Bon Jovi This House is Not For Sale Tour
March 2017-Los Angeles
The Forum
I love Bon Jovi’s VIP Tour staff. I was so happy to see Alli & Lou were back with us the This House is Not For Sale tour and the addition of Christine was also great! They are so kind and really want to ensure you have a great experience.
Entering the VIP: You sign in, receive your VIP lament for the show, all the other merchandise was mailed to you with a very nice black leather bag this time, you also received a USB bracelet that you could download the live show of your choice, a set of guitar pics, signed lithograph, tour program for the Front Row “Knockout” package. You also were able to take the tour chair home with you. We needed to be checked in no later than 5:30 so you didn’t miss the backstage tour.
Backstage Tour: We were taken down in groups to do the tour. It’s a fun experience because you get to peak in JBJ’s quick change room, you might get a chance run in with Phil X or John Shanks even! They allow you up on stage to take photos with the white mic stand, keyboards, drums etc. After the tour you return to the party area where they have a cash bar and some snack type foods.
The show is always a super fun high energy show. Bon Jovi has been one of my favorite bands since I was 15 and it’s been fun watching them evolve over the years. I love having Phil X and John Shanks on stage now they both add a new and different energy and dynamic to the band and Jon just seems so much more relaxed during this tour and truly seemed to be having a lot of fun! There truly is nothing like a Bon Jovi concert and this show was no different with a great mix of the new and older music and JBJ even sang Always for us during the encore which was a great surprise!
Venue Comments: My seat was ok but, I had a friend that also had a front row seat and she was so far down she wasn’t even in front of the stage. I would say don’t sell those as seats if they are going to be staring at a black curtain vs the band.
Final Verdict: Definitely recommend Bon Jovi’s VIP!
Fun concert wear!
Bebe: http://www.bebe.com/
Nordstrom: http://shop.nordstrom.com/
White House Black Market: https://www.whitehouseblackmarket.com/store/
Coach: http://www.coach.com/shop/women-wristlets
Until Next Time,
Xoxo
Heather
This was my 21st Runaway Tours trip. They have improved so much since my first one back in 2011. Back then you had to be in a big group photo with 8-10 other people you didn’t know. Now you get a photo with JBJ based on how many are in your room, single, double and sometimes triple depending on the options they give you. This trip included 2 nights hotel stay (there was also a no hotel option), a welcome party, bus to/from the venue, the show, a photo with JBJ & the band for this trip grouped by room, a great signed photo that I will treasure and a small zip up bag with the Runaway Tours logo on it.
After the Q&A we all lined up for our photos. It was another nice but, quick photo opportunity and then we were told there was about an hour before the party room would open. Not sure in this case if that was planned or maybe the Q&A went shorter than they had originally planned or what. A few of us left the hotel and went to find some dinner. I was pretty tired after returning from dinner but I did swing by the party for a bit to see friends. This trip had a really good group of people on it which I thought made it a lot of fun.
his trip was different because it was occurring during the tour so instead of the acoustic show you were able to attend a full Bon Jovi Concert which is always amazing. In the interest of full disclosure I always upgrade my seats because the seats Runaway is given just are not where I prefer to sit at a concert. This tour in both Ft Lauderdale and LA they were in the first few rows of the section full floor section. However this is why I prefer to do Runaway Tours when they are on tour so I can guarantee I will be thrilled with where I am sitting.
I upgraded the front row experience for this show. Due to the fact we had a package and had to arrive earlier than the buses were leaving a bunch of us that upgraded car pooled to the venue with a local friend. More on the experience in a future blog. After the show the buses were easy to find and we jumped on and got back to the hotel pretty quickly.
One suggestion I would love to see implemented for tour travel companies is a loyalty program. Wouldn’t it be so cool to say after you have done 25 trips you get something like a meet and greet or x period of time with JBJ, at 50 trips you get xyz. That would make people really want to go on a lot of trips to achieve that status/rewards. Very similar to how cruise lines, airlines have reward programs and how Aerosmith does their concert tickets. Similar to the Keith Urban 100 club concept which I will also cover in a future blog.
