Edmonton July 2007

Bon Jovi finding new fans with upbeat classic rock

Crowd sang along to '80s hits, but his latest hits also rang loud bells

Tom Murray, Freelance

Published: Saturday, July 14

BON JOVI

With: Doc Walker, Tupelo Honey

Where:

Rexall Place

When: Thursday night

EDMONTON - The slow, satisfied smile that spread over Jon Bon Jovi's face early in his band's set at

Rexall Place

spoke volumes.
spoke volumes.

Fans literally belted out the one-two punch '80s radio mega hits Livin' On A Prayer and You Give Love A Bad Name off the top of their set Thursday night, standing and cheering so loudly they threatened to overshadow the band. New Jersey 's second-favourite rocker (all due respect to The Boss) must have known he wasn't going to have to work the 14,000 in attendance too hard to get a response.

He did, though, keeping his band on a tight leash and stringing together an impressive number of arena anthems -- add Bad Medicine and It's My Life to the first two -- into a flurry of instantly identifiable sing-alongs. Twenty years of saturation on classic radio, and who doesn't know these songs?

Bon Jovi made their mark in the mid- '80s with working-class-lite homilies that made perfect sense in the Reagan era, offering a version of Springsteen that drained out all of the darkness, instead offering fist-pumping Hallmark Card homilies -- "we've got to hold on to what we've got," "I'd die for you/I'd cry for you."

It was hugely popular at the time, especially in the midst of bubblegum metal then in vogue, and Bon Jovi's good looks had a lot to do with it. Still handsome, the 48-year-old Bon Jovi -- and grizzled guitar sideman Richie Sambora, who dropped hilariously over-the-top hard rock solos in the midst of acoustic numbers -- now have another angle from which to work: new country. Referring to his buddies Big & Rich (and their beer commercial-like collaboration, We Got It Going On), the singer went on to feature tunes from Bon Jovi's latest album,

Lost Highway

Nothing like the Hank Williams plaint of the same name, it's instead part of his canny reinvention as roots rocker -- a John Mellencamp for the new century. But while Mellencamp sang about mortgages, dispossession and alienation, Bon Jovi keeps to his metier -- "Life changes like the weather/ You grow up, grow old, or you hit the road 'round here."

If they didn't sing quite as loudly as they did on his '80s hits, the fans still knew all the words -- with

Lost Highway

three weeks into No. 1 on the charts, it looks as though Bon Jovi has hooked another generation of fans.
three weeks into No. 1 on the charts, it looks as though Bon Jovi has hooked another generation of fans.

Both Doc Walker and local band Tupelo Honey had short opening sets in which to show their wares. The latter, in particular, showed they're pretty close to approximating the Bon Jovi blueprint of Bic-lighter anthems and mid-tempo rockers, with a splash of punk energy to keep au courant. The crowd loved them.

© The Edmonton Journal 2007

Source :http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=b00e0094-d0a4-492c-ac62-a3c2a20b58b5