Andy's Whiskey and Go Go!

It was a hot day and after finishing work it at 4pm, I made a mad drive home in the car amongst all the crazy drivers on the road. I got myself a bath and grabbed my cash tickets camera etc... Oh and Panee and we took a walk down to our local bus station. We went to McDonald's on route for a bite to eat. We queued for the bus along with all the other people going to the gig. Couldn't believe there were no extra buses put on, but what's new?
Anyhow the bus got stuck about 1/2 a mile from the stadium so we all decided to get off and walk. We called in at a club near the arena and had a couple of beers. £6 for 2 beers and a small bottle of wine, can't go wrong. Arena prices had to be in the 3 to £4 region for a pint. I know a small bottle of water was £1.50. Anyways we headed to the gig a little later than planned and by the time we got into the stadium Nickleback were just starting the 3rd from last song. The stadium was not so full at this point and the sound was pretty echoee. I thought to myself 'I hope Bon Jovi don't sound like this!' The size of the stadium quite surprised me. I'd not been to a big gig like this in many years, so maybe that's why I was surprised by the size. Anyhow Panee pushed us both forward as far as we could go in the standing area we were in.
Bon Jovi hit the stage at exactly 8pm. The band appeared on the main stage at the front while Jon Bon Jovi, complete with guitar, strolled out on a platform out into the audience just out in front of where we were stood. Panee couldn't believe how close she was to a major Rockstar!, remebering this was her 1st experince of going to a rock gig on this scale. She could never dream of going to a concert like this in Thailand and being this close would never of happened. They kicked off with Last Man Standing from the current Have a Nice Day Album. They then proceeded to play 'Rocking all over the World (yes the Quo song)' The sound had improved drastically at this point and the stadium had also filled up.
They played for 2 1/2 hours and played just about all the classics and stuff from the latest album. The band also seemed to be making the sound rather larger sound by the inclusion of an extra keyboard player and a guy who swapped between playing extra guitar and even 2nd bass, which was noticeable on 'Keep The Faith'.
The light show was something else, although no pyro technic's. Mr Bon Jovi came out into the audience again before the night was through. There was plenty of audience participation also which is to be expected with the singalong style of songs that Jovi play. I had not seen them in over 12 years (Milton Keynes last time) and they were as good if not better! Richie Sambora took over on lead vocals on a couple of songs in the set also. My only complaint was that they didn't play what I call mine and Panee's Bon Jovi signature tune, One Wild Night, and Bounce, one of my ffff.. favourites! But we certainly had 'One Wild Night' and yep we would go again even though it took us an hour to get home!

Oh and just to top off a perfect gig, I got a e-mail I wrote, commenting about how good the gig was, printed in our local newspaper!