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Bon Jovi -- sans Sambora -- rocks MetLife Stadium
Well, sure, he was missed. Jon Bon Jovi without Richie Sambora is like the Lone Ranger without Tonto. Despite rumors to the contrary, guitarist Sambora, who jumped ship earlier this year for reasons that still haven't been clarified, wasn't present at Bon Jovi's homecoming show at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night. Whatever is going on between the two most famous figures in one of New Jersey's most famous rock bands has not yet been resolved.
Bon Jovi rolls on nonetheless — in the drizzle, on an unseasonably damp night, hoodie weather in late July, playing its hard rock hits and power ballads like nothing has changed. The two-and-three-quarters-hour show, which wrapped up just before midnight, might have been a tick below the average Bon Jovi concert in quality. Mostly, it was the same hardworking, meat-and-potatoes rock show that the Central Jersey group has been playing for the past two decades at least. If you're a Bon Jovi fan and you're considering skipping the Because We Can tour out of loyalty to Sambora, you should probably give in to temptation and get that ticket. Eventually they're going to kiss and make up, right? They'll both forgive you when they do.
Sambora's shoes were filled by a pair of guitarists: Shore six-string ace and frequent Bon Jovi collaborator Bobby Bandiera and session man Phil X. Both tore off serviceable leads. Neither attempted to mimic Sambora's style — Phil X's legato phrasing was more reminiscent of lyrical Slash, and the talented, fiery Bandiera just sounded like his bad self. Sambora's distinctive support vocals, which have been a critical ingredient in Bon Jovi's music for years, turned out to be harder to approximate than his guitar playing. Synth player David Bryan did his best.
The silver lining to Sambora's absence was that the other two supporting members of Bon Jovi got more chances to shine. Drummer Tico Torres was rock solid as always, and Bryan, who is now as well known for his Tony awards for the "Memphis" score as he is for his role in Bon Jovi, had his parts and his showmanship pushed to the fore. Bryan's organ lead on "Keep the Faith" might have been the best solo of the evening. His piano anchored the performance of "Always," and his squelchy synthesizer arpeggios punched up "We Weren't Born to Follow."
I'll have a review of this concert in Saturday's Ledger. Before I turn to it, there are two other things I'll mention — one of which I'll return to at some length in the article, and the other, I'm going to drop. The stage set was shaped like a gigantic vintage automobile with the band set up in the grill (there was even a jumbo Jersey vanity license plate), and Bon Jovi turned the stage-wide windshield into a video monitor. During "Who Says You Can't Go Home," the group ran footage of Jersey shore towns, which might have been an predictable gesture, but it was also pretty moving.
That was one of the nicest things about the concert. Here's one thing about the show that was not so nice: the sound. Perhaps it was just where I was sitting (section 113) but the mix was extremely heavy on bass frequencies. That meant the kick flattened the snare, the bass guitar crushed the treble instruments, and the quieter parts of Jon Bon Jovi's vocals were muffled. Outdoor concerts are notoriously tough to mix properly, especially ones thrown in a football stadium, but Taylor Swift played MetLife a few weeks ago, and the vocals and instruments were crisp as a cracker. Again, sound differs from section to section, and I may have just been sitting in a challenging spot. The
55,000 fans packed into the stadium didn't seem to mind — they sang along to everything, waved their hands when Jon Bon Jovi asked them to, and called the musicians back for two encores. I'd guess they'll play MetLife Stadium again sometime. Maybe even Saturday night.
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/i ... adium.html
W każdym razie koncert był pokazywany w amerykańskiej telewizji, a później wydany jako nieoficjalne DVD.
