[Kathleen]

Originally Posted by cqleonardo

I hate Eddie Trunk, he's a real cunt

He really isn't most of the time. He had Jon on his show last October talking about the new album:

http://drycounty.com/jovitalk/bon-jo...nesday-t69723/

But he has certainly been known to rake Bon Jovi over the coals - especially after the 2007 Prudential shows:

As for Bon Jovi, majorly dissapointed to say the least. I have
followed this bands history since the beginning, from opening act to
38 Special, to one of the biggest bands on the planet. I always had a
huge respect for the group, and as a Jersey guy myself, always liked
how proud they were to be a NJ band. Obviously they were never a
metal band, but they were a high energy semi hard rock group at one
time, and Jon was one of the best frontmen out there. Lets not forget
Jon is the guy that gave us Cinderella and Skid Row and spawned the
entire pop metal 80's scene! Something he wants no part of now
clearly. And that's fine because Bon Jovi is the only band from the
era and scene that has a MAJOR career now, so I get it. But what I do
not get is how Jon Bon Jovi has gone from being one of the great
frontmen in rock, to a guy that looks like he's going through the
motions on stage? This guy RULED the stage at one time, now he just
struts, smiles and poses here and there. Steven Tyler has 15 years on
him and works circles around him on stage. Bon Jovi these days barely
resembles a rock act, and Jon is clearly trying to be the next
Springsteen, but still doesn't work on stage as hard as Bruce does
now. He's even building his own E Street band with extra backing
musicians on stage. It's now an 8 member band live, with a female
fiddle player who played on almost the entire set. She even put
fiddle in some of the old school rocking stuff! Even that stuff was
diluted and had no real energy or edge. This is sad beyond belief and
even more shocking is that Jon never gets called on it! Look at the
explosive rock act this was in the 80's compared to what they have
become.

[symbeline]

Somebody call rolo, he has to dust off his great photoshopping skills

On one side of the ring...

Matt the dude with the famous last name who mistakes rudeness with sarcasm 10 times out of 10. Oh, and sometimes he pretends to be a spokesperson for some famous band and have some inside knowledge (read this in a Littlefinger accent, any of them), until someone calls him on it and then acts all offended.

And on the other...

Eddie, the dude who loves to hear his voice more than anything and rant about how mean other people are to him and then proceeds to either kiss their asses or be extremely rude when they are trying to apologize/explain. Oh, and he apparently has an ax to grind with a famous singer whose name may or may not rhyme with a certain famous tomato sauce.

Matt's reputation precedes him (ie the majority of people outside this board will never believe a word he says) and Eddie's obvious interest in turning this small "anecdote" into a big drama for his own profit negates any valid points he could make. Who cares about fact-checking right? Or about STFU when there's an official channel for official statements? These two ugh

[cqleonardo]

Originally Posted by Tooka

Come on guys, either you know this band, you know Jon, or you don't. It was a mishap, it happens, don't blow things out of proportion. It's uncharacteristic and very unlikely that this was lip-sync, it's just not who Jon is; his character, his work ethic and his ego would never allow it. IMO this is a quarrel about nothing!

PS. Is it just me or are the time stamps on the posts very weird? Like my previous post is listed today at 1:11 AM whereas i just posted it a few minutes ago, at 4:11 pm my time. Maybe that's a conspiracy we need to investigate instead?!

this! his ego is too big for a playback live, he would die on the stage but he wouldnt do it

[Becky]

Originally Posted by Tooka

Come on guys, either you know this band, you know Jon, or you don't. It was a mishap, it happens, don't blow things out of proportion. It's uncharacteristic and very unlikely that this was lip-sync, it's just not who Jon is; his character, his work ethic and his ego would never allow it. IMO this is a quarrel about nothing!
?!

This sums it up for me. I've been following Jon for 30 years. I've been to enough shows, including 2 on this tour, that I know he's the real deal. I've seen him suffer injury on stage and keep going. He's a total professional in every aspect of his career. Someone screwed up the song--one song at one show-- and they probably got their walking papers by now too. If he was faking it, every show would sound exactly the same and they don't. Sometimes you just have to apply common logic to a situation to see that it's much ado about nothing.

[symbeline]

Originally Posted by Kathleen

I will try to be somewhat objective LOL. I am not someone who looks for every little mistake made in order to trash Jon or the band. I have always enjoyed these shows and I look forward to them.

