Day 4, Saturday March 26th. 2011

Well the last day of the 2 Bon Jovi shows came by. I didn't feel sad tough cos I know I got plenty more shows to see later on this June. I was more excited cos of where my seat was... I was literally 2 and a half row (yes literally lol) from the circle stage wich meant that when the boys were out on the circle I WOULD get good pics, well good for MY camera that is.


Mel Kulak and I inside the venue

The day started as usual me getting up, showering and I headed out to Tim Hortons to get some breakfast, then walked around a little bit. I checked my twitter and JoviBecky or Becky as her name is had sent me a Direct Message saying she and Nozomi (her friend from Tokyo, lovely lady!) was heading out and if I wanted to meet up with them, of course I did. I had no plans!

So after a bit back and forth we agreed that they came by my hotel and we just walked around from there. We shared lots of laughs and stories. They were FUN to hang out with, of the goofy and LOL kind.

Then it was time to get ready for the show, we all got to our respective hotels, got ready and met up around 4 PM ish to get our tickets, then headed out to have some drinks with more Backstage With Jon Bon Jovi ppl who stayed at the Westin hotel on Robson st. They had a free bottle of Champagne that we got to enjoy with them, been a while since I had Champagne and and it was pretty good :-D. No it wasn't enough to get us drunk LOL. Another fun gang to hang out with before the show.

Then we stopped by McDonalds for a quick bite to eat before we went back to the venue. Yes McDonalds..I haven't HAD that in years...and well even if I was hungry and it was good to have food I know why...it just doesn't taste all that great anymore lol. I am over McDonalds but it was just handy heh.

So time to get to the show. We got inside...and I did some more merchandise shopping. LOL. I got inside the venue and I was pretty much in AWE of my seat. I didn't expect it to be THAT close to the circle stage for some reason. I gotta say I got lucky with my Vancouver tickets! Not too shabby for the buying tix at a North American show with the fc for the first time (outside a fan club trip that is). Also one of the security guys who was up there at the time I sat down recognized me from last night LOL. Nice guy and he raved about Friday's show. I told him I had more shows to see in Europe, he asked me where I was from and I said Norway, the guy was shocked...I mean seriously?! There were ppl from Japan there too! Norway ain't that shocking pp! LMAO! Oh beware the vikings are coming..wait that was for the Irish...hehe (slight bit of madness there, ahem..)



There were no opening act this time, this was an "Evening With Bon Jovi" and what an evening it was gonna be! Key words were total setlist shakeup, CRAZY crowd (both good and bad LOL) and Boys on FIRE.



From here on I'll go a little back and forth on what happened at the show as I do not have it all in my memory in chronological order..just sayin', hehe.



The show started with a major surprise to all in the venue, maybe not for those sitting at the exact location but for everyone else it was! The show opener was Last Man Standing and I LOVE that as an opener, but the song wasn't the surprise...the surprise was where Jon Bon Jovi was located..he was RIGHT in the back of the venue in a small platform so the ppl in the back got a GREAT first view of him. Bet they were happy! He was there for that one song and then walked back with security thru the crowd...crowd was nuts but he got back to the stage just fine it seemed to me :-).


Yep the tiny BACKSIDE is JBJ in the back of the arena.

Then he got onstage and the show was definetly showing signs to be a GREAT one. Crowd was LOUD AND NUTS! I think this Vancouver show has had the loudest crowd I have experienced in the North American shows I have attended. Next to me I had a couple of guys with some girlfriends who were at times slightly annoying (hence the bad part of a crazy crowd), they also started to smoke and at that time I turned around asking them to stop that, they were nice and stopped..but come on, it is the law and in a tight spot you do NOT smoke inside...simple fact! They were nice to me tho so cannot be too annoyed LOL. The security next to me again let some ppl in the back up to where I was so it got a little cramped up there. They were slightly annoying at times too. The guys jumped the row infront of me and got up close to the circle stage. Security tried to get them back but they refused..I thought they'd get kicked out but nope, the security guy just let it slide! I was shocked..is that how laid back they are here? LOL.



But regardless of that slight annoyance, it just wasn't enough to ruin a kickass show! Also the crowd was just too into the show I had to just let it all go and just enjoy. I was slightly unfocused at times as I did the play by play and my iPhone 3G decided to disagree with me being slow and arguementative but thankfully it decided to behave again LOL. I don't regret doing PBP but I don't think I'll keep doing it in Europe like I did here...I'll write up the songs for a bit then tweet it instead of doing it for every song. Easier that wasy and I can get into the show more! But don't get me wrong it was fun to do, and inspite of all mispellings and not knowing one song lmao (it was Squeezebox cos I haven't heard that one before) it was fun and ppl's disbelief when I tweeted Something To Believe In was too cute :-D. That is why this is fun.



