Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com
Bon Jovi performs at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 6, 2010.
Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 9:56 p.m.
At first, Frank Mueller wasn’t sure what to think. He’d been forwarded an e-mail from a Bon Jovi representative asking if a group of UNLV students would be interested in a behind-the-scenes tour of the band’s setup for Saturday’s concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
He might as well have been asked to play rhythm guitar with the band onstage or sing harmonies on “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
“It seemed so unusual, and when I see something that unusual, my radar goes up,” said Mueller, operations manager at KUNV 91.5-FM, UNLV’s 30-year-old radio station. “I thought, ‘Is this for real?’ ”
Bon Jovi performs at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 6, 2010.
It was, is and will be.
On each tour stop of its unstoppable world tour, the band has worked with national honor society Lamda Pi Eta to offer college students a rare chance to observe the setup of a stage that is one of the more advanced in rock history. College enrollees interested in how the video, audio, lighting and even business dealings are enacted for Bon Jovi concerts are paced through the process hours before the concert.
Eight UNLV students who participate in the school’s Journalism Media Studies program were chosen from those who responded to Mueller’s request for interested parties.
Half of those have worked on Studio G, the school’s online newscast. Half are freshmen interested in working in news media. The idea is for the crew to record footage to air on Studio G and for those who create written content to make a story out of the trip for the campus newspaper Rebel Yell.
“They’ve been given specific assignments,” Mueller said. “We want to know about the experience.”
It’ll rock, we can be confident of that.
More from the band
From here to the Jersey shore, the show is sold out, though some tickets might be made available Saturday at the MGM Grand box office or Ticketmaster. ... I’ve written this before, but I know y’all have short memories: One of the great concert experiences ever was a Scorpions show I attended in April 1984. The site was the Cal-Expo Amphitheater. The opening act was Bon Jovi, just after “Runaway” was released. Saturday’s show will mark the greatest length of time between concerts by the same band. If you’d told me at age 18 that I’d be hitting a Bon Jovi concert in 2011, I would have said, “Cool! I can drink legally then!” God, what a time. … Ryan Star is Saturday’s opening act, unique because his high school band once won a contest to open for Bon Jovi in Long Island, N.Y. Star was 15 at the time. … According to Pollstar and Billboard, Bon Jovi was the top-selling touring act of 2010. More than 1.5 million fans have seen them perform on “The Circle Tour” since February 2010. Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway Tour” was the top-selling tour of 2008. … Fans are being asked to record video slideshows set to “Livin’ on a Prayer” during the tour, and the best work will be shown on the band’s video panels as the band plays “Runaway.” No! Just kidding. “Livin’ on a Prayer” is the song, and anyone interested can learn more about the how's and what-for's at Prayer.BonJovi.com. … The band has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide since forming in 1983.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With the Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy