« Turkeys at the Beach | Main | Coney Island »
July 23, 2006
Bon Jovi Concert
My friend Kristina (who has one of the coolest internships ever at Island Def Jam Records) got two free tickets to last Tuesday's Bon Jovi concert at Giants stadium and took me along with her! We had such an amazing time. Our tickets were for the upper level of the stadium, but since we were there with Bon Jovi's record label, we got to go down and stand ON THE STAGE with Bon Jovi for part of the concert!! I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it was standing a few feet away from Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora as they sang some of the greatest songs ever.
Kristina and I took the train from Greenwich to NYC and got on the bus that Island Def Jam had gotten to take us down to Giants stadium. On the bus, we all got special green bracelets that would get us ON STAGE (ok, I'll try to stop putting ON STAGE in all caps... it was just really exciting). The concert was amazing, the band was obviously awesome, and we all had a blast. The opening act was Nickelback which also put on a great show, so here are some pictures of them:
It was one of those 95 degree afternoons that we had last week, and the air was so humid that there was a haze all over the stadium at the beginning of the show:
Kristina and I tried to take a picture together, but the sun was so strong that we were both making weird faces:
So we tried again with sunglasses on... much better:
Pretty sky:
And now... what you've all (hopefully) been eagerly anticipating... Bon Jovi pictures!
ON STAGE pictures!!! Ok, I lied about not using all caps.... Just keep in mind that these pictures aren't just super zoomed-in, we were actually that close. Unfortunately, a bunch of them are really blurry because we weren't allowed to use a flash that close.
Kristina and Me ON STAGE:
I love this picture:
Better-than-front-row video:
Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora coming over to shake hands with everybody ON STAGE:
Dancin' in the Street:
Check out the guy standing in front of us high-five-ing random strangers and totally rocking out:
More pictures:
Jon Bon Jovi is the only rock star I've ever seen stop literally every two feet to shake people's hands:
The person in front of us singing "Have a Nice Day" in the worst voice EVER is now on my X-list... along with the towns of Groton and Oswegache for not having immediate Starbucks access when I was driving to Rhode Island a couple weeks ago. Anyway....
Great picture:
Richie Sambora's turn in the spotlight:
"I'll Be There For You"
Around this time, a freak storm hit the stadium with torrential rain, extremely strong winds, and a lot of thunder and lightning. The band kept going with no complaints (except for between songs when they had a group huddle and screamed out to the rain not to f**k with them because they weren't stopping the show).
"Shout!" right as the rain started:
Another of my favorite pictures:
Check out the rain:
The rain and lightning got so bad that I kept thinking they were going to have to stop the concert, but the show went on! Even though I'm sure it was extremely dangerous for everyone involved, the lightning, wind, and rain made the show even more amazing and definitely got everyone (including the band) really pumped up. The guys totally got into it as did the whole entire audience since not a single person left the concert even when the storm got really bad. Here's a video that shows how much lightning there was. I think the screams you hear around us are screams of terror, but that didn't stop everyone from standing up and dancing as the wind sent beer cups and everything else not attached to someone flying all around. I kept grabbing onto my sunglasses and ducking down because I thought that 1. my precious Prada sunglasses would go flying or 2. I would go flying with them... but highly undesireable. Anyway, here's the video:
The bracelets and tickets that got us ON STAGE:
I know that everyone there that night including the band will remember it as one of the greatest concerts ever.
Posted by lauren at July 23, 2006 03:34 PM