In Munich Bon Jovi triumphs as always

Gigantic: 30 years – over 3 hour show – 3 encores

 

“I am excited when I am in Munich”, says rock star Jon Bon Jovi smiling during his Juke Box medley. Munich is a special place for him, where he made along his career many great memories.

Bon Jovi has so many fans in Germany and always visits many cities during their world tours. This time the fans will be able to see the band in Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart in addition to Munich. On Saturday for the first open air concert of the season at the Olympic stadium, over 63,000 of Bon Jovi’s closest fans took a drive with the band, celebrating their 30th anniversary!

The new European tour “Because We Can” started at the Leviski Stadium in Sofia (Bulgaria) on May 14^th and will end on July 5^th in London’s Hyde Park.

 

In Munich Bon Jovi brings his fans on a long voyage after embarking an old blue American car, looking all rusty.  It runs days and nights and drives through storms, starry nights and beautiful rides like during the “Lost Highway” song. At night the engine stops and the car pulls over to a motel. One time the windshield wipers start moving as if it is pouring rain!

The stage is impressive and it has to be seen live to realize how grandiose it really is. Mike Savas, the management stage coordinator for the Bon Jovi tour, brought USA Today on a backstage tour and talked about the technology used for the new stage. He explained that it has never been used before at a live concert. They use 10 video HD projectors of 15,000 pounds each, projecting 3D images on forty 80 foot columns.

When darkness comes it is when the grandiose light show can be fully appreciated. The stage changes colour constantly and the 32 lights make it look very dynamic, exciting and stunning. Many clips are projected as well as graphics going along with the songs and some covers of the band’s albums.

From the start Jon Bon Jovi arrives on the stage it is a giving and receiving relationship between him and the Muncheners. It is with a “Guten Tag Munich” (Hello Munich} that he welcomes the crowd. He continues by saying that all his German stops there apart from “Schatzi” but that he can move his bottom in any language of the countries he goes to. Then later he says “I know why I always like to come back to Munich, it is to hear the German girls scream!”

 

And the girls scream all night long.

The crowd quickly goes wild and the band rocks the sold-out stadium with their old hits “It’s my Life”, “Raise Your Hands”, “Bad Medicine”, “Livin’ on a Prayer”, “Keep the faith”and “Runaway” but also with newest hits like “Have a nice Day”, “We Got It Goin’ On” and “We Weren’t Born to Follow”. Of course the well-known ballads such as “Bed of Roses”, “Always”, “In These Arms” or “You Want to Make a Memory” do not fail. At the request of a fan in the Diamond Circle, Jon performs “These Days”, a Première so far in the new tour.

Out of the 28 songs only three come out of the latest album “Because We Can and What About Now” like the newest single on the radio “What About Now”.

For all the cowboys, who had come to Munich, the band has the famous song “Wanted Dead or Alive”. It is a special moment in the stadium when Jon asks everyone with a mobile telephone to turn it on and lift it up. Thousands of lights lit up the Olympic stadium very quickly. Just beautiful!

While it does not rain that day by luck, during “Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars” the crowd receives by surprise a shower of colourful confettis!

When after over 3 hours of non stop entertainment Jon comes back for a third encore, starts the tunes of “I Love This Town” on his guitar and says to his fans “You might have to come and bail me out of jail but we went over curfew, oh well!”, no one wants to drive away from this amazing voyage but rather to stay right there in the Olympic stadium.

Bon Jovi will be back in Munich soon, no doubts!

 

 

 

 

 

• Because we can
• Bon Jovi
• Jon Bon Jovi
• Munich
• Olympic Stadium
• rock band
• Runaway