Time for some Jukebox fun..LOL


There was some moments in the show I had to crack up, forgot which song it was but during one song Richie did his solo and JBJ just did that most hilarious stare like he was trying to study how he plays..oh Jon you and your faces when you do this, KILLS me lmao! Also Richie was on FIRE with his solo..he just let EVERYTHING go and let it all rip. The solos were amazing!







Again when it was time for Lay Your Hands On Me with Richie, NOBODY where I was anyways sat down, they actually cheered LOUDER, it was like being in Europe then! The guys next to me and another one on the other side must have been Richie fans cos they were shouting "GO RICHIE!!" and were like doing this air guitar thing..hilarious LOL. Made me happy and whaterver annoyance they may have caused before that or after..I forgave them for that just cos they were so into it. EVERY solo he did they went for it! Can't be upset with guys like that really LOL. Richie of course made his hilarious faces during these solos...lol





When the boys hit the circle stage the place around me got really cramped. First it was JBJ there..and of course the girls went nuts LOL. It was ok though I expected that..One girl had her arms in the way all the time so I politely asked her to take them down so I could take some pics. She was totally cool and went "sure". Down the arms went, I snapped some and said "thanks" I got a smile and "sure no problem!" and up the arms went LOL. So sweet and funny at the same time.


A bit blurry but I love Jon's expression on this pic LOL





What'cha looking for Richie??


I got some great pics of Tico finally that I think will be appreciated by some European Tico fans hehe.





Tico and Richie rockin' out on the circle stage

Got some of Dave and JBJ together too


Richie and JBJ of course




Towards the end of the show I heard that JBJ hurt his leg or he atleast winced a bit and rubbed his leg. I didn't see exactly what happened so I can't say what caused hit..maybe he tripped but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary happening. He sure didn't let it show much from where I was seated.



Being the great crowd pleaser he is someone in front row had made him a Chanucks Hockey shirt and it had Bon Jovi on the back, they threw it up on stage to JBJ and of course he put it on..he had it on for about a song or so and it got too warm so it went off..and he threw it back, regretted it instantly and said "give it back!" lol. But whoever threw that up to him didn't give it back LOL. Someone else tried to throw up the Canadian flag but he threw that again, he did that the night before..no need to repeat that LOL. Silly JBJ.





Inbetween songs he did talk about how special Vancouver has been for the band, thanking the fans here for all their support and all that. Of course he got loud cheers back. Well it was only right of him to say so cos it was no lie, it is here they recorded their 3 biggest albums to date so...yep that speech was cool.

Another hilarious moment was when JBJ looked at the video screens behind him during Living On a Prayer he cracked up cos there was some crazy guy in a video probably dressd up like Capt. Crash. He showed it to Richie who also laughed. Funny.

After the show, I tried to look for my friends cos we didn't agree on a meeting point after the show, after wondering around for a little bit inside the venue I decided to head back to the hotel not sure if they'd show up there. I got up to my room being prepared to hit the hotel bar alone but then my room phone rang and it was them! They had done the same thing, then went to my hotel figuring I was there. Well done ladies! So I quickly went to the lobby and out we went. We wondered around for a little bit and decided to go into the hotel bar at Westin hotel as it seemed to be a cool place to be. Not too crowded either. It was.

The bartender there was funny, we had lotsa laughs and showed him pics as he asked us to see some, ppl would tell him they went to the show and how great it was but nobody showed him pics! LOL. Then Becky was trying to say where Nozomi and I was from, she got Japan right but then it came to me, she said she's from Norwegia..LMAO. She meant to say that I was Norwegian but it just came out that way. Prior to this bar visit I had also said that in Norwegian we got some words in Norwegian that means different things, she just hooked up on that and it just became to be Living on a bean and the bartender jumped in with Jack in the beanstalk..hilarious stuff but you had to be there to fully enjoy it. Of course the guy got some tip from us LOL.

After this it was time to go back to bed...we were tired..even though it wasn't really that late..it kinda FELT late cos well we're used to Bon Jovi hitting the stage around 9 PM but with An Evening With.. they got onstage like almost an hr earlier! I got back into my hotelroom around 1:30 AM and just crashed..but not cos of Jetlag but cos of just simply being tired :-D.

So that is all for this update really.

The setlist for Saturday's show thanks to @JoviBecky on twitter: