Bon Jovi Comes Home To New Jersey [VIDEO]

Bon Jovi debuted a new stage set for Thursday night's concert at MetLife Stadium but Richie Sambora was no where to be found.

Fans hoping Woodbridge native Sambora would rejoin the band after leaving the band back in April were disappointed as Phil X and  Bobby Bandiera shared lead guitar duties for the nearly 3-hour concert on a cool night in the Meadowlands while synth player David Bryan took on Sambora's vocals.

The new set was the back of a 1959 Buck Electra with a video screen grill and vintage New Jersey license plates handing over the stage.

The only acknowledgement of the situation with Sambora was a thank you to the fans for their "patience" with the band according to the Asbury Park Press.

The Star Ledger reviewed the show as "the same hardworking, meat-and-potatoes rock show that the Central Jersey group has been playing for the past two decades at least" but called it a moving moment when images of Jersey Shore towns were flashed during "Who Says You Can't Go Home."

Bon Jovi plays their second concert at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night.

Bon Jovi Set List Thursday 7/26/13

Source: Star Ledger

That's What the Water Made Me
You Give Love a Bad Name
Raise Your Hands
Born to Be My Baby
Lost Highway
Whole Lot of Leaving
It's My Life
Because We Can
What About Now
We Got It Going On
Keep The Faith
Make a Memory
Bed of Roses
Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars
We Weren't Born to Follow
Who Says You Can't Go Home
I'll Sleep When I Die (incorporating bits of Start Me Up and Pretty Woman)
Bad Medicine

ENCORE
Runaway
Wanted Dead or Alive
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Have a Nice Day
Livin' on a Prayer

SECOND ENCORE
Always
These Days