City of Brotherly Love ... part 1

*or as Obie calls it, City of Brotherly Shove LOL*

Greetings fellow Jovinuts ... I'm a bit exhausted (ok, that's a huge understatement) so I'll probably keep this pretty brief (yeah, right ...)

Bad Medicine?
After much indecision, I finally jumped onto the bus to Philly for the first show. I've been dealing with some rather serious health issues which have me feeling quite lousy. Bottom line, this new experimental drug is keeping some things at bay, but causing other problems in the process. Oyyy. So, the thought of schlepping out to Philly was just not very inviting. Nonetheless, the power of music once again won out. So ... onto the bus I went. :-)

Setlist Stuff
Okay, if you followed the pbp or saw the setlist you know that it was about as vanilla as you can get in terms of this tour thus far. A couple of things about that ... first, it was exactly what I expected ... first night in the venue. I doubt there were more than 200 or so who had seen a show this tour already, so for them it was all new. It was nice, however, to hear "Lay Your Hands on Me" regardless of whether Richie actually knew the words. Nobody really cares when he sounds that good and looks that great. Those arms, Richie. Lordy.

So this was the 2nd time I was seeing the full production and from a completely different angle (outside the pit, row 10.) I know that I'm absolutely spoiled by having such good seats for most of the shows (actually, last night is the farthest back I have for the whole tour I think.) I really did enjoy seeing the guys on the circle from the front LOL, though the view of their backsides isn't so bad. ;-)

As an aside: Sign etiquette people! One song, two at the most ... but the whole frickin' show holding up a Captain Crash sign?! You gotta be kidding me.

Jon Bon Jovi, once again, sounded out of this world on WWWB. That track didn't "do it for me" on the record, but is absolutely breathtaking live. The genuine emotion with which he delivers the song is very moving ... look at his eyes, you can tell what he's feeling.

WFTWM on the other hand feels quite staged ... a la "Right Side of Wrong" if you remember that. I was happy, though, to see that so many people seemed to jump on board with that song. Again, better live than on the record.

Shark-Infested Waters LOL
It was great to see Ron "Jaws" Jaworski and his wife Liz in the friends and family section. I'm a big fan of the man ... he is just a smart, passionate guy who gives seriously the best bear hugs around. I especially enjoyed seeing him sing along to "Who Says" and "Roadhouse Blues" (which was awfully fun. I know, I always call it Roll, Baby, Roll ... but it really is Roadhouse Blues. LOL)



Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
As HRH said in closing, we'll do this all again tonight. My poor doctor is gonna kill me. Haha. Well, here's hoping he really mixes up the set -- Happy Now, Bullet, Never Say Goodbye ...?

Okay, I better get some work done before I have to leave for the bus. :-)

P.S. Speaking of Obie (at the top of this post), he was at the show and looking much better than I've seen him in a while. Hmm...betcha HE was able to get a ticket to the Soul event ... maybe he'll even wear "the shirt." LOL