Bon Jovi at MCI: Still Ready to Rock

Jon Bon Jovi, shown here at Madison Square Garden in November, remains the Jersey boy with the showman's heart. (By Stephen Chernin -- Associated Press)

Jon Bon Jovi would have had all sorts of excuses to just phone it in at MCI Center on Saturday. For one, tour sponsor Sprint broadcast the show to its subscribers' cellphone screens, calling it the first-ever such phonecast. And the frontman of the band that uses his surname confessed to being loaded up on prescription drugs after suffering some sort of pulled back muscle or pinched nerve earlier in the day.

But the 43-year-old Jersey boy gave everything his showman's heart and modern medicine would allow. From a fan's standpoint the concert was utterly Bon Jovial: two hours of unapologetically mindless bliss.

Bon Jovi, through durability and good-guy-ness, has won over most of the folks who mocked the big hair or dismissed him as a remedial Springsteen when "Runaway," his first smash, was released in 1983. Questioning the artistic worthiness of a dude who has sold more than 100 million records and shows no signs of leaving the arena is a far bigger waste of time than screaming out the chorus of low-aiming bull's-eyes such as "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Blaze of Glory" along with 20,000 fans.

During "Story of My Life," one of the many tunes played from the band's latest CD, "Have a Nice Day," Bon Jovi stood at the front of the stage with his arms outstretched, as if on a crucifix. He assumed that same position several more times before the night was over. U2's Bono, an obvious role model, might be the only arena rocker to strike more messianic poses during a typical show. But with Bon Jovi, you always know that he knows it's a pose. Bon Jovi has never let his head get as big as his hair, regardless of the unconditional love his fans have been throwing at him for all these years.

Only a wise and strong soul could remain balanced after realizing that tens of thousands of grownups in every large American city will pay good money to scream whatever words you put into their mouths. The a cappella portions of "Living on a Prayer" (representative sample lyric: "We've got to hold on, ready or not/You live for the fight when it's all that you've got") provided the night's most earsplitting moments. Arena rock just doesn't get much funner than this, not even when that other, allegedly more brainy rocker from Jersey is leading the band.