the New Jersey rockers made their Summerfest debut on the rock stage, and Bon Jovi paused to tell the crowd he'd been told the show broke the amphitheater's all-time attendance record before kicking into another classic, "You Give Love a Bad Name."

Having warmed up the crowd with the hits, the band ventured into a few songs off its new No. 1, country-influenced album, "Lost Highway." The rockers needn't have been worried about the reception for their country fling: the new disc's title track got big rise out of the crowd.

But it wasn't long before the band reached back into its catalog - way back to its first hit single, "She's a Little Runaway," about a girl whom Bon Jovi described as "old enough to drink." With the crowd still on its feet and screaming, Bon Jovi shouted, "I'm just getting warmed up" and kicked into "It's My Life" from the band's 2000 release, "Crush."

Bon Jovi picked up an acoustic guitar for "(You Want to) Make a Memory (of Me)," and, sticking with the new material, the lively "I Love This Town."

Halfway into "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," Bon Jovi turned on his acting skills, jokingly grabbing his side while mouthing, "I'm too old for this."

The band ripped into an old No. 1 hit, "Bad Medicine," and with Bon Jovi shaking his hips much to the delight of the overwhelmingly female crowd, the group immediately launched into a lively cover of "Shout" to close the set.

"Any Other Day," another new track, opened the first encore. "Saturday Night" brought Bon Jovi and recently rehabbed guitarist Richie Sambora to center stage, strumming their guitars side by side.

A highlight of the second encore was a beautiful rendition of Leonard Cohen's often-covered "Hallelujah," another "Lost Highway" song, "The Last Night" and, after Bon Jovi commanded the few seated fans in the crowd to stand up, the '80s hit "Wanted Dead or Alive."

The house lights went up, but after a minute or so of shaking fans' hands and bowing, the guys huddled and came back for one more, tearing through "The Twist" as fans sang and danced along.

The band took a bow, with Jon "I'm too old for this" Bon Jovi looking as though he could have kept going all night.

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