There was a moment during the Bon Jovi concert Saturday night at Scotiabank Place when I had a flashback to my 6th birthday party. I was opening gifts, and left right til the end were two packages, one large and one small. The first, the larger one, was a brand-new tape player...or a "boombox", as I so proudly called it - my very own boombox!!
The second, the smaller gift, was a cassette tape to use in my new boombox. I literally shrieked with joy when I opened it. It was my very own copy of the Bon Jovi "New Jersey" album - it was
exactly what I wanted.
That was before the New Kids. Before Tiffany. Before Debbie Gibson. My first musical love was Bon Jovi.
And it was all because of the song "Bad Medecine".
So yes, Saturday night, while up in the third level right at the side of the stage, probably the biggest, most thrilling highlight was when Jon & the guys swung into "Bad Medecine". I screamed til my throat was sore and there was no voice left in me. Suddenly, I was so very, very glad that I had accepted the last-minute ticket offer to sit in the nosebleeds and rediscover my love for Bon Jovi, rather than stay home and watch the Sens game.
(For the record, I'm choosing to pretend that game never happened. I didn't see it, so therefore we did not lose to the Leafs. End of discussion.)
Bon Jovi was awesome!! The show was energetic from start to finish, and I heard all of my old favourites. We barely sat down. Aside from "Bad Medecine" (which included a lively interlude of "Shout!" and even had Jon down on the stage doing push-ups...YUM!), other highlights included "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "Livin' on a Prayer". We expected "Livin' on a Prayer" to be the encore, but instead, he did a moving and beautiful rendition of "Hallelujah" and then rocked out to "Dead or Alive" (absolutely amazing) - then we left, and of course he kept playing, but I don't think I recognized the songs I was hearing while we walked along the concourse, so it wasn't a huge disappointment.
I also absolutely loved when he went out on the little platform in the crowd to perform his new song, and when Richie Sambora joined him for "I'll Be There For You", I got goosebumps. Then he did a wonky version of "Bed of Roses" that was just about the only disappointing part of the night. Aside from doing some of his new stuff early on that I didn't know, the rest was absolutely perfect!!
The place was packed, Jon was smokin' hot, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night!!
Bad Medecine indeed...
