Most Dangerous Concert

The website said 7 PM. The tickets staid 7:30 PM. Eddie and I met at Penn Station and went to the Garden around 6:45 PM. The entrance was packed. No one was allowed in yet. The concert started after 8 PM. What the? Still, it was just Bon Jovi, no opening act, so when it started, it was with Jon Bon Jovi standing in front of us, about two sections down, singing Last Man Standing. Amazing? I'd say so. I was closer twice at the Coliseum with my cousin KZK. This was still close and a great way to begin a concert.

After that, for my section, things got sticky. Two people went missing and a guy wound up in a wheelchair. Here's how that story goes.

Four women were in our row next to me. They were drinking wine when the came in. Two of them got more wine as we waited (forever) for the concert to start. They came back in time to start the concert. Then one of them left after a few songs to get more drinks. A few songs went by. She didn't come back. A few more songs went by. She didn't come back. The woman next to me realized that her friend still hadn't returned--probably because she'd been on empty cup for half an hour and lost her buzz--so she pointed that out to the other friends and they got on their cell phones. Now, instead of dancing and singing and having a good time, the three of them were on a missing person mission. They tried calling, too. Then the woman next to me left to find her friend.

This is why I don't drink at concerts. You miss everything.

Like, they missed the guy who was walking up the stairs and didn't make it to where he was going. We were towards the bottom of the section. At the very bottom there's a concrete wall that goes across the front and then about three rows up the sides of the section, like a box. Some guy was on the stairs and then suddenly, tipped backwards and fell down the stairs into the corner of the concrete barrier. Eddie saw this all happen and yelled Holy Shit that guy just fell.

The definition of irony: This all happened during "Bad Medicine." You see? The guy needed medical attention during Bad Medicine. Get it? Get it?

Security swarmed around and some people in the crowd went down to help him. Someone got a wheelchair. I felt kind of bad, screaming and singing and dancing along when this guy was semi-conscious, so I kept asking Eddie if he'd gotten up yet. It was a good three songs more until the evidence of the fall was gone.

The woman who got lost eventually returned with two drinks and a box of popcorn. I thought I heard her say something about hurting her foot, but I can't be sure. The woman who went to find her came back a few minutes later.

After that, one of the women who was in front of us started dancing down the stairs. She did not fall into the concrete wall. Instead, she disappeared. She'd been very talkative to everyone. She and her friend had turned around to talk to me and Eddie and they were dancing all over the two guys in front of them who were married but without their wives--I think their wives stood them up because they had two extra seats with them. Either that or they wore wedding rings and bought four seats because they were scared to admit that they like Bon Jovi.

In any case, the woman who was the loudest and most likely drunkest did not come back. Her friends did not try to find her. She was simply gone. And when the concert ended, her friends took her coat with them.

Other than the safety hazards, the concert was really good. Oh, the other drawback was the part when Jon Bon Jovi took his normal break to change his shirt and left Richie Sambora to sing lead on a song. Wow, that did not go as it usually does. He used to sing a song from his own record and that usually turned into a bathroom break for everyone, so instead, he's started singing a Bon Jovi song and everyone switches up the parts they usually sing. This concert as during the last, he sang Lay Your Hands On Me. Apparently, this was more challenging than last time. Richie Sambora was speaking in tongues mostly to himself during the song and had a weird haircut. Perhaps it was the weird haircut that made him speak in tongues. In any case, it was not, shall we say, good.

And now, the set list:

Last Man Standing

You Give Love a Bad Name

Born to Be My Baby

We Weren't Born to Follow

Lost Highway

When We Were Beautiful

It's My Life

Runaway

Superman Tonight

The More Things Change

We Got It Goin' On

Bad Medicine with Pretty Woman and the guy falling down.

Lay Your Hands on Me with Richie Sambora on lead hallucinations. After this song, Jon Bon Jovi came out with a button down blue shirt on. Eddie goes, He comes out in that shirt and sings Memory every time. Cut to:

(You Want To) Make A Memory HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAA.

I'll Be There For You

Something for the Pain, acoustic.

Someday I'll Be Saturday Night, acoustic. The acoustic thing was fantastic the first few times. I think I may be seeing too many Bon Jovi concerts. Yikes.

Who Says You Can't Go Home

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead with Start Me Up

No Apologies. Eddie noted that this was the one song I didn't sing along with. I told him it's the last song on the Greatest Hits album which I haven't listened to all that much. Now I have to learn the song.

Have a Nice Day

Keep the Faith

Encore:
In These Arms

Wanted Dead or Alive

Livin' on a Prayer

During the slower songs about love, we turned into that couple and swayed together with our arms around each other's waists. Yes, yes, we did that. We are that couple. As for who is in a couple with Jon Bon Jovi, apparently, the girl in front of us is his wife because she told us he's her husband. Then again, I don't know how reliable that information is considering it's coming from the same person who didn't care that her friend disappeared.