Bon Jovi sends 30-year-old Bradley Center out with a bang
You really couldn’t have asked for a more fitting closing act at the BMO Harris Bradley Center than Bon Jovi.
The band was the first to sell out the arena in April 1989, seven months after it opened. And Bon Jovi was the last band to play for a full house Sunday night. This was the arena’s last public event; demolition will begin this summer, shortly before a new Milwaukee arena opens.
After 30 years, you can’t call Bon Jovi or the Bradley cutting-edge anymore, but both the band’s music and the Milwaukee arena have aged fairly well.
And they’ve both accomplished some respectable milestones this month. Bon Jovi was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Bradley finished a spectacular final 12 months of concerts — featuring Roger Waters, Guns ‘N Roses, Janet Jackson and Lorde — with one more exciting show, whose memory will last after the seats and lights and concrete are long gone.
Bon Jovi’s induction into the rock hall wasn’t without backlash. Even during the ceremony, Howard Stern couldn’t resist ribbin’ ’em, saying in his introductory speech that frontman Jon Bon Jovi “singlehandedly destroyed most of the ozone layer in the ‘80s with Aqua Net hairspray.”
Often, Bon Jovi’s lyrics have been schmaltzy, and the music a bit bland, but the band made a good case for its inclusion across a 22-song, two-hour-and-10-minute set Sunday.
“Keep the Faith” broke from Bon Jovi’s anthemic aesthetic, and gave drummer Tico Torres, lead guitarist Phil X and keyboardist David Bryan room to flex, morphing from a Latin jam to bombastic hard rocker to a bluesy, organ-purring soul number.
Jon Bon Jovi himself, at 56, remains an energetic and captivating frontman, even with cheesy moves Sunday like his frequent “raise the roof ” hand gestures.
There were jumping jacks and some stationary jogging during the gospel rocker “Lay Your Hands on Me,” and during “Born to Be My Baby,” he paced the stage like a prizefighter and flung up jazz hands.
While he frequently had vocal support from five backing singers in his band, Bon Jovi proved he could still
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The question-and-answer column will return next week. belt it out, his sweet husk commanding sparse renditions of “Amen” and “Bed of Roses,” two songs he performed from a secondary stage in the audience. For the latter, he sang the end of the song as he slowly moved through the masses back to the main stage, frequently singing passages while making eye contact with ecstatic fans inches in front of him.
Ultimately, it was those fans Sunday who made the strongest argument for Bon Jovi’s rock hall immortality. Band classics like “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Bad Medicine,” “Wanted Dead or Alive” are best experienced in an arena, with thousands of people passionately singing along. Sunday at the Bradley, the band, and its fans, showed that those songs haven’t lost any of their power.
With the Bradley closing, the sights are set on the future — the new $524 million home of the Bucks that’s being constructed right next door, and slated to open by September.
Sure, the sight lines at the Bradley weren’t the best, and the sound could be muddy — it was never fun literally having to rub shoulders with the person next to you in the squished upperbowl seats.
But it was host to some of the biggest superstars and finest talent the world has ever seen. Thousands and thousands of people — myself included — watched some of the greatest concerts of their lives in that building.
So it was nice to see an arena that offered so much for so many go out on the high note it deserved.