Quote:
Originally Posted by jovifan93
Spot on! They're probably the single best BJ cover band, and Olli is a great singer in his own right, but his voice/technique just doesn't cut it for me as a JBJ "replacement".
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I don't disagree with you here at all, for me it's never been about a replacement rather than an alternative. The funny thing is that Olli himself says that he doesn't sound like Jon and hence they don't even try to replicate every move/look like some other bands do (and which makes most of them look foolish), but they want to give songs their own spin.
Up until 2011 or so, it was just a way to bridge the gaps in the time Bon Jovi didn't tour here, since then it's been some sort of coexistence for me.
Simply because both cover different grounds by now.
Bon Jovi is the band who've changed my life and they'll always be in that spot and even though it may be some nostalgia in there by now, I'll go there to to feel that anticipation etc. again that was there when I saw my first concert in the Olympic Stadium.
But what made me a fan of their music were mostly the albums from SWW through TD and the energy of the songs. And I gotta say that sometimes I've missed just that there in the live shows like on some Runaway performances in 2011 or I'd Die For You in Cologne 2013. You know, when you want to singalong and have to stop again and again because the chorus is sung so much slower live.
That in-your-face energy of something like In These Arms in the original key, the key-change in prayer, the screams at the end of Runaway, the high "I guess I'd rather die than fade away" part in These Days or simply just a song like Fear, Stick To Your Guns or Undivided - that's why I enjoy going to their shows so much. As I said, it's different, but it fills a void the original act has left.
Funny thing about the accent though: Many get hung up on Olli's accent and some of his pronounciation etc. is weird, but I had not realized how much we had gotten used to Jon doing similar things all the time. On a family trip about two years ago, I had put on a Soundboard recording of either 2010 or 2011 (may have been Lisbon 2011) and my cousin, who likes Bon Jovi a lot (though simply by listening to them on the radio) all of a sudden said: "is that a cover band?". I told him no and he said "wow, he surely sounds quite different live than on the records, his voice is much more nasal and his accent/pronounciation (I think he meant Jon using twang) is different as well." I had gotten used to Jon sounding the way he did live due to tons of live videos we've all watched that it was the most natural thing to me, but to casuals it was quite a difference. I think the same can be said about Olli. When you've seen a lot of shows, you've just grown accustomed to it just like we've gotten used to Jon sounding the way he does live.