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Jon Bon Jovi unplugged

Musician performs intimate set in Kenneth Cole store

Most of the time when you hear a Bon Jovi song in a store, it’s playing over a loudspeaker. But last Thursday night, around 100 lucky fans were treated to seeing the New Jersey-born rocker perform a bunch of his hits during an intimate acoustic set inside a Kenneth Cole store in Soho.

The performance, as New York Fashion Week began, was part of Common Thread, an initiative Jon Bon Jovi started with Cole that provides a platform for new designers and musicians.

“Despite all the social media and the ability for people to have a voice, it’s so hard for them to find an audience for that voice,” Cole said. “So tonight is kind of the two of them coming together, and that’s what the common thread.”

Before the show, the 52-year old musician expressed his feeling that while the technology for making music has gotten simpler, he sees no substitute for raw performance as the true measure of talent.

“You can have all the bells and whistles of production these days, and these guys that are out there singing on the Grammys with auto-tune. I always used to say, ‘I’m going to hand you my guitar, sing me something, and I want to see you play it.’ This is that night, so we’ll have a little bit of fun and give back,” Bon Jovi said.

As for the set, the singer opened with Who Says You Can’t Go Home, and included his megahits Livin’ On A Prayer, and Wanted: Dead or Alive, before announcing up-and-coming artist Cole Redding.

Other performers included country artist Rodney Atkins and singer-songwriter Rose Falcon.