Bon Jovi hits Verizon Center

Older and wiser aren't adjectives ordinarily associated with rock bands, but the Bon Jovi that will hit the stage at the Verizon Center on Monday has certainly changed and matured over the years.

Take the group's current album, "The Circle."

It's got songs such as "Work for the Working Man," which could almost be described as an economic policy anthem, "economic policy" also not words often associated with rock 'n' roll.

Still, guitarist and songwriter Richie Sambora said, "The Circle" isn't about "being on the road and girls and, you know, cars and things like that."

"We couldn't have written this album if the world wasn't in the state it was in," Sambora said in a conference call with reporters last month. "Jon and I were really conscious of what people were feeling around the world, you know, with the changes that were happening, especially in our world."

"The Circle," released in November, wasn't even supposed to be the next record for the band.

Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi started to write some new songs for a greatest hits album.

But then they were inspired by President Barack Obama's election, Sambora said, and rattled by the economic recession.

"And, I mean, I related to it particularly because my dad worked in a factory," he said, "and he got laid off periodically where he had to go find a job."

Paying attention to current events—and even just literally to the world around them—has helped Bon Jovi keep out of songwriting ruts, Sambora said.

He said the band's single, "Superman Tonight," is really the only song on the new album that could be called a "boy/girl" tune.

"But, then again, you can take that into a place where the rescuer, 'Superman,' could be a fireman or a policeman or a doctor or a nurse or just a normal person doing, just doing some good in the world, you know.

"So there's a story on every street corner if you open your eyes."

But the Grammy Award-winning band isn't just performing about the current state of society.

Bon Jovi is promoting Obama's service initiative "United We Serve" in a video to run at venues in the U.S., and AmeriCorps members and volunteers from nonprofits will head to concert halls to talk with audience members.

In addition, Jon Bon Jovi is visiting homeless shelters and other community service providers on the tour route to get ideas for his own Philadelphia-based Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.

Singing about the recession? Promoting civic awareness? Sounds very Washington, doesn't it, appropriate for a stop at the Verizon Center.

But don't expect the concert to be a Sunday-morning-talk-show kind of affair.

When asked by a reporter last month if Bon Jovi gets tired of performing old favorites like "Livin' on a Prayer," Sambora said no.

He's not going to start playing the song when he's puttering around at home. But at a concert, the experience is different.

"And, you know, I think I've said this before, but it's kind of like having sex with 70,000 people when you're playing in a rock and roll band," Sambora said, "you know what I mean?"

Jonathan Hunley is a staff writer at Media General's News & Messenger.