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News of Michael Jackson’s passing came via a phone call on the drive to Milwaukee for Bon Jovi’s headlining gig at Summerfest on Thursday evening. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Bon Jovi did a Jackson tribute? We discussed the possibility in the car.
But Bon Jovi didn’t mention Jackson. At first, it was a disappointment. But in retrospect, it made sense. A tribute to the King of Pop would have jolted us out of the carefully crafted nostalgia of Bon Jovi’s show, which was as comforting as a bowl of macaroni and cheese.
For two hours and 23 songs, Bon Jovi transported the audience to a place where the good guys stood their ground, the power ballads soared and the faith was rock solid.
The sun setting over the Milwaukee skyline glowed red as Jon Bon Jovi leapt onstage with the spryness of a man half his 47 years, his trademark bedroom eyes and golden smile winking, and lit into the Dave Clark Five’s "Glad All Over."
Side by side, mothers and daughters screamed whenever he swiveled his hips and tugged on his button-down shirt, exposing his chest hair. A skunky smell of pot rose up in the bleachers as he announced that he was taking us -- 23,000 passengers! -- back to 1982 in a time machine.
"It’s 1982. You were younger and louder!" he told us. So was he. He didn’t even attempt to hit the high-pitched verse of "Ooooh, she’s a little runaway…"
But what he’s lost in the 27 years since then isn’t much. He still knows how to rile a crowd with preacher-like proselytizing, give a throaty punch to his singing and send the ladies swooning.
"Justin Timberlake, eat your heart out!" he shouted. Then he added, ruefully, "I’m old enough to be his father, come to think of it. I probably am his father."
The show sometimes lost momentum and slipped into sappy mush, like "(You Want to) Make a Memory," off the band’s 2007 album, "Lost Highway." The one slower exception was guitarist Richie Sambora’s rendition of the classic power ballad, "I’ll Be There For You."
The band dutifully gave their all to well-worn hits like "You Give Love a Bad Name," "Raise Your Hands" and "It’s My Life." But most of the joy during the biggest hits wasn’t always watching the band perform but feeling 23,000 voices raise in unison, fists pumping.
Especially toward the end of the show, however, the band laid down song after song with pounding, chugga-chugga attitude and injected new life into the classic "Bad Medicine" ("Is there a doctor in the house?") by switching it up with a glorious cover of the Isley Brothers’ "Shout!"
It was on "Shout!" that Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals sparked the most with feral rock ’n’ roll punch, and it made up for his earlier transgressions into squeaky-clean sap. The band closed out the show with a three-song encore: "Dead or Alive," "I Love This Town" and, of course, "Livin’ on a Prayer."
Good thing that Bon Jovi’s next album, which he said they finished recording last month, is going to be "a big ol’ rock record." That’s where the heart is.
Opening band Soraia, a relatively new band out of Philly, breathed hard Southern rock fire into its 25-minute set. Guitarist Dave Justo lassoed thick lines of muscle around lead singer Sue Mansour’s Joplin-esque wail. Soraia mustered a decent response out of the crowd as people filed into the Marcus Amphitheater, but it deserved more. Here’s to seeing them back again in Wisconsin soon.
SET LIST
Glad All Over
You Give Love A Bad Name
Lost Highway
Born To Be My Baby
Runaway
Last Man Standing
Raise Your Hands
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
(You Want To) Make A Memory
Whole Lot Of Leavin’
Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
We Got It Goin’ On
It’s My Life
I’ll Be There For You
Summertime
Have A Nice Day
Keep The Faith
Who Says You Can’t Go Home
Bad Medicine
Shout
Encore:
Wanted Dead Or Alive
I Love This Town
Livin’ On A Prayer
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