Bon Jovi
Croke Park, Dublin
★★★★☆
They say there’s no such thing as forever in showbiz, but Jon Bon Jovi begs to differ. Forty-three years after gathering together a crew of like-minded musicians in Sayreville, New Jersey, the 64-year-old frontman and his band are on their Bon Jovi Forever tour. It’s named for the band’s 2024 album, but perhaps with a nod and a wink to their legacy and how precarious it might have seemed in recent years.
After all, there has been extra scrutiny on the frontman and his voice since his vocal-cord surgery in 2022; the Forever tour, their first since his recovery, also had a somewhat inauspicious beginning during their Madison Square Garden residency last month, when the plug was pulled early on one performance because of a “sinus infection”.
On Sunday night, at least, there is no sign of any big vocal issues; although his singing is perhaps not as effortless as it once was, Bon Jovi hits all the notes required of him from the set’s opener, a louche cover of The Beatles’ With a Little Help from My Friends via Joe Cocker’s bluesy retelling. True, the use of an autocue for lyrics is noted on stage, but none of us is as young as we used to be.
Concessions to the rocker’s vocal readjustments have been made in the keys of several songs, and perhaps in the shape of the set list, too. The band perform In These Arms and the set’s closing track, Always, in a lower register; admittedly, they don’t pack quite the same punch without the thrust of their singer’s idiosyncratic holler.
READ MORE
Still, while the set list may be slow to kindle and prone to lulls every few songs, when the hits make an appearance they arrive with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. You Give Love a Bad Name still packs a mighty punch; Bed of Roses soars into the dwindling twilight; and It’s My Life and Livin’ on a Prayer are the most effective one-two punch of the evening, the latter a glorious singalong with extra cheese and air-guitaring.
The swaggering Bad Medicine and Wanted Dead or Alive are faultless; on Keep the Faith, Bon Jovi’s voice seems stretched to its limit, yet he manages to hold steady with a little help from his friends, which is to say the 80,000 devoted disciples urging him on.
Between the anthems the band are given a chance to shine on songs such as the jaunty country-infused Whole Lot of Leavin’ and the stealthy This House Is Not for Sale, while the frontman seems genuinely moved when he performs the clear-voiced power ballad I’ll Be There for You.
Even the threatened deluge that fans have been expecting fails to appear, although the Jersey boy notes that he “expects nothing less than a little rain” in Dublin, and rolls out the line that the rain at previous gigs was due to “angels crying” because they couldn’t get a ticket to a sold-out Bon Jovi show. “It could rain all night, but I ain’t going nowhere,” he promises. Spare a thought for the Electric Picnickers, Jon.
The corny patter about “beautiful Dublin” is abundant, but despite the set’s somewhat inconsistent flow it’s impossible to dislike the rock veteran and his 100-watt smile. At one point he takes a Tricolour from a fan and ties it around his neck, superhero-style; it takes less than 10 seconds for the first chorus of “Olé, olé” to kick off.
The poodle perms and leather trousers are things of the past, but the thunderous choruses, made to be heard in stadiums, are proof that you can’t keep a good song down. Forever is overrated, anyway. Tonight has been good enough.
