Jon Bon Jovi at the X: Great hair, great teeth and plenty of good-time music

Star Tribune photo by Tom Wallace

Don't know how many times you've seen Bon Jovi? But for those keeping track, Wednesday's Bon Jovi concert was superior to their 2007 show at Xcel Energy Center.

Why? Jon Bon Jovi seemed looser and less on autopilot. Some of the newer material added much-needed varied textures and flavors. And the staging, especiallly the variable video screens (using different configurations for almost every song) was cool w/o being self-consciously showy.

The acoustic set on the semi-circle runway (in honor of The Circle Tour, no doubt) was relaxed and intimate. The smallish runway gave JBJ the ability to slap hands with the high rollers who paid to sit inside the circle.

JBJ gave a couple short social-commentary-type speeches and he talked to Richie Sambora about seeing the "little purple guy," i.e. Prince, at their show 20-some years ago. But JBJ never gave the backstory or context to the 16,000 fans at the X (my estimate, though "official attendance" is 18,000, which is the figure I used in my review.). For the record, Prince invited Bon Jovi to Paisley Park for an after-party.

There were enough flashbacks in Bon Jovi's 140-minute set, as it was. Here is the set list:

Happy Now/ We Weren't Born to Follow/ You Give Love a Bad Name/ Whole Lot of Leavin/ Born To Be My Baby/ Lost Highway/ When We Were Beautiful/ Superman Tonight/ We Got It Going On/Bad Medicine (with the Doors' Roadhouse Blues mixed in)/ It's My Life/ Lay Your Hands on Me (sung by Sambora)/ ACOUSTIC SET Make a Memory/ I'll Be There for You/ Something for the Pain/Someday I'll Be Saturday Night FULL BAND ELECTRIC Keep the Faith/ Work for the Working Man/ Who Says You Can't Go Home/ Love's the Only Rule ENCORE Runaway/ Wanted Dead or Alive/ Livin' on a Prayer

As for the opening act, Select Three may have been chosen by KQRS and its listeners, but the Minneapolis band's harmony-heavy music sounded more like KDWB.

Fourforty, a different local band, opens Thursday night. There are still a couple of thousand tickets available.