The final night of the tour in Brisbane in 2013 was one of the most emotional concert experiences I have ever had. At that time so much was unknown. JBJ gave the speech towards the end and said this is the last time for a long time and we really were not sure when or if we would see our band perform again. I can remember us all swaying arm and arm during I’ll Be There for You, tears streaming down our faces we felt like we were on an emotional journey with the band on that tour and it’s a night I will remember for the rest of my life. I was glad that was my “go big” year.
As a fan I was thrilled to hear that the album was done, that they would be doing special Live Listening Parties and really building major excitement behind this album. As the singles started coming out I was pleasantly surprised by everything I initially heard. ‘This House is Not for Sale’ is raw, it’s emotional, and it’s a rock record with some of the most beautifully written and inspiring lyrics. For me it closely measured up to ‘These Days’ which is my favorite Jovi record. I was only able to attend one of the Live Listening Parties but, I walked out of the theater that night in Toronto blown away and beyond excited for the tour. Many of the songs sounded even better live and the biggest take away for me was how happy the entire band was on that stage, it was a lighter feeling, the smiles were endless, they were all having fun and the heaviness that you could feel last tour was completely lifted. Our band is back and better than ever!
I have listened to the album many times preparing for this review and unlike a few past albums there were no songs that I just felt were ok or I was tempted to skip over. Every song on this album deserves its place on the album. If I were to pick my two favorite songs I would say hands down “Scars on this Guitar” makes me stop and fully listen each time. The lyrics are some of the best and most beautiful JBJ has ever written in my opinion. As a fan it speaks to my heart, the music is what I turn to get me through hard times. My other favorite has been Roller Coaster. I love the lyrics, the beat and I will say this is one of the songs that blew me away when I saw it performed live in Toronto. Both of those songs I am hoping we will hear a lot on tour.
The album has a lot of great rock songs including “This House is Not for Sale”, “Living with the Ghost”, “Knockout”, “Born Again Tomorrow”, “New Year’s Day”, “The Devil’s in the Temple”, “God Bless This Mess”, “All Hail the King” and “We Don’t Run” which was also on the Burning Bridges Album.
It’s great to have John Shanks & Everett Bradley join the band on the tour. JBJ and the entire band should be incredibly proud of this album. It’s an absolute hit and one of the best albums to date. I am so glad that they continue to work hard to develop new music and are still willing to get out and tour to support it. There is nothing like being at a live Bon Jovi show its magic the minute those lights go down.
We had two concerts included in the package. This is the only part that we had some issues. Some of it I believe came from the language barrier and the fact it wasn’t just a private concert for us but, also for the hotel guests. The hotel was still in the grand re-opening stages as a Hard Rock when we were there and organization definitely could have been improved. The actual concerts were great as Jon Bon Jovi and Kings of Suburbia never disappoint. For those of you that have not seen them perform they typically do a mix of about half Jovi hit songs and half popular cover songs like “Under Pressure,” “I’m Your Man,” etc. The first night things went fairly smoothly at the venue. The second night we had our photos with JBJ before the show and the Runaway team had communicated with the venue staff ahead of time. After our photos when we went down to our seats there were hotel guests etc. already in our seats and they would not move and due to the #’s of people the hotel security staff didn’t have any success in moving them. Somehow the communication broke down and the hotel guests were told to sit anywhere and a few handfuls of people on trip decided they too would sit anywhere to say it was chaotic would be an understatement. It made for a huge mess before the show and unfortunately there was not enough time for the Runaway staff to get it straightened out before the band took the stage. It’s a draw back when the events are not private just for us. When they are just for us things typically run very well organized.
The photo with JBJ in Mexico still remains one of my favorite experiences. We were first in line and he was in such a fun mood. We were greeted with a big Welcome to Mexico! I always tell people to know what to expect this is a photo op and not a meet and greet, they are very quick but, sometimes they are very special. It’s often all in what you make of it. The trips have come a long way from the old days of a group of 8-10 people per photo, that wasn’t a value because you never knew if you would get a picture standing next to JBJ. Now you do and the trips are more popular than ever.