Ways to make Bon Jovi better

No, you know what, I won't bother.

I think they're a band still playing to the best of their current abilities. Okay, the set-lists could use a bit of tweaking however they've introduced new songs to the set and do so every single tour (whether you like those songs or not is a different matter entirely). It's the old songs people think they are missing so include a few of those, and they could stop screwing the fans over. But none of that would actually make them a better band.

Then it was pointless to post in this thread in such a judgemental manner.


Ponrauil

Look, maybe I'm just getting a bit fed up of every single post saying how rubbish the band are compared to their glory days - which is basically what this thread is just said in a different way. Some people have tried to liven it up by being funny, but I don't think the first couple of posts were intended that way (and if you read them, rather than the later comments, they weren't very smart)

It's just giving someone like born_to_run an another excuse to post his inane ramblings.

And actually, I did answer your question - I believe the band are playing to the best of their current abilities - and I bet they'll still astound me when I see them. If they don't, I'll be happy to come back to this thread and revise my opinion.

Some of these "suggestions" really made me laugh!

But I think they have to stop singing all the ballads together, acoustically. It really takes the wind of the sails, so to speak. Three slow songs is just too long IMO. Especially that walk along the boards during BOR. Yawn.

It's not just compared to their glory days, but also to other bands of comparable longevity and to their almost intact potential. And it's not just the playing, there's also the writing.

Do you honestly believe when you look at the potential talent in this band that they are using 100% of their abilities? To me it's obviously not the case when, to give just one example: Tico and Dave are evidently much less involved in the creative process than they used to be.

Why give so much importance to someone who constantly shots himself in the foot?



Ponrauil

I don't, he's on my ignore list.

You mention the writing - I don't see anything wrong with the recent writing (certainly not on Lost Highway). It's not as good as These Days, but sometimes you only get one shot at a masterpiece and everything pales in comparison to it. As far as I could see, Tico and David's input pretty much ended after the 1st two albums (except obviously In These Arms), but maybe I've missed something.

I've seen a lot of these other long lived bands - R.E.M (the biggest disappointment ever), Chilli Peppers (played for an hour and a half), INXS, more recently the Foo Fighters (no build up in the show. christ, they played everlong first, that's just wrong) - and they certainly haven't affected me live the way Bon Jovi do (INXS were so damn close though, and that's without Michael Hutchence), and the set lists weren't very different from anything I expected either (except again, INXS throwing in a cover of a Johnny Cash song), so which bands are you talking about? The only band I've seen that are long lived and change their set lists every show are the Counting Crows (and they're not far off country on some of their albums either).

Bon Jovi have peaked many times, so we know they have that potential, and I personally hope that they will again (and no, much as I think LH is a good record - it's not a great record, and not a peak) but it could have been so much worse too. But maybe they're past that now. As a fan, I don't like to say it, but I'm also happy that the band I've loved for 20 years are still playing and making music and I can go along and see them (and still have a hell of a time) - there's not a lot of bands you can say that about.

Aloha !

Bon Jovi didn't write one masterpiece. These Days was good, but it's far from a masterpiece. Still, if you look at them and see what they came up with in the period 1986-1995, and compare it to 1995 to 2006, you simply can't deny that the 4 albums released back in the early days are stronger and hold up more. Those are the albums on which they had something to say and pushed themselves to create something that mattered to them, and us, instead of to their wallets and charts.

The thing is, it doesn't really matter if you like another band or not when comparing Bon Jovi with them. I'm not a fan of Bruce Springsteen either, yet I know that he still pushes himself every tour, and writes stuff that comes from the heart, and not for the wallet. There's so many bands out there that strive for perfectionism and do it for themselves, push themselves every night, and not, like Bon Jovi, only do the big shows when they feel like doing it.

The very fact that only 2 shows out of 10 in the Prudential were worth seeing, and were having a Jon Bon Jovi that pushed himself to the limit shows that they're not going for the maximum result every night. The very fact that fans know beforehand which cities in Europe will get the best shows again proofs this. Compare this with Bon Jovi in 1996, where every show lasted for 2,5 hours, and you get my point.

If that's why you're going to Bon Jovi it's exactly because of they claim not wanting to be. A nostalgia act. And there's a shitload of acts that are still playing after 20 years.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

If you don't see/hear the difference in the drum work between say KTF or TD albums & LH album, I can't help you. Same for the keyboards.


Well comparable bands in terms of longevity, tours, sales etc... like Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC, U2... Not that I'm a fan of all of them but through the years I feel they've left much less of their potential aside than BJ has.


So if you believe their is a potential that is not used 100%, what is it that is missing iyo?


Ponrauil

No, Seb, because I quite like the new stuff (especially Whole Lot Of Leaving, i love that track), so I'm not going just to hear Prayer/Wanted etc.

Maybe it's just the shows I've been to, but I can only think of two where I haven't seen Jovi put their all into the show - the Bounce show at Glasgow, and the 1st Milton Keynes show for HAND - every other time I've seen them (and especially at Hampden for some reason) I've never been able to fault them for the effort put in. As I said earlier, if it changes this tour I'll happily come back to this thread and hold my hands up, and go and join the INXS fan club instead...lol

From a writing standpoint, These Days IS a masterpiece - there's no bit of songwriting they've done before or since that even comes close. Not all the songs on the album, but It's Hard Letting You Go, This Ain't A Love Song, These Days and obviously As My Guitar. And the other songs are all decent. But things like that sometimes only happen once and you can spend forever trying to chase the same achievement (and that's a dangerous road to go down for any band)

Sorry, should have said "had" that potential. I honestly don't know whether they've got that or not anymore, and so we can all say what "could" happen to change the band into the lean, mean machine they were a decade ago, but I'd rather focus on the here and now - and enjoy it as much as I can while I can.

I thought you were talking about songwriting with regards to David at least. Actually, now that you mention, I'd never really noticed the lack of keyboard work but I suppose you're right on that. Certainly, from Bounce onwards (I think Crush did have quite a bit). With regards to drums, I thought they were decent on HAND and Bounce, and I won't compare on LH because it's a completely different type of album. I'm not a musical technical geek, so I couldn't tell you what has changed, but I'll say yeah, okay, that never occured to me. I wonder why that is though?

Mentioning that, I always thought Jovi would be great at doing a big piano led Keane-type anthem simply because of David being in the band.