Day 69 (3/11): I'll be there for you!

I'll be there for you!

These 5 words I swear to you.

When you breathe I wanna breathe the air for you.

I'll be there for you!

And I was there for Jon! I was there breathing in the concert air at the new Intrust Arena Thursday night. The Bon Jovi concert was incredible and I have not been able stop singing the songs. It all started with a ride to the colliseum.  My mom and Angi and Ted were in the back. My mom's eyes were closed in every picture but she was pretty happy since she thought Bon Jovi wanted here there.  Of course, I knew the main reason he was coming to Wichita was to see me! 

We got to the arena and had a great parking spot - right across from the arena.  Bill and Mary, my parents friends, also went so I snapped a shot of them outside the arena.

We got there plenty early and found our seats.  Intrust Arena sells their seats only 2 at a time so we were all spread out around the arena.  My mom, Terry, Dacia and Kristi were across from us in the arena.  The pictures are horrible because they were blowing in that fake fog smoke stuff.  Surely there's a technical name for that stuff but I don't know what it is. 

Ted and Angi sat in the same section same row as us.  We played musical chairs throughout the night to try to sit together.  There were 5 empty seats between us before the concert started and we moved down.  A mother and her son were sitting in one of those empty chairs.  She was taking him to his first concert which it was neat to see him at the end raising his hand and rocking to Bon Jovi.  So that left 3 seats.  A man came and said that he was one of the empty seats but his other seat was there on the end of the row and he wanted to sit by his girlfriend.  So we told him he could sit in one of our seats and then we would all just scoot down if the people whose seats came later.  Well they did come after the first couple of songs.  And they were well...something else. I think I had a second hand high when they walked by and she was a go-go girl in training as she flailed her arms around in her drunken stuper. She had enough bangles on her arm to open a small jewelry shop.

OK so let's get back to the good stuff - the concert!  Dashboard Confessional was the opening act.  They were good but the music was too loud and I'm not just saying that because I'm getting old!  There just wasn't a good balance between the vocals and the band and you couldn't hear the words. They sound so much better on their album.

He did stand on the piano after he played it and did all the rocker things you were supposed to but I was so ready for Jon and Richie to start rocking the stage! 

So it was time. The intermission was so long - over 30 minutes.  But the lights went dark and we waited in anticipation for the show to begin.  At the stage we began to see what looked like shadows of the 4 member group walking on against a white background. These shadows got larger and larger and larger and soon we realized that was the video boards that were dropped down in front of the stage showing them walk on. It was extremely cool!

He started with a song from his new album - The Circle. The video effects were so cool as the boards moved around forming different configurations.

He did give a brief political speech about Change. But then he said "You didn't come here to listen to me speak. You paid to listen to me sing and shake my money maker."  And that we did! 

He made sure that fans all over the stadium got a peak at that money maker as he roamed all over the stage.  He also played a variety of songs from all of his albums: You Give Love a Bad Name, Born to Be My Baby, Bad Medicine, Superman, We Weren't Born to Follow, Saturday Night, and tons of others.

They also did different effects as they zoomed in on him making him cartoon character-like.  Look at how the video screens were spread apart to make it look like girls dancing.  Super Cool! 

Then the video screens would tilt and spin and have different views of the stage.

I know now why the tickets were so expensive - the video and electronic equipment took over 9 semis to cart it around from city to city.  I remember when I saw him the first time and there was definitely not this many video screens.  Just incredible and definitely entertaining.

Richie Sambora did a song and gave Jon a break. Homebound Train

He did come out in front of the stage and played with a song by himself. Then he brought the others out in front.  He mentioned that Chico had been waiting 27 years to get out in front.

I would definitely go again to watch them play!  It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to!