Reviews

Erfurt (Germany) May 25 2003

This year I decided to go to Erfurt in a bus full of BJ fans to see the concert.
We started from Pilsen at 10 a.m. and watched the BJ videos for the whole journey.
We arrived to the stadium at 4:15 and realized that the FC members are already in. But we were lucky to find the FC entrance and after showing our membership cards we got to the venue too.
We stood in 6th row in the middle and had a great view.
At 7 p.m. the support band Live begun to play. But the sound was horrible and so it was a torture for us and for them. They shold kick the sound engeneer's ass.
At 8:32 BJ came to the stage one by one and blasted into Bounce.
That's a really great song for the start of the show. Jon wasn't talking much that night so they played nonstop few more songs. Mostly rocksongs ( it made me very happy) and only one slow.
The crowd was singing like crazy all the lyrics and the band members were exchanging happy smiles.
There was a lot of energy in the air. Jon jumped and ran on the stage and Richie played like a god.
Everybody was in extremely good mood.
When Richie's singing time came, Jon disappeared backstage and let him the stage. Richie took a bow and the crowd was blasting. When he sang there were the lighters in the air and he closed his eyes and enjoyed the whole song. David took Richie's singing part for this time (together with the whole stadium). During the last chorus Richie stepped to the front and made people sing even more smiling like a happy kid :-) At the end of the song he got an enormous applause which made him a bit shy.
Than they continued in the show full of energy and the crowd was singing all the lyrics again. Jon let them sing whole parts of the songs (Prayer, Wanted..) and the crowd sang really good.
There were two encores and after the last song the band lined up on the stage to thank the fans. They hugged each other, tapped each others shoulders and smiled.
It was the best BJ show in my life till that day.
When the band left the stage, they showed a short video introducing each member, but it stuck in the middle and they couldn't play it to the end.
Than we got to the bus smiling happily and went back home.

BOUNCE
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
WILD IN THE STREETS
LIVIN' ON A PRAYER
EVERYDAY
RUNAWAY
KEEP THE FAITH
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
IN THESE ARMS
IT'S MY LIFE
SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT
JUST OLDER
MISUNDERSTOOD
I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU
BLAZE OF GLORY
HOOK ME UP
BORN TO BE MY BABY
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD
RAISE YOUR HANDS

Encores:
HEROES
UNDIVIDED
CAPTAIN CRASH & THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS
TWIST & SHOUT

____________________________________

Vienna (Austria) May 28 2003

The journey was perfect, joking with friends in the car we were in Vienna in less than 4 hour time. We came to the FC entrance at noon, and there were already 84 people, some said to be there from midnight. One of the fans made a list of people (in which order they came) and fortunately the security accepted it so we had a nice place guaranteed. 4th row in the middle, great view. The show started at 8:35 p.m. with Bounce. Richie had his Fucking Sweet t-shirt just like in Erfurt and the famous red coat. Jon changed to the black and red leather jacket ( the motorcycle racer style), David started in a black leather jacket and Tico in a black t-shirt. They changed the setlist a bit again. I thought the show couldn't be better than Erfurt, but it was ! It was a bit longer, 2 hours 35 minutes and 3 encores. The crowd was singing even louder, and made them do an unplanned encore. I had a little banner , saying in two lines :Give it up for /The King Of S(w)ing. I showed just the second line during I'll Be... , Richie seamed to see it, but didn't react. He was at his planet Richie, just like every time he plays and sings :-) But he made people sing the chorals again with a happy smile, touching his heart. When he finished, he got even bigger applause than in Erfurt . That made him even more shy :-) he hided under his hat. I showed the other line on the banner too, and in the moment when Jon came back to the stage ,I wasn't fast enough to put it down and he saw it. Looked at it and said : "Give it up for the King Of Swing, that's right". I saw people reacting much more on Richie's playing during the show than ever before, probably because they knew he's gonna sing.
Jon was a bit more talkie than in Erfurt, he joked about every member. Said Richie liked so much his new jacket ( the black and red one), that he took it from him the day before for a tv recording.
After the second encore they stepped to the front to thank the crowd, waved, hugged each other and people were singing the chorus from Shout to let them hear they want more. I believed that it's the end of the show and it seamed so. So I lifted my whole banner once again, sang the chorus too and waved it a little bit. As they were waving to the crowd, Richie suddenly looked at the banner, opened his eyes with surprise, pointed at it and smiled so happily that I almost saw happy sparks in his eyes and fireworks around him lol.
David had longer and great hair and Tico introduced Jon at the end of the show with a big bow. So I gotta say THIS really was my best BJ show till now.
When the band definetely left the stage they played a little film on the screen after both shows. It was introducing all the members and showing many funny moments. There was Jon making fun of Tico, David and Richie joking, Richie imitating Bob Dylan (I was dead with laughter) and a moment from recording of Everyday video. The storm was getting closer and everything was falling down, microphone stands, amplifiers etc. and suddenly something ( I believe it was one of the carpets on the ground) lifted and flown away, just like the fairy tale magic carpet. Jon and Richie were staring at it, as it disappeared in the storm, and cried with laughter. And many more funny things were in the film. There were no fireworks, seams they didn't plan it for the european tour.

BOUNCE
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
WILD IN THE STREETS
LIVIN' ON A PRAYER
EVERYDAY
RUNAWAY
KEEP THE FAITH
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
THE DISTANCE
IT'S MY LIFE
SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT
JUST OLDER
MISUNDERSTOOD
UNDIVIDED
I'LL BE THERE FOR YOUR (Richie Sambora on lead vocals)
HOOK ME UP
BORN TO BE MY BABY
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD
RAISE YOUR HANDS
BLAZE OF GLORY
IN THESE ARMS

Encores:
CAPTAIN CRASH & THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS
BAD MEDICINE
SHOUT
TWIST-N-SHOUT
THESE DAYS

Many thanks to my friend Martin for making these photos in Vienna.
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