In celebration of the release this Friday (April 26th) of ‘Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story’ on Hulu in the USA and Disney+ in the UK we look at the band’s live career and pinpoint their 5 most iconic shows.
The four-part docu-series will take fans through the band’s epic past and look forward to their uncertain future. 40 years of personal videos, unreleased early demos, original lyrics, and never before seen photos that chronicle the journey from Jersey shore clubs to the biggest stages on the planet. The series relives the triumphs and setbacks, greatest hits, biggest disappointments, and most public moments of friction.
Pinpointing the most iconic shows that this legendary band has played is no mean feat. We’re not talking about biggest shows. So, events like Giants Stadium in 1989 or the near hundred thousand people of Lisbon in 2008 have not been included. Similarly the Hyde Park shows of 2003 which has an official attendance of 92,000 but felt much bigger and the infamous Times Square show in 2002 where attendance is said to range from anything from 150,000 to half a million people, depending on the source, have not been included. No, these are the most ICONIC, the most pivotal and the most interesting shows the band has ever played.
The support run for Kiss during the early days of the band’s debut album back in 1983 and 1984 was instrumental in garnering the band its first instance of wider attention. The Donington Monsters of Rock show in 1987, which saw the band playing a headline set to a bunch of heavy metal fans who had also come to see Metallica, WASP, Anthrax and Dio was also a pivotal moment in terms of proving their abilities in front of a crowd that wasn’t necessarily their own too but we’ve passed over those moments.
Richie’s re-integration back into the band after a rehab stint at the O2 in London in June 2011 was a fairly huge moment in the life of the band as was the second re-joining in 2018 at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame show in Cleveland in 2018. This was also important as it was the last time both he and original bassist Alec John Such played with the band. There are almost too many moments to mention, after all, this is the band that has seen a million faces and rocked them all! However, we’ve nailed down what we think are the band’s five most iconic live shows:
Moscow Peace Festival 1989
If you ignore the murky dealings of Bon Jovi’s then manger (and drug smuggler) Doc McGhee and take the politics out of it (something this article delves deep into and is well worth a read) this show was an iconic moment in the life of the band, headlining the Russian version of Woodstock! Glasnost was in full flow back in 1989 and the Berlin wall had come down – Russia had opened up it’s borders to American rock ‘n’ roll and Bon Jovi were the band chosen, alongside other artists like Motley Crue, the Scorpions, Cinderella and Skid Row (Aerosmtih pulled out at the last moment because of worries as to where all the money was going!) to represent the United States to a country listening to live American rock for the first time. A scintillating 10 minute version of ‘Blood on Blood’ was the highlight of the set and if you look at the videos available on Youtube you can see the import and emotion in Jon’s eyes as he looks around and tries to take in where he is, drenched in sweat, after giving it his all up on stage.
Hammersmith Apollo, London 1990
After 6 years of proving to the world that they were one of the hardest working rock bands on the circuit Bon Jovi rocked up in London in 1990 and proved that they were one of the most talented. The band took the stage at London’s iconic Hammersmith Odeon, hosting a charity performance for Nordoff Robbins, a foundation dedicated to music therapy. Their performance, spanning 24 songs, marked one of their most extensive to date, showcasing their ambitious spirit. Surprisingly, only a fraction of the setlist—just 10 songs—were drawn from their established four studio albums. Instead, the majority of the performance spotlighted rare tracks, unique arrangements, and an array of cover versions, adding an extra layer of depth and diversity to the evening.
A spine-tingling version of Bad Company’s ‘Shooting Star’ was preceded by Jon saying ‘I’ve never been more nervous for a show in my whole life,’ whilst, later on in the show, the crowd were treated to rare airing of ‘We All Sleep Alone,’ the song Jon and Richie wrote for Cher. Of their own songs, London also got a very rare listen to ‘Social Disease,’ too – one of the songs from ‘Slippery When Wet’ that rarely ever got played due to the fact that it just wasn’t very good!
Wembley – 3 night run – 1995
It’s not often that rock behemoths Van Halen have opted to support another band but here they were in London as support to Bon Jovi on their ‘These Days’ tour. The stadium was totally sold out, the sun was shining and the dancing inflatables were fantastic! The band grabbed the bull by the horns and opened the shows with a double whammy hit of ‘Livin on a Prayer’ and ‘.. Bad Name’ as if to say, ‘What, Bro?’ and drop the microphone, all bull-chested and full of machismo. At this point in their career Bon Jovi’s star was a little on the wane in their homeland – ‘These Days’ hadn’t performed well sales wise – but over in Europe and all around the rest of the world they were at the peak of their powers and the band gave a kind of homecoming performance the likes of which Wembley has rarely seen since.
These shows weren’t really about the setlists, they were about the performances. A badly edited and much too short DVD was produced by the band which only left die hard fans scratching their heads as to why the full show was never released but you can see the hunger and desire in the ferocity of the playing and the effort in Jon’s vocals on songs like ‘Always’ and ‘This Ain’t a Love Song.’ Guests like Little Steven and Bob Geldof added a bit of a star-studded sheen but these shows make the list for the sheer class, skill and quality of the performances.
Yokohama, Japan 1996
If you didn’t see Bon Jovi on the ‘These Days’ tour across 1995 and 1996 you missed the glory years of this legendary band. Nothing they did before or since has come close to touching where the band were as performers and the risks they took in the setlist. Similar to Wembley, when the band arrived in Japan in 1996 they played a three night run in May which was unparalleled in terms of the effort they put into the shows. A marching band accompanied the band onto the stage each night for the opening of ‘Lay Your Hands on Me’ and songs like ‘Always’ were embedded into the set instead of being held back for audible treats or ‘will they, won’t they’ discussions. Even songs like ‘Something to Believe In’ and ‘My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms’ were part of this section of the tour – huge, uplifting powerful numbers that were soon to be replaced with more throwaway and easier to sing songs like ‘Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars’ and ‘Whole Lot of Leavin.’
This was a band at the height of it’s creative powers and there wasn’t an act alive on the planet that could touch them, aside from Springsteen and U2, at this point in their career.
The O2, London Residency June 2010
Again, rather than focus on a single show, we’ll take the whole residency at the O2 in London as an iconic moment. After officially opening the O2 Arena in 2007 the band returned for a series of 12 shows that would be the last time in their careers (to date) that we have seen experimentation and surprise in the set lists.
Songs like ‘Something for the Pain,’ ‘Diamond Ring,’ Damned’, ‘Santa Fe,’ ‘Blood Money,’ ‘Open All Night,’ ‘Miss Fourth of July’ and ‘It’s Hard Letting You Go’ all made appearances whilst Richie handled lead vocals on songs like ‘Lay Your Hands on Me’ and ‘Homebound Train.’ Imagine if Bon Jovi played the latter at a show in 2025, there would be carnage!
Promoting ‘The Circle’ album meant a number of songs were played from that album (arguably the last ‘true’ Bon Jovi album that the band recorded) which have never seen the light of day since either. Jon was happy, Richie was present and playing out of skin and the whole 12 show run was a triumph, meaning that whilst we’ve seen glimpses of this greatness here and there since, this was really the last incarnation of the great ‘Slippery When Wet,’ ‘New Jersey,’ ‘Keep the Faith’ and ‘These Days’ band that had dominated rock music since 1986.
With Jon being very honest about his recovery from vocal surgery and Richie Sambora currently not even in the band it’s hard to imagine that we’ll ever see the likes of these five shows again. However, with a fair wind and a bit of luck we’ll cross our fingers and say ‘never say never’ for 2025!
Bon Jovi’s new album ‘Forever’ is released on June 7th and can be pre-ordered right here
