Bon Jovi started their European Tour right here in my hometown Turku, and of course I was there with my girlfriend Mira to witness this event! The band played two concerts in Finland, both sold out. no wonder, as Bon Jovi have been very popular in Finland from the golden days of "Slippery When Wet". "Crush" has been in Top 5 since its' release, and "It's My Life" is being played constantly on the radio.

The band brought a total of 12 trucks full of equipment with them, which broke the record previously held by KISS (they had 8 trucks). Apparently the electricity feeds of the arenas in Europe wouldn't be enough, so they had to bring their own generators! The light system was quite impressive indeed.

Now, onto the gig...

The support act was one Markus Nordenstrang, a Finnish singer songwriter. He performed a 30-minute set of post-grunge rock, inlcuding a couple of songs that didn't sound too bad ("Indian Summer" and "Memory"), but also a few numbers that seemed to go on and on...

Then, after an half an hour wait, the headliners took the stage, and the Elysée Arena almost exploded. "Livin' On A Prayer" was the opening number, followed by "You Give Love A Bad Name" and the current smash "It's My Life". The band was at top form, and the audience gave them a really warm welcome.

However, the band lost the momentum somewhat with the following songs, all except one from the new album "Crush". It was obvious that the crowd wasn't so familiar with them, and the fact that they weren't as catchy as the three first tracks didn't help. They played the next single (and a weird choice, if you ask me) "Say It Isn't So", "Next 10.000 Years", "Two Storey Town" (which reminded us of "Save Tonight" by Eagle-Eye Cherry), "Captain Crash...", "Mystery Train" and "Older". That "Crush"-assault was interrupted only by a new rendition of "I'd Die For You", which had been re-arranged into an acoustic ballad. I would have rather heard it in its' original from though. Bon Jovi does have enough ballads to choose from!

"One Wild Night", although from "Crush" again, was a welcome change of pace and a definite crowd-pleaser with its' irresistable hook and the sing-along "na-na-na" section. The band continued to rock with "Lay You Hands On Me", "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Bad Medicine". And then it was "good night"...but not really. The band came back three times altogether, and performed "I Got The Girl", "Wanted Dead Or Alive", "Blood On Blood", "Keep The Faith", "Thank You For Loving Me" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night".

The sound was a bit muddy, at worst the guitar solos and keys were barely audible, and at least where were seated one couldn't really hear Jon's little stories in between and during the songs. The song selection was a bit unbalanced: 10 songs from "Crush", nothing from the first two albums or "These Days", and surprisingly few ballads. I was expecting to hear "Always" and "Runaway", both huge favourites here in Finland, but I guess they were more enthusiastic about the new stuff. All in all, I can't say I'm disappointed though, the band was very good and Jon's voice was in good shape. Jon seemed to be enjoying himself, doing the usual sing-along workouts and a lot of dancing. A few times during the show a group of fans were allowed to come to stand behind the bar table on stage, and for one group Jon did a little dance number on the table. The girls seemed to be delighted...