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Wednesday 21 December 2011

Jon Bon Jovi returns to Red Bank for Hope Concert V


jon-bon-jovi.jpgAndrew Mills/The Star-LedgerJon Bon Jovi at the Hope Concert V, Dec. 19, 2011.
"If I'm dead," Jon Bon Jovi told the audience at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, "then heaven looks like New Jersey."
It was a cute, crowd-pleasing line that he'd already used earlier in the day, when he'd become the latest entertainer to be victimized by a popular Internet prank. Rumors of Jon Bon Jovi's death spread across social media platforms on Monday afternoon; on Monday night, he answered them with a five song headlining set at the Hope Concert benefit at the Count Basie Theatre. Backed by longtime sideman Bobby Bandiera and the 14-piece Jersey Shore Rock-N-Soul Revue, the Sayreville rock star performed three Bon Jovi favorites and two classic rock covers. After bringing down the sold-out house, Jon Bon Jovi returned to the stage to sing a pair of Christmas songs.
In so doing, Bon Jovi closed his 2011 in the same magnanimous way that he opened it: raising money for a Central Jersey healthcare center. In January, he and Bandiera took to the stage at the Starland Ballroom in support of the Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank. Twelve months later, his participation in the Hope Concert helped bring in $175,000 for the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick. At Starland, his performance was earnest, but a bit stiff -- the gravity of the cause he was supporting seemed to weigh heavily on him. He was looser, warmer, and in fuller voice at Count Basie, and the material he chose to perform reflected that ease. He probably would have played "Wanted Dead or Alive" anyway, but once Bon Jovi's passing started to trend on Twitter, its performance became mandatory. "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and "We Weren't Born to Follow" are both latter-day Bon Jovi; shorn of the band's early heavy metal influences, they're the musical equivalent of comfort food.
As he did in Sayreville, Bon Jovi sang "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party," a Showstoppers record from the late '60s often associated with the J. Geils Band, who scored a hit with the song in 1973. Bon Jovi also led the band through a jazzy, brass-spiked rendition of "The Letter," a 1967 smash for the Box Tops.
For the encore, Bandiera welcomed back onstage the familiar Garden State figures who'd donated their time -- and their pipes -- to the Hope Concert cause. Southside Johnny, "croonercore" vocalist Nicole Atkins, adopted Jersey son Gary U.S. Bonds, and musician and successful Shore restaurateur Tim McLoone re-emerged from the shadows at the sides of the stage, but deferred to Jon Bon Jovi, who handled most of the lead vocals on "Blue Christmas" and a ramshackle version of "Run Run Rudolph." (Gaslight Anthem lead singer Brian Fallon also appeared, but did not participate in the encore.)
The 2011 Hope Concert in Red Bank
EnlargeAndrew Mills/The Star-LedgerJon Bon Jovi sings on stage at The Hope Concert -- a semi-annual holiday show at the Count Basie Theater Red Bank. An online rumor circulated earlier today that the rock-n-roll star from New Jersey was dead. He is not. (12/19/11) Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerTwitter rumor of Jon Bon Jovi death false, he performs in Red Bank gallery (21 
With typical theatrical flair, Count Basie Theatre CEO Numa Saisselin likened the Hope Concert to Brigadoon -- an apparition of collective goodwill that comes to Red Bank every few years. Monday's show was the fifth in the series; the most recent, the legendary 2008 Hope Concert IV, paired Bon Jovi with the Boss. Bruce Springsteen had been a regular "surprise" guest at Hope Concerts past, and many at the Count Basie were openly wishing for a return engagement by the one Jersey rock star whose popularity trumps Jon Bon Jovi's.
That wasn't to be, but the two-hour show provided its share of unexpected delights anyway. Many were provided by Bandiera, who, in his modest manner, was the night's most rewarding performer. As the musical director of the Rock-N-Soul Revue, he was onstage for most of the event, and he kept the pacing crisp, the spirits jovial, and prevented the big band from unnecessarily extending the outros of the songs. His guitar playing was tasteful, too: He took a warbling, string-bending solo on "Blue Christmas" that fit the high-spirited reinterpretation of the Christmas song, drove the propulsive pub-rock of Southside Johnny's "This Time It's For Real," and once again approximated the dramatic heft of Richie Sambora's gunslinger lead on "Wanted Dead or Alive." His singing, too was graceful, and he managed to hold together a show-closing version of "All You Need Is Love" that threatened to tip into an inebriated singalong.
The Rock-N-Soul Revue was visibly more comfortable playing classic material from the '60s than it was with Bon Jovi-style hard rock, but the group was perpetually game. Bandiera claimed to have fun learning Nicole Atkins' material, and the Hope Concert group burned the studio haze off of "The Way It Is." Bonds, still a vocalist of fearsome power at 72, roared through a version of his "New Orleans," a song that first hit in 1960; a bit later, he traded verses "A Change is Gonna Come" with the ingratiating Southside Johnny. Sam Cooke was a popular choice for singers at the concert: Fallon and Southside Johnny shared lead vocals on "Wonderful World" and "Good Times." It was fascinating to hear Fallon apply his raspy punk rock delivery to vintage soul; it would have been even nicer if Southside Johnny had given the younger singer a little more breathing room on the center microphone.
But the night belonged to Jon Bon Jovi, who seemed both bewildered and slightly unnerved by the Internet rumors. They were clearly on his mind: He referred to them several times, and even pantomimed taking calls from concerned friends and family. Jon Bon Jovi is exactly the sort of world-famous, somewhat pompous establishment entertainment figure who Internet provocateurs love to target -- actor Scott Baio was also a recent victim of a similar hoax. Pranksters are declaring virtual victory this morning. Yet there's nothing particularly irreverent about forcing a public figure to declare or otherwise demonstrate that he is still alive. Mostly, it shows how easily social media can be used to annoy and alarm people. Even if you think what you're doing is funny -- and in this case, it really wasn't -- spreading false witness is never an acceptable thing to do.

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