2010: MTV Award Weekend in Madrid

Friday, November, 5th 2010, I took an 1 hour flight to Madrid, where MTV had settled all its glamour to celebrate the year's Europe Music Awards. The city was filled with the year's biggest celebs and Bon Jovi were the veterans to be honored on the very first Global Icon award the network gave away.

Friday night and the whole Saturday was spent queueing for the sold out in 3 minutes show the band had scheduled for the tiny 2000 seat Teatro del Circo, a show meant to promote the Greatest Hits in Europe. After long hours waiting, me and all the Portuguese comitee ocupied the first couple of rows to make sure Portugal was noticed by the band.

The evening started out quietly while a strong drum beat unvealed the first surprise of the night: "Not Fade Away", a Buddy Holly cover Jon Bon Jovi had used as an opener during his 1997 "Destination Anywhere" promo shows. One of those concerts was broadcasted by MTV at the time, and became the last public reference from the network to the band. Just like in 1997, the lights started pointing only towards Jon's eyes while he gently delivered the song's first lines. When Tico hit the drums with an extra energy, the house lights turned on to unveal 6 musicians eager to rock the place out.

There was no time for rarities or special requests, as only the big hits fit in the set list. Jon was the host for all his fellow show bizz celebs that attended to the event and he drove the crowd like only he knows to achieve a massive response and prove why the words Global Icons fit like a glove to the band's legacy.

"Bad Name", "We weren't Born to Follow", "Lost Highway" and "It's my Life" kept the energy sky high proving the hits are spread throughout all their career. The place was really small, and Jon could easily touch balcany fans at the edge of the stage. He took the time between songs to thank MTV for the support before kicking off their latest single "What do you got?", a melodic song whose universal message and loud choirs towards the end make it pleasent to be heard. The cinematic "When we were Beautiful" provided the most intimite moment of the night, proving it is when the band steps forward and breaks new ground that they achieve the best results. The crowd kept singing the Sha La Las and Jon demanded an encore for the choir. Brilliant!

The cowboy anthem "Wanted Dead or Alive" was the perfect kick off to the show's second energetic marathon, rocking 2000 more faces and paving the way to their Country "It's Alright" sing along "Who says you can't go home". The band kept an intense Faith, delivering a medley of the Rolling Stone's "Simpathy for the Devil" by request of a deafening crowd singing the "huh huhs" of the song. The band was on fire and both Richie's perfect add libs solo and Jon's tradicional moves made sure the crowd was at their feet. The band's biggest hit "Livin' on a Prayer" followed so absolutely no doubt could be found of the band's capacity to overwhelm a crowd. The whole weekend was a celebration of Music and what better way could the band choose to embrace contemporary trends than to invite young Pop diva Rihanna to show up and help with the song's highest notes? The legendary band shared their stage with the Teen's Idol in their carrer's defining song, proving they are willing to cross more and more genarions to keep their Iconic status.

An encore break followed, allowing the audience to catch their breath, but it didn't take long before the band came back with their "Have a Nice Day" attitude, another smash hit included on their new greatest hits package. There was still some addrenaline left so jon had to ask D. Bryan to kick into some "Bad Medicine", in a rollercoster ride of energy. Not satisfied, the lead singer asked if everybody was having fun, telling Bobby Bandiera to give him some Juke Box music. Jon said he needed some means of communication better than the audience's english or his poor spannish. He added his Portugese was no better, to which the Portuguese comitee reacted fiercily. Bandiera shared the mic during a long "Pretty Woman" jam, before Jon anounced he was too old for that shit and wanted everybody to "Shout". The Isley Brothers' song had everyone's participation and only left the energy for one last dose of "Bad Medicine". The crowd wanted more, but the band had already made their impression, providing enough evidence of why to be called Global Icons.

During the whole show there were some issues with the sound quality, since the room was really small and the band's gear is proper for their more familiar oversized venues.

Overall, a very typical promo show that despite clocking bellow the 80 minutes, couldn't let anyone's shirt dry out of sweat. The show can be best described as a highly concentrated pill of some of Bon Jovi's medicine, making us all remember that regardless of what the band plays (even if it's just the hits like it was the case) whenever the band is happy, there is no crowd that is able to resist them, as they work their asses off to prove their status.

Next day we attended to the Europe Music Awards and got a really nice spot in the front row, Dave side. The recording of a TV show, even if it's live, is always boring and there were a lot of dead moments. Of course there were some entertaining artists, but it was only when Bon Jovi were announced as the first artists to receive the Global Icon Award that things got interesting. Jon made an uninspired speech and let Tico say hello in Spannish. We then had to wait for another 2 hours, since the band would close the show.

Their performance was business as usual and, being the great live band they are, they didn't need to put much effort to be able to set the crowd on fire. They played "What do you got?" in order to promote their new single, followed by the crowd favourites "Bad Name" and "It's My Life". We had a last minute banner that said "Portugal congrats Bon Jovi" and Bobby, David and Jon made sure we knew they saw it. The band was cheered as the Global Icons they official are now....

The extended weekend had come to an end and thinking back it was really a nice surprise to be able to see the band just 5 months after their last European marathon. As tickets for the "Open Air Tour" next year become available there are definitely lots of plans to make, so time will surely fly until we can stand before them again ....