Saturday 15 May 2010

Bon Jovi: The most exciting thing to almost happen in my hometown

About 24 hours after arriving home from college, my mom tells me:

"Oh, by the way, Bon Jovi might be playing a concert in Le Roy."

...?!


Le Roy, NY is the microscopic rural town that I call home. It's the epitome of the American small town: everyone's related, football games are a way of life, and when you get in trouble as a kid, your mother knows in less than four minutes via word of mouth. The biggest concert we've ever had here was the male acapella group Ball in the House, who's claim to fame was recording a song for a Cool-Whip commercial (ironic because Le Roy is the birthplace of Jell-O).

According to The Batavia Daily News online, Bon Jovi is playing at Darien Lake PAC (about half an hour away) on August 13th, and agreed to play in LeRoy on 14th as a fundraiser for the
village. Apparently one of our own has worked security for the band and asked Mr. Bongiovi himself, who agreed to play for a low price if the details can be worked out.

Could a town this size successfully host a Bon Jovi show? It seems any location that would be able to hold a large crowd, as well as parking, would be easy for the Le Roy native to
easily slip into unnoticed, or listen to without buying a ticket.

Every night my mom and I take a walk around our 5 mile block, and my new favorite game has become "where in Le Roy could accommodate a Bon Jovi concert?" So far, the leaderboard reads: Mercy Grove (home of the Mercedarian priests), my best friend, Ciera Carhart's farm (although in Stafford), or one of the countless gigantic, empty fields around here. I think it's fairly obvious that holding a concert on a farm is an ingenious idea -- in 1969, someone decided to have a concert on a farm and 41 years later, people haven't stopped talking about it.

It seems though, that at some point, these plans were misunderstood. Maybe we were halfway there, but more than a prayer was needed to make this event happen. There will be no Bon Jovi concert in Le Roy this summer, according to WBTA1490. All the excitement has been shot through the heart.

Maybe we were wrong, maybe Mr. BonGiovi hasn't gotten tired of selling out the biggest venues in the nation. But don't let him fool you - I think he desperately wanted to play a small-town show. Afterall, he revealed to the world a few years ago that he's just a simple country boy (from Jersey).



So I'm going to make a Bon Jovi mix to drive around to this summer, and I suggest my fellow LeRoyans do the same... it would just be wrong not to. And look on the bright side - now you're free to go to the first of Tom Petty's TWO Darien Lake concerts this summer (which for some reason, kind of creeps me out.... but that's for another blog.)

1 comment:

sam said...

leroy's bon jovi show is totally the second woodstock and please write about tom petty! i wanna know why the concert freaks you out.

p.s. did you hear that the reason it was canceled is because the reporter leaked the info too soon? i don't know if it's true or not...