Our trip to NYC last weekend wasn’t just about meeting new blood relatives for the first time. The night before, I checked off a bucket list item by seeing my first Bon Jovi concert…this one was at the legendary Madison Square Garden!! (Which, BTW, puts a lot of other venues to shame with getting people into the building, to their seats, offering a TON of food/drink options, etc.)
Bon Jovi, like Springsteen, is a show that I could’ve seen a hundred times growing up in the ’80s in Pennsylvania…but never did. To be fair, I was never a huge Bon Jovi fan — think I only had 1-2 albums. Know the big hits, obvs. But then my accident in 2022 came along and you all know how that changed my approach to live music.
It’s hard to talk about this show. His voice was not great, but I was brought to tears five times watching him give everything he had and the crowd of die-hards giving it right back to him. I can’t imagine the courage it took to put himself out there like he did, knowing full well that his voice is not what it was. Huge respect for that. (BTW, if you haven’t seen the Bon Jovi documentary about his voice issues and the band’s history, it’s fantastic. Best band/music documentary I’ve seen.)
Despite all that, they played from 7:35 to 10 pm. 
I feel like most singers/bands would’ve taken it a LOT easier. The first hour or so was good, not great. Felt like he was trying to figure out what his vocal chords would let him do. But then…damn…things took off. Some songs still didn’t sound right, but he was going for every note, and that was really cool to watch.
The room changed as soon as “Living On a Prayer” started — with that low synth, then the bass line. (It was like how the room changes when U2 starts “Streets.”) There was like an audible gasp in the room, you could feel the vibe change, and then holy hell…20,000 people singing that song as if their lives depended on it. I was saying to Cari — that’s gotta be one of the most well-known 5-10 songs in rock music history, right? Like, even if you’re the most die-hard country music fan, or die-hard hip-hop fan, EDM, whatever, you still know “Living On a Prayer.” Everyone knows that song. Anyway, a Top 5 live musical moment in my life. Incredible to be part of.
I uploaded five videos to YouTube, and some of the comments are predictably awful. But there was one super-intelligent comment — on “Always,” a ballad he hadn’t sung since 2019 — that I think sums up the show perfectly:
“There’s something magical and heartbreaking about this performance. Art was never meant to be perfect; that’s what AI is for. Here’s a guy who lost his magic wand but has risen to an artistic space through honesty and vulnerability. He is laid bare for all to see in stark contrast to the glitz that made him famous. This is raw, unedited, imperfection and I love it.”
