Bon Jovi - The Tokyo Drift (2021)

SUPERB EARLY SHOW FROM A YOUNG BON JOVI.
Recorded just a year before the band’s enormous breakthrough album, “Slippery When Wet”, Bon Jovi proved themselves to be an entirely capable ’80s metal hair band on the threshold of widespread commercial success as they perform in front of an audience of seemingly out of control Japanese fans in April 1985. The magnetic song writing team of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora had not yet completely developed, and the material here is, for the most part, void of any radio hits (with the exception of ‘Runaway’), but the potential of the band at this early stage is palpable, if not wholly obvious.

This recording, made for both radio and TV transmission, shows the band in a transition period, as they are still growing into the influential power-pop combo that eventually helped define rock and roll during the decade. There are some highlights, including the transition into ‘Shot Through The Heart,’ which morphs out of a version of the 1966 Sonny and Cher hit, ‘Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down.’

Sambora is clearly discernible on these recordings, but he was still years away from becoming the necessary musical counterpart to the charismatic Bon Jovi on lead vocals. This show is certainly worth a listen for anyone interested in experiencing the early exploits and later achievements of the band.