Quote:
Originally Posted by Rdkopper
Just the other day I was really trying to pinpoint the time where Jon's voice just shot out to the level of what we have today.
I don't mean struggling to hit notes but to the point of becoming unlistenable.
-He finished 2013 fine
-He did the Red Bank Solo show in 2014 and it was still listenable.
- 2015 was the mini Asia tour. Yes his voice was out of shape but it was still listenable. That tour ended in October.
-2016 early '16 (March) he did some acoustic shows. - again not terrible but definitely a decline. It's also acoustic so it tough to really tell.
2016 - promo shows for THINFS - unlistenable
|
It was in mid-2013 when the downwards spiral kicked in and he just couldn't stop it anymore. Until then, starting from the end of 2010 onwards, it had been pretty standard decline in the context of age/range of the songs and too much touring.
With Richie's departure, it worsened with every subsequent leg of the tour. Europe got a lot of slack on some nights, but in comparison to today, it was still gold. However, I remember standing in Stuttgart and the audio being very "dry" and clear on that open field and it being noticeable how brutally he was straining already.
Detroit '13 is the one I have kept in mind where the HAND performance had really gone downhill for that period of time and then another one on the autumn-arena leg of the tour, right after Tico's return where they performed In These Arms and Jon couldn't keep up anymore at all. That's when his breathing issues really became obvious.
By the time they went to Japan and Australia, it had gone to hell.
Just compare Bad Name from the start of the tour with the end of the tour:
(March '13)
(December '13)
The solo gig in '14 had less signs of accute strain since his voice had rested, but he mostly sounded decent on the non_Jovi cover tracks.
By 2015, he sounded like shit overall. Him screeching up the occasional high note in KTF or whatever didn't change him sounding very unpleasant overall. But at least, he was still sounding like Jon (albeit a bad one) and he was still on his old technique as the setlists have shown on that leg.
I agree that he had something done to his vocals either after the mini tour in 2015 or after the promo gigs in 2016. His voice didn't sound like Jon at all by the time they did the 2017 tour. The "benefits" of that (to my ears there weren't any) were gone by late 2017/18 because he never probably learned to adapt the new technique or simply was physically incapable of it.
And it'll only worsen with every show to come...