A review by Morty

I have tried to understand what the boys are trying to do here, but I donīt understand - Sorry!

In my opinion a live album should represent what the band is like in concert and for those unfortunate who never witness a Bon Jovi show, this album wonīt give them the right answer. Because the tracks are taken from different concerts and even different tours itīs very hard to get into the concert vibe and instead of a flow, each song stands out for itself just like on a regular album. At least the fading out between numbers could have been left out. Fading out between numbers is unforgiveable on a live album. This is also the reason why Prayer/Bad Name works out great. Theres no fading there and you get the feeling that you are actually at a concert. I also misses Jon working the audience. The man is simply one of the best frontmen of all times and you donīt hear this on the cd.

You can always argue that one version of a song is better than another, but I donīt understand why they didnīt choose to put a full concert from the Crush tour on cd. The band has grown better over the years (NO DOUBT)and so has the songs, so why not gives us the Bon Jovi catalogue in a 2000 version. In one way it seems that the boys know this since most of the songs are from 95 and on, expect for Runaway and In And Out Of Love. The first song is definately entitled to be on the album but itīs so much better now that in a very young 85 recording. The latter is simply not good enough to be on a Bon Jovi live cd realeased in 2001 (even though the recording is pretty good).

This brings me to the selection of songs. As others I miss songs like Dry County, Lay Your Hands On Me, Iīll Sleep When Iīm Dead to name some. These are all great Bon Jovi songs and I simply donīt understand why RockinīIn A Free World (even though it rocks!!) and especially I Donīt Like Mondays is doing on the album. If it was a double album with 30 songs maybe, but not on a single album. I also wonder what One Wild Night in a studio recording is doint on a live album(even though itīs way better that the original).

I know it sounds like I think the album sucks - I donīt. Bon Jovi is to good of a band for that. But I must say Iīm dissapointed. They have the potential to make a classic live album all the way up there with legendary live albums like Kiss, Springsteen, Stewart etc. But they just donīt succeed. Too bad.

However there are some definate highligts on the album. As mentioned earlier Prayer and Bad Name. Saturday Night is fantastic and Older is very good too and surprisingly (since I donīt like the studio recording very much) Something To Believe In works out really well.

I know that the guys can do much better and I know that theyīll prove to me in Munich on June 30th. I canīt wait.

Morty (Long time BJ fan from Denmark)

Rating: 6/10

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