Bon Jovi arrived in Milwaukee in high spirits, kicking off this year’s Summerfest with a sweaty, sticky sold out opening day performance at the Amp. Bon Jovi really should be given credit for a lot more than their ability for making guys rock with their anthems or making women swoon with their ballads of endless love and nostalgia.

These qualities are definitely what helps the band to sell out arenas, but it isn’t everything. The band has accomplished something greater, something that is a lot more rare within rock-n-roll stardom under the spotlight. Jon Bon Jovi has been able to transcend space and time by somehow managing to retain relevancy for over two decades that are quite musically diverse and emerging even better from the experience.

Who else from the era of head bangers with hair spray would be able to say that?

This is probably Bon Jovi’s crowning achievement, although if you were to ask the band members they might have another milestone on their minds.

Bon Jovi arrived in Milwaukee on the heels of being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, where they joined fellow New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen. Their sweaty and sticky sold out opening night Summerfest performance at Marcus Amphitheater showed them to be in high spirits.

The Big Gig’s main stage serves as an ideal venue for the band, known for checking all political opinion and pretension at the door and delivering all hopeful songs with strong spirit and good attitude. There is a place and time for meaningful metaphors and artful arrangements, but opening night was a moment for the crowd to just indulge in some familiar, simple pleasures as they sung along to the songs, line by line.

Bon Jovi’s music sets the perfect tone for making people unite in the struggle and feel good without feeling the need to place blame or point fingers or celebrate the downtrodden. It feels like when Jon Bovi Jovi is smiling, that the world just smiles back at him. What choice do you really have when the opening song is an upbeat versions of the classic Dave Clark Five’s tune “Glad All Over?”

Even when Jon and Company follow things up with the quasi angst 1987 hit song, “You Give Love a Bad Name,” it’s hard to see them as anything but America’s sweethearts, even if the band members are all close to 50. Jon has the energy and playfulness of a 23-year old while on stage, with his shirt partially open and feathered hair bobbing up and down as he leaps around stage and then settling perfectly into place with every dramatic pose. The women, who made up the majority of the 23,000 person crowd, were squealing and hanging on every word of Jon’s all night.

Jon noted that the band was only playing four shows for the year, with this performance being number three. He said when they were offered the opportunity to play Summerfest that he said “hell yeah.”

When they band played “I Love This Town” from the 2007 album “Lost Highway,” the crowd took it to heart. They also played some of their “newer” hits, including “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” “Have A Nice Day,” and “It’s My Life, but really seemed quite eager to bring everyone back to the early 80’s. First there was “Runaway,” followed up with “Bad Medicine,” “Raise Your Hands,” and several other tunes which peaked well before grunge came onto the scene.

Oddly enough, when Bon Jovi digs down deep it doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s a novelty act. The crowd, mixed with both those not old enough to be born before the band surfaced, along with others old enough to be the band member’s moms, were all equally accepting of their old, dated material along with their newer, squeaky clean orientation that the band has taken.

It seems as if the band could do no wrong, although it would have been better to have Jon singing the solo version of the song “I’ll Be There For You” instead of Richie Sambora. But his impeccable timing along with the breakdown was nothing short of epic.

Leaving “Livin’ on a Prayer” off until the encore did come as somewhat of a surprise. Jon did, however, have some new tricks to unveil. He announced to the crowd that the band had just finished up a new album the night before. No one knows exactly what that means, but it is almost certain that we have new Bon Jovi material to look forward to in the near future. It was a nice parting gift from the sold out opening night performance.