2011: Canada

In February 2011 Bon Jovi were only a week into their Greatest Hits Tour in North America and we thought it would be the perfect occasion to see them up in the north, where concerts were long famous or being special and energetic. Toronto was our first stop.

The Air Canada centre is a state of the art arena, with excellent acoustics. The band got onstage with the regular “Blood”, “Bad Name”, “Born Baby”, “Follow” and even these songs sounded great. Jon made his first speech saying it would be a special show since it was Valentines. He announced his brother Tony would be looking for cute couples to show in the big screen and eventually have them kissing for the camera. A very American football thing, but rather amusing though.

They kicked segment 2 of the show with “In these arms”, getting a good reaction, while new tune “No apologies” proved to fit perfectly the live environment, unlike “The more things change”, which is over the top with so much bla bla bla from Jon about them coming full circle and how the world needs more people who actually can play and not only being pretty faces who know how to perform. “Pretty Woman” was played full and on its own, while Robert Palmer's “Bad case of loving you” filled the medley spot mid “Medicine”.

“Lay your hands” had Richie a good crowd participation, but it was Jon who let everyone speechless with a very Sinatra, raw and sentimental “My funny Valentine”, appropriate for the occasion. Next up was another surprise: an acoustic version of “Superman Tonight”. It was amazing to watch such an emotional song stripped down to its bare bones. A perfect version of “Bed of Roses” followed and romanticism got to its peak with the duo of Jon and Richie singing “I'll be There for you”. The band then got back to the regular set to deliver the never ending alright “Home”, the rhythmic “Sleep” and an astonishing “Keep the Faith” that confirmed how good the show was being.

The biggest surprise of the night turned out to be “Thank you for loving me”, a ballad that had not been played since 2001. The perfect fit for a romantic evening. “Wanted” followed with class but Jon didn’t want to go home and so he fired “Sat. Night” and “Older”, showing how into the show he was, while “Prayer” wrapped up the night. “Sat night” had a very interesting twist with the band singing ohhhhh hoooos at the end with the audience echoing it for a while. Unbelievable how a song can still be upgraded after so many twinks.

The Bon Jovi show #2 in Toronto was promising as Jon showed up at the back of the arena playing “Last man standing”, taking the audience to hysteria as he touched everybody's hands on his way back to the stage by the end of the song. Both crowd and band were on fire for the rockers that filled the first segment, just untill Jon made his pretty speech and kicked off “Whole lot of leavin”, which replaced “Arms” from the night before, while “Beautiful” replaced “The more things change”. “Die for you” got played in stead of “Runaway”. Great song, with a down side: Bobby Bandiera played the solo, completely changing it. This time “Medicine” had some Rod Steward's “Hot legs” and Jon took the time to properly introduce the King of Swing, who had another good reaction while singing the religious “Lay your hands”. Jon made his comeback singing “Make a memory” at the circle. Next thing, Richie joined Jon for a rare performance of “Diamond ring” electric. Brilliant guitar solo! The song provided the perfect atmosphere for “There for you” played immediately afterward. During the final batch of rockers of the main set the only difference to the night before was actually “Nice Day” that replaced “No Apologies”.

The encore opened with a very professional version of “Dry County”, a masterpiece that only lacked a little emotion to become memorable. Just as the night before, Johnny didn’t want to leave and threw in some bar party with “Love this town” and gave “The more things change” another chance. Just like the night before Jon gave a speech about how long the band had endured to see the industry come full circle. Obviously Jon loves the song although the audience doesn’t care that much. Once again everyone got on their feet screaming while the band said farewell to Toronto with “Prayer”.

A couple of days off and we flew to Montreal, Quebec. For the first show in the French speaking city, the expectations were really high, but the band opted for a long vanilla set list, with only 1 surprise: “Squeeze box” from the Who, which is funny but not impressive. Out of the 27 songs played “Dry County” was the only fans cared about. It is more than obvious Jon is very proud of “Change”, hence his neverending speech, while before “Love this town” it was funny to see how Richie was not ready when Jon started, and they kept talking and laughing, ending up kicking off the track 2 more times. At the end of the day, we got a 27 song, 2h40m show, full of fillers, or as we ended up calling it the never-ending vanilla show.

In the following day, there we were again at the Bell Center, and this time I had the best seat of the the whole 4 Canadian shows: 2nd row Richie's side behind the catwalk. The band opened with “Happy Now”, a stunning opening theme that just kicked off perfectly a night filled with surprises. Jon sounded really great and it took him just anther 3 songs to fire the first outstanding moment of the night: “Radio”, during which Jon made an emotional speech about how he got a DJ to play his first song on the radio and how he speed up in his car while listening, cause he had finally made it. For a few moments he was the boy who fulfilled his dream and 27 years later is still on top to tell the story. Brilliant!!!

They then turned on the auto pilot until Richie took everybody to church while singing “Lay hands”. He was not particularly OK during these shows, making a lot of mistakes, which is really unusual for him. Jon then appeared by the catwalk center to deliver the 3rd surprise of the night: “Livin in sin”, a stunning performance of a superior song. Richie then joined Jon for another great rendition of “There for you” with the whole crowd participating. It was probably the loudest crowd I ever heard, unbelievable. Even Jon commented "I wish the Jersey crowd was this loud". Tico and Dave were then invited to join the dynamic duo for an unexpected acoustic version of “Blood on Blood”. After 60 shows I keep hearing new variations of the songs, and this one had not been played for 8 years. It sounded great, just like the versions of the bootlegs of busks during the 90s.

Auto pilot was switched on again up until “Love is the only rule” that wrapped up the main set with the usual emotional speech. This was in fact a great surprise for the die hards who were able to see Jon walk through the pit touching the fans and demanding a lot of choirs during the songs finale.

The encore kicked off with a big loud party: “Sleep”, a song I was getting tired of, but which had a boost of energy during this tour. And if during the 3 other shows the song was energetic, what to say about a medley that included 3 covers!!! “Star me up” was Bobby's cover, while Jon kicked “Jumpin Jack Flash”. When everybody thought they would get back to “sleep”, Jon launched “Dancin in the Streets”. A true menage a troi in the very french Montreal. The band then went straight to Wanted and Prayer with astonishing sing alongs. The band said goodbye but everyone cheered them. Everybody left except Jon who, overwhelmed by the crowd, called the guys for the perfect finalle: “Keep the Faith”! Not a surprise as the moment was most probably planned, but nevertheless grand.

The show was intense and filled with great gems, although lacking some spontaneity, since everything was so planned to the second. Also the show was somewhat rushed as the band was traveling immediately after the show. However, this was the best out of the 4 shows in Canada, since it had 6 big surprises and was filled with fun moments all along it.

All in all, 4 amazing shows, including a very unique Valentine's special. Two regular shows that included unbelievable versions of "Dry County" and "Diamond Ring" and a non stop Party show, with the loudest indoor crowd ever!!!