So I got to finally see Bon Jovi in concert. This is a band I have listened to before I even knew who they were. I can remember being in second grade waiting on the line at recess to file back into the classroom with a girl in the group singing their songs. She had sisters & brothers in middle school & was "up" on all of the latest & greatest, while the rest of us were playing with My Friend Jenny dolls. You just don't realize how many songs of his you do know until you see him perform.
I had to work until after 3 and the concert (as we only realized on Tuesday) started at 5, so this was a bit of a rush job to get there. I flew home, packed something for dinner on the road, and jumped into my car to get to Crak's house (yes...this is Crau, but after last night she is now with a "k")by 4:30. I hit traffic in the most odd spots. And why am I hitting west-bound traffic on a Wednesday afternoon? Doesn't anybody work anymore? Or stay home because of gas prices? Whatever.
I finally get to her house & the four of us (Crak, me, her cousin and another "C") piled into her cousin's car & off we go. We took the strangest route there. We drove from Valley Stream up the Cross Island to the Throggs Neck & over to the Cross Bronx. That lead us to traffic. However, I must say, the traffic was not as bad as I anticipated. We then hit the Turnpike & Cousin is so funny. She had to ask if we needed to go south & where was route 3? Oh no! I can drive & I can get to places but I can't do it from the backseat. It was just too funny. But Cousin got us there very nicely & in under an hour and a half. Very nice, indeed.
Crak's friend, Jersey Girl, was there already (having the advantage of only working until 12:30 ish & living in Jersey) with her friend, J. They had saved us a parking spot so we were happy. BUT, when we finally arrived, security wouldn't allow us to go to it. We had to park whereever they were funneling us in. And that would be far. We parked right infront of the Continental Airlines Arena. This would have been great if we were going there. But we needed to be on the OTHER SIDE of the turnpike at the Meadowlands complex. So we had to hike it. In cute espadrilles. They weren't made for walking a mile and a half. But I had no choice.
We get to the other side & Cousin & C have to go in because they refuse to use the temporary facilities set up in the parking lot. They wanted a real ladies room. So we said "see you inside the gates" and waited for Jersey & J to find us.
When we finally got our group together & went in it was 6:45 and Nickelback was on. They sounded really good but there was a bit too much feedback from the amps so it was hard to hear them at times over their equipment. So good. They played for about an hour.
Then we had to wait. While we were waiting, a movie promo geared up. It was for the Al Gore "An Inconvenient Truth". ????? What???? So depressing. It was just so odd to have this play. And not once, but twice. Jersey was not too pleased with this as it was a bit of a downer. But, as Crak pointed out, JBJ is a big democratic supporter.
While this was going on, we got a bit of a sideshow. A group of six moved right infront of our group of six. But these were 3 couples. All seemed normal until the man from one couple groped the woman from another couple. And she giggled. And so did his woman. What? Wait a minute. Crak leans over & says "They're swingers". Oh no. I cannot have swingers swapping in the aisle infront of me during a concert. EW!
At 8:oo, Bon Jovi came on. So so good. I can't tell you what he opened with, nor can I tell youthe playlist, but I can tell you it was amazing. The whole band was so peppy & lively & they sound just like they do on their albums.
Their stage was awesome. To me, it looked like the city skyline. And they had images of the buildings on it at one point, colored lights most of the time, flames during one song, and shots of Jersey for "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" Very appropo.
But, we got more than just a JBJ show out of this. We had the drunk swingers in the aisle below us who were swinging & swapping the entire time, we had pot smokers to the left of us, we had screamers (at eachother --- not to the band) and a guy who wouldn't shut up behind us, and we had two extremely drunk girls to the right of us. They crashed into J five times. Then they decided to straddle the men's shoulders infront of them. These guys were late 40s-early 50s and with their wives & out of nowhere come these drunk amazon women climbing up on their shoulders. Security did come but Jersey said it took five security guys to remove the two drunk amazon women. Jersey & I both asked Crak what kind of section did she get us seats in? It was all too nuts!
Bon Jovi played for 2 hours and 40 minutes! Amazing! I mean they played the whole time. And each song was good to dance to. Oh yeah we danced/bounced. Crak couldn't be as "out there" as she would have liked to have been because the strap on her tank top broke with the first chord JBJ struck. And there wasn't any real way to repair it & make it stay up. She devised some knot into it that held until the very end. Wonder if she ever wanted to be a sailor. Anyway, the concert ended at 10:40 & I was tired but filled with energy from watching him perform.
We left our seats & said goodbye to Jersey & J. Then we waited for Cousin to decide whether or not she wanted to buy the tour tank top. It was really cute. She did & we made our way back down & out & across the NJTP back to the car. Cousin was able to maneuver us out of a jammed lot & onto the turnpike but we didn't know if we were headed north or south. This could be a problem. But not for us! We managed to take the Lincoln Tunnel & cut through Manhattan. After one wrong turn & then having to navigae one way streets, the Midtown Tunnel appeared. Yippee!! We got back to VS around 12:30 & I still had to drive a half hour home. I managed to talk to Cowboy for most of my ride & crashed into bed afer 1 am.
So tired, so happy, & could do it again tonight.
