They really do need to do complete rehearsals..not just for new songs (or newly added anyway.) All of the old standards could stand to be re-approached to re-invigorate them. They have been playing them the exact same way for too long...and you hear it in the performances. The overall bodies of each song should stay the same..it's what they can add to it that can spice it...the way Blood On Blood had that whole new section towards the end. The way Living in Sin had that whole new beginning. Granted..they were both new when that was done....But they can still do things like that now if they put themselves into it.

That is the one way they can keep playing the songs they need to yet still keep them interesting for themselves and for those fans who have heard them one too many times. It's when an old song has something new that you go from tolerating it in the set to get to something fresh to actually enjoying it/rediscovering it. Just rehearsing the songs without neccessarily adding a new bit but just re-energizing it would go a long way.

Moving along...Jon needs to take his voice seriously and realize he is not fooling anyone with any of his current techniques. The smoking has got to go. I know one of the big reasons I became a fan was Jon's voice...not just the studio work..but that quite often his live work would exceed the studio versions. He was always throwing surprises in that would elevate the vocals to a whole new level within a song. You would hear Wanted Dead or Alive done live...and you'd no longer be interested in hearing the studio version which paled in comparison.

Those days are gone now and I don't believe that his getting older is an excuse, it's laziness. He's in his early 40s. Richie and Dave have better voices...background singers not-withstanding. Paul Stanley of KISS....a screamer for two decades of heavy touring...only improved his voice by leaps and bounds to impressive standards by his early 40s and carried on up through 50. Watch Unplugged if you need a demonstration. He still pulls it off (but over does it live these days.) He added power and stamina to his voice.

Jon is completely capable of this..but I truly believe he thinks he's discovered a way to walk through the performances without the audience being any wiser. He's dead wrong. Part of what made the acoustic performance of Wanted and Prayer on the MTV Awards so great back then wasn't just the new approach..but the fact that Jon's (and Richie's of course) voice was the way it was and it was being talked about by millions the next day at the workplace and in schools all over. I'm not as excited about hearing live Bon Jovi as I once was precisely because of his voice now. It's not good when Joe Elliott, who never really was impressive as a live vocalist (but understandably as his studio approach would shred your throat to bits) is now impressive when compared to Jon now. Jon really needs to get a voice coach again that forces him to rediscover the power of his voice.

Jon stops with the BS and they re-energize the old standards.....they'll be back to being considered a live force to reckon with, not a live band held back by a mediocre singer.