Coming Full Circle
My friend and I have been sitting at the back of the crowd. We are watching the whole group sway back and fourth. They look like one enormous live entity…uncontrollable, unstoppable.
They just brought a fire hose to the stage and shot it at the audience. It’s so hot that I watched them carry a woman out on a stretcher after passing out and getting trampled.
I am in 5th grade, this is my first concert and we’ve decided to push our way up to the stage….or at least as far as we can make it. Bon Jovi - New York Tour 1987
That was a long time ago for me, but I have very fond memories of that concert. Growing up, just about the only real music “tape” that my brother and I had at that age (besides the oldies that my parents listened to) was the Slippery When Wet album. Bon Jovi was the only thing I knew about Rock. The experience I had that day was something that I’ll never forget.
Last night, thanks to my good friends SoItGoes, ScruffDog and his wife, I was able to revisit that same feeling from 1987 as I watched Bon Jovi sing “Shot Through The Heart” up on stage in Atlanta. In all of his keyboard-80’s greatness I sat in awe as my childhood idol rehashed all of my favorite songs. He threw in some of his new stuff, which wasn’t all that great, but he made sure to sing the real crowd pleasers……which was “totally” awesome.
I wasn’t the only child of the 80’s out last night. I would say 80% of the crowd was made up of people just like me. Fans looking to re-kindle that spark. I have to say that the concert was a little more toned down from the fire-hose-the-audience one of my youth. Probably due to a little maturity on behalf of the group. However, that didn’t make it any less fun!
Thanks for the tickets guys!
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:54 am
Awesome man! My 1st concert was the Slippery When Wet tour! Skid Row opened for them at the Leon County, Tallahassee Civic Center…
My favorite memory was when they played Dead or Alive. The stage was pitch black, Ritchie Sambora was sitting on a stool playing a chrome acoustic guitar the spot-light on him was the only light on stage. Then John Bon Jovi started singing as he was elevated from a hole in the middle of the stage….that was hair band awesomeness at its pinnacle!
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:47 am
Sounds like it was radical and totally awesome
I started reading and i had no clue what you were talking about. I thought when you mentioned water hosing the crowd you were talking about some kind of riot and the police were using the hoses for crowd control lol
glad you enjoyed it!
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Glad you enjoyed the show! Bon Jovi Rocks!
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Yeah, that tape was awesome. You do forget though that we also had The BESTIE BOYS Liscense to Ill. You gotta fight… for your right…. tooo PARTY!
My first concert was The Beach Boys at Tanglewood (80’s, cocomo tour). I barely remember it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
My first concert i was probably a little older then you all. living in the stix of south carolina not much worth a damn came any where near us. I remember begging my mom at 13 years old to let me catch a ride with these kids who were seniors to Lolla in 92 (pj, soundgarden, ministry, RHCP etc) but the parental figure shot that down in a heartbeat.
The next one i tried to go to when i was 14 with my buddy was Corrosion of Conformity at the After Deck in Myrtle Beach. We rolled up there in his mom’s van long hair feeling like big shit. We were ready to throw the horns up and rock out to “i see the world through blood shot eyes!” We were turned away at the door 18 and up….
After all these failures when i was 15 we started spending time in Myrtle Beach and got into the little local music scene there and my first show was a local band called Sqwearl (that is how they spelled it) they were very popular and had a similar sound to Alice in Chains. It rocked. I must have seen them 20 times in high school we went to every show they played in town. I don’t remember if it was the first or second show we went to but it was one of the early ones climbing up on stage during one of their songs getting a running start and jumping into the crowd and stage diving for the first time. You have not lived until you have stage dived. You feel like a fucking god up there. After that experience moshing, crowd surfing, and stage diving became a regular at shows for me for the next few years.
thank you for taking a ride down memory lane with me.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
moshing, stage diving, long hair….memories damn sometimes I feel old, real old.
My fist mosh-pit was 16 years ago!
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
OMFG! Bon Jovi Rulz!