Bon Jovi in Des Moines, IA

It's obvious the midwest still loves Bon Jovi. The Have A Nice Day Tour opened up in Des Moines last night and set a building record for the Wells Fargo Arena. This was the second sold out concert at this new facility with Paul McCartney being the first.

The band hit the stage at 8:30pm and opened to Last Man Standing from their new CD. This happens to be one of my favorite Bon Jovi songs and the lyrics set the tone for the night. "No this boy don't lip sync." The set consisted of old favorites and a few surprises.

Last Man Standing
You Give Love A Bad Name
Born To Be My Baby
The Story Of My Life (I'm kind of surprised they did this considering that you can sing One Last Cigarett over the chorus.)
The Radio Saved My Life Tonight (from the box set)
Have A Nice Day
One Last Cigarette (my kids would have loved to have heard this live)
It's My Life
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night (a nice solo acoustic performance)
Love 4 Sale (Richie, Jon, and Bob? They had an extra guitarist and an extra keyboard player on the stage all night.)
Bed Of Roses
Blaze Of Glory (the guitars were all acoustic)
Lay Your Hands On Me (the version from This Left Feels Right)
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Bad Medicine
Raise Your Hands
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Livin' On A Prayer

This main set consisted of 5 new tunes to really promote the great new CD. They didn't touch anything from Boin Jovi, 7800 Fahrenheit, These Days, or Bounce. The encore was to be two songs, but they added a third at the last minute as Jon stopped the group on their way off the stage. They had to get their additional guitar player who had already made it part of the way back stage.

Bells Of Freedom
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Hey Hey Hey Hey (not really sure what the title is, but it sounded like an old 50's tune)

The set kept most everyone on their feet from start to finish and the noise was almost deafening in between the main set and the encore set. Any time someone came out toward the stage the volume level of the crowd went up a notch and even more when they knew it was the band coming back on stage. There were lighters, cell phones, and about anything that glowed in the dark up in the air. There were people in the crowd singing along with every song and the crowd carried the first part of Wanted Dead Or Alive.

The light show was just awesome. There was one main screen behind the band and four smaller ones above it. Those 4 screens moved up and down in some of the songs. There were 5 light fixtures that started at the bottom of the back of the stage, went straight up into the air and then extended out over the stage, with the center one being the longest. During Have A Nice Day these 5 fixtures had various pictures and video of the smiley face making different faces. Covering the entire back stage wall was a series of lights that looked like Christmas lights, but they would change colors and had what looked like some graphics going across them. It was enormous.

The band pretty much stayed in their area except in a few songs where Richie would join Jon at the center and the other guitarist came forward to the center mic with Jon and Richie during Love 4 Sale. The extra keyboard player was set in a riser where you could barely see he was there behind Richie's side of the stage. The extra guitar player mostly played next to Hugh, but was in the dark and barely shown on the large backdrop screen. All of this disappointed me a bit as I thought there might be more band interaction, especially coming from Richie. Jon did work the stage well and used the ramps on each side to work the crowd. He also worked the pits on each side of the stage that had radio winners who got to watch from that location through most of the show. Jon even brought several of these people on stage during part of the show. It just seemed like Jon and a backing band, though, and when I saw them on the Keep The Faith tour there seemed to be more of a band feel.

Overall, this was a great show. Was it worth a hundred bucks? Well, it was sold out and I did have a great time and the seat wasn't that bad, so I'd have to say yes. They are one band that can command it and put on a show where you feel like you got your money's worth as a fan and even a die hard fan. I'd recommend this show to everyone and the CD, too!