Bamboozle Fest

This past week I got a picture text message. I opened it to a picture of Bamboozle Festival wrist bands. On May 17th my cousin DC and I will leave to attend Bamboozle Fest. It is a three day festival featuring Blink 182, Foo Fighters, and Bon Jovi. Over 100 artists will perform during this festival. To headline Bamboozle is a huge accomplishment. Bon Jovi will do this Sunday May 20th. They will be the very last band to perform.It is only fitting that they are the ones to headline. Their music has inspired people now for close to thirty years. Bon Jovi has always been on the map. Another reason why Bon Jovi playing Bamboozle Fest is a big deal is because this will be one of the few shows they play this year. This is significant because it is widely believed that Bon Jovi is secretly working on a new album that could possibly be released in the fall of 2012 or early 2013. This could be confirmed by Jon Bon Jovi himself at Bamboozle Fest. You never know if he may slip a song into the setlist that is very rough in the making. I'm looking very forward to seeing Bon Jovi live again in less than three weeks.

Undivided

In 2001 Bon Jovi was coming off the end of a tour. They had planned to take a break to ensure that they all stayed fresh. Later that year however the terrorist attacks on the twin towers happened. Instead of taking a break Bon Jovi leapt into action. In 2002 they came out with the album Bounce. The album name was meant to signify that everybody would "bounce" back from the attacks on our nation. The first track on the record is called Undivided. It starts out by saying, "That was my brother lost in the rubble, that was my sister lost in the crush". It is very obvious as to what these lyrics mean.
Bon Jovi has always used the events going on in the world for inspiration. They use real events that people are able to connect with. That's one reason why I believe they have been so successful over the years.

The Circle

Bon Jovi's last studio album came out in 2009. This album was entitled The Circle. This was a huge moment for the band. Their previous album, Lost Highway, was completely country. Nobody knew whether or not the band was going to continue on with this country genre or whether the band was going back to it's traditional hard rock style. The Circle was neither of these. The Circle was a more contemporary rock style. To be honest I personally was disappointed with the album when it came out. I was hoping the band was going to go back to its hardcore mentality of Have A Nice Day. To me The Circle just semmed like it was talking about the economy and how President Obama had just gotten elected.

A few days after The Circle came out I decided I would try to listen to it again. This time I blocked my mind from any prior thoughts I had about the album. After listening to it I realized I had missed the message of the album. Yes, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora had written about the economy and President Obama but they had also written more underneath the surface. They were writing about how the world we had come to know was changing. Change. That's the message The Circle conveys. Change is constantly going on. No more is the United States predominately white. The United States is a true melting pot that features people from all races. The culture is changing too. People are living by new, improved standards. 

The Circle also tells about the joys of figuring things out on your own. In the song When We Were Beautiful Jon tells about how the world was so much better when he didn't have things figured out. At the time he didn't know that but he conveys this through the song. Bon Jovi has accomplished everything they set out to do. They've traveled the globe more times than they can count. The Circle states: In your quest in being successful in life remember to stop and live in the moment of now, you never know how much you'll miss if you let it past you by.