And now comes...

Supersonic's all mattering review on Bon Jovi in Milan. ®

Yeah, it was alright.

A lot has been said about the whole Richie fiasco and the entire set list debacle so I will not repeat everything I’ve said in other threads. It might not have been obvious to many on here who dedicate half their post count on telling others to move on, but I have actually moved on quite a bit after the entire thing turned into such a cluster****, much like I moved on in 2005 after the HAND tour became so boring. Like with The Circle, I’ve felt no need to continuously repeat myself in regards to how I feel, especially when the majority of Jovitalk actually agrees with most of what I say (imagine that!) so there’s no need for me trying to convince others of my never ending wisdom in regards to Bon Jovi. I’m not a man of many words…just kidding, I’m on page 16 in Word now, so I will say this;

I went into this show with the lowest expectations I ever had for any Bon Jovi show, which kind of made the main set bearable. True, for a casual or just a normal fan the main set is pleasing, but for someone who’s seen the band several times the past few tours it’s just flat out boring, especially with not a single song being extended or turned into something different, bar Keep The Faith. Which gets completely ruined by Bobby Bandiera near the end. The noise he makes on his guitar just makes no sense. He’s pulling those faces, pretending to be a proper rocker, but it doesn’t correspond with what you’re actually hearing. Another factor that made it rather sad was that the sound was so bad. I’ve read reports of other shows having a shit sound as well, and from where we stood we could barely hear anything but vocals, drums, bass and keys. Bobby was louder in the mix than Phil was as well, so for those thinking that the sound was terrible at their show due to the venue having terrible acoustics; chances are it’s the sound engineer as the same problem occurred in East Rutherford a month later. I’ve heard they’ve got a different team of people mixing this tour, which probably explains all the bad reports everywhere.

But the biggest problem with this show was that I’d seen it all before. Now that’s hardly a surprise after seeing as many shows like I have. But I’ve seen it before, and better. Much better in fact. The crowd made the show special for me with all their choreography, but once Jon started his “You’re making a grown up man cry” it became such a predictable act, as if the adoration he just received from the crowd wasn’t enough and he still needed more applause. It never felt real, and it’s a feeling I had all throughout the main set. He seemed to rush himself through it, and quickly went back to autopilot during most of the main set.
Now most of the crowd didn’t notice as they were too busy partying to “their” band, but the fact that with an audience like this Jon should’ve kicked the show into high gear as soon as this crowd actually did show their loyalty and appreciation for the band. This was a crowd that knew their stuff, and songs like Capt. Crash or We Got It Goin’ On weren’t needed to actually get the crowd going. Save that for the knitting Yanks (just kidding). Instead, Jon zoned out and stayed that way for the first 2 hours, and 45 minutes into the show I was flat out bored. I know, I know, I was one of the few, but the fact is, I’m a die-hard who has seen an incredible amount of shows. I’ve taken breaks from this band before due to seeing too many shows, but even if this had been one of my first show in a few years I’d still have been bored to death. Jon’s vocals? Way worse than before. Guitar work? Despite Phil X being good, he’s just not capable of delivering a Bon Jovi sound, doesn’t seem to “get” the fills Richie adds to the songs, and before anyone starts on how difficult they are; they’re not. They used to be, but Richie’s been very easy to imitate the past 10 years, with the odd exception here and there. There’s no way I am as good as Phil X is, but I can add flair to the stuff when playing the songs, and flair was seriously missing all throughout the show. He’s a great guitarist and on Bon Jovi songs of the last 10 years you won’t notice the difference. But anything older than that? Richie’s needed.

I’ve said I’ve stopped posting on Jovitalk, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped reading. I read so many replies from the same few people saying a certain thing was awesome despite a majority thinking it wasn’t, and I kind of pity them. They’ll never see the show through my eyes, will never pick up on all the details and I really feel you’re missing out. Sure, the magic is lost on me (I just don’t fall for this “you’re making me cry” nonsense anymore) but once it’s actually there, you know it’s actually there, and not an act. I recognize auto pilot from a mile away, and this show was just that. Autopilot. No matter what anyone on here will say, I know I am right, and anyone who disagrees with this observation is just blatantly wrong and clueless in regards to what autopilot actually looks like. It’s why I don’t give a shit about certain reviews on here from people saying a certain show was brilliant and all of that. Chances are would I have been at the same show and have stood next to them I’d have been able to point out certain things they’d never seen before.

But if any show shouldn’t have been on autopilot, it should have been this one. Before anyone jumps on me and says no show should be on autopilot, I agree. But considering the reaction from the crowd towards pretty much every song that was played, this was an audience that deserved more. This crowd showed more passion for the music than Jon did for the audience. This was a crowd as good, or better as Amsterdam 2008 and Barcelona 2011. And Jon? Jon zoned out. He just wasn’t there, and with the main set being so static for pretty much 4 years now it really says a lot about how much of an artist Jon is nowadays. You see, as much as Jon talks about Dylan, Cohen and Jagger and how much he respects them and thinks they’re true artists, you’d think he’d want to be like them, as much as every pop star used to want to be like Michael Jackson. But Jon is anything but. The Jon Bon Jovi on this tour hasn’t been showing much dedication towards his own work, and just rushes himself through the set. It’s no surprise that the only time the band is actually jamming, is when Jon is offstage. It’s as if they all come to live, being freed from the dictatorship that tells them what is and what isn’t allowed. It were those 2 minutes in the main set that actually showed Bon Jovi somewhere. Until Bobby started his solo, that is. He just ruins it and just can’t play a decent solo for shit. It’s not because he has a different style, it’s because he has absolutely no style or feeling whenever he plays, but we’ve covered Bobby before so I’ll just leave it to that.

So was it all shit then? No, not really. Because after that boring main set…THAT encore followed.

Considering how I don’t particularly care for The Circle I didn’t really get too excited about the returns of Happy Now and later on Love’s The Only Rule as well. And with the latter being one of the favorite songs I connect to my ex I wasn’t particularly thrilled to hear this one again as it’d bring back a few memories I’ve tried to find peace with the past year or so. With the knowledge of Richie not being there I was still hoping for Dry County despite having heard it several times now and it having lost its novelty for me. And with Bon Jovi logic, getting Dry County would mean Jon dropping the other rare song of the night. I’d seen the set list already when the camera skipped over David’s keyboard and had seen Love’s The Only Rule being on there, so yeah, when Dry County opened the encore I was glad. Jon didn’t murder it either, and so far so good then. I got excited about Sat. Night as well after having heard the dull acoustic rendition so many times since 2005 but with the lame guitar solo and outro it didn’t really build up any excitement this time around, Jon rushed himself through it again. I knew “I” was in trouble when David started setting up his keyboard tones differently and Love’s The Only Rule followed. And what a rendition it was.