This was a curious affair. An expectant and exuberant crowd are told to strap themselves in for the “baddest motherfucking show.” Yet the ensuing night’s entertainment had all the energy and urgency of a Dame Thora Hurd stairlift advert.
Bon Jovi Inc. are a slick operation. They work hard at what they do, know their audience and are aware of their limitations. Which makes this muted, workmanlike performance somewhat hard to understand. Indeed the Jovi-in-chief states that he “ain’t gonna talk much as we got a job of work to do.” And like Tommy down on the docks that is what they do, clock on, do their shift, clock off.
‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ sends hands aloft but is rather sloppily played, whilst the scorching riff on ‘Raise Your Hands’ is all but lost in the low muffled sound (a problem throughout). ‘It’s My Life’, is more sterile than an operating theatre, ‘Who Says You Can’t Go Home’ has all the charm of a creche-playgroup-singalong, whilst ballads ‘Never Say Goodbye’ and ‘I’ll Be There For You’ are delivered with Hallmark efficiency.
Inexplicably the encore reappearance sees a band transformed. Finally hitting the mark with the elegiac ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’ and the fist-pumping-paean-to-blue-collar-fortitude ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, Jon the showman at last emerges. Audience in the palm of his hand he asks to be adopted as Irish before sending sackfuls of saccaherine forth with ‘I Love This Town.’ Too little too late man!