I noticed a sound change in the first track - almost like a phase change - but I honestly paid no attention to it. At many shows, the soundboard engineer tweaks the sound during the first track until it sounds right. So it really didn't bother me. I was enjoying the beginning of the show and certainly didn't hear a big problem.

Overall I enjoyed the show. What I didn't enjoy was the way the sound was mixed. The guitars (for the most part) were way down in the mix. Most of the time I couldn't hear Phil X at all - except for a small portion of KTF. He is so good, and he is certainly a worthy replacement for Richie's guitar. Unfortunately he isn't used that way and I think it's a shame. All the little fills that Richie used to do are just a "wall of sound" now. John Shanks is certainly better than Bobby was, but if they had let Phil X off the leash I think he could have done far more.

And that brings me to Jons vocals, they are also buried pretty deep in the mix. You don't hear his voice loud and clear very often - and that is what I used to enjoy. I know why they are doing this - many bands do it - but I really miss Jon being right up from in the mix. It doesn't bother me particularly that he can't sing as well as he used to. He certainly didn't butcher anything - he is just not up to his usual standard - but it's not glaring and that part bothered me the least.

Overall I wasn't surprised that the show was shorter - I have been to many Mohegan Sun shows and I know what I'm going to get time wise. The arena there is also half the size of Madison Square Garden so there isn't really a bad seat in the house. I like being closer and we had great seats.

The overall show was awesome - I don't miss the screens at all - I love the lighting effects. The energy coming off the entire band was fantastic. I honestly didn't expect that and I was very pleased.

I still have 2 shows to go - both nights at MSG - and I am sure that the setlist will be longer and hopefully free of fcukups LOL. I still have hope for a rarity or two.

Even if this were the only show I had seen - I would still go back for more. This is NOT Jon embarrassing himself, it just isn't the same band (or sound) that we were all used to.

Thanks for the honest and in depth review Kathleen. I love that you are very fair in your judgement

I too think that Phil is underused, he's sometimes walking around playing air guitar and making silly faces while Shanks is soloing (I'm exaggerating of course, but he could and should be playing more parts). I'm not a fan of Shanks' playing and I feel that there's too much spotlight on him. Nothing against him at all, he obviously suits BJ much better than Bobby, but I liked Bobby's minimal stage presence and I don't think that Shanks should be so upfront. It's not as if they shine more spotlight on Phil, it'll feel like the real BJ again, but it kinda makes sense to have the lead guitarist of a rock band to ... lead a little bit, even taking into consideration that he has to be somewhat restricted to fit his current role until fans get used to him.
Splitting lead guitar so many times during the show won't probably be an issue for many fans, sure, but I personally feel the stage looks too crowded and Jon has to pretend to bond with two dudes instead of one, too exhausting. It detracts from the experience, makes it more obvious that this bunch of people don't have a lot of stage chemistry

Jon's voice was very prominent in Philadelphia judging by YT videos, maybe this time it was the arena's acoustics? Or he knew his voice would be weaker and didn't want to feel too exposed? I say this because there's been some comments here from other shows about how it'd be better if they lower Jon to allow all the backing vocals to cover him because he's too high most of the time. Hell, most reviews are pointing this, his vocal decline and how good the others are at backing him

[rosa3]

Originally Posted by Becky

This sums it up for me. I've been following Jon for 30 years. I've been to enough shows, including 2 on this tour, that I know he's the real deal. I've seen him suffer injury on stage and keep going. He's a total professional in every aspect of his career. Someone screwed up the song--one song at one show-- and they probably got their walking papers by now too. If he was faking it, every show would sound exactly the same and they don't. Sometimes you just have to apply common logic to a situation to see that it's much ado about nothing.

Thank you Becky, as always you are the voice of reason here!

[CaptainKiddOnSunset]

Do forgive if this has already been noticed, i couldn't find in the 30 pages...But at the 4:13 mark when Jon realizes somethings not right and points to Dave who's not playing obviously, you can also see Tico has completely stopped also. Watched the video dozens of times and just saw it. Then at the 4:19 mark clearly he can be seen and heard start hitting the drums again as if he figured out what was happening and tried to match the track blaring. To me this is evidence they're all playing and singing and it Actually was a big O'l goof on someones part...Who's probably now has his "strong hands on the unemployment line"

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[Kathleen]

Originally Posted by Becky

This sums it up for me. I've been following Jon for 30 years. I've been to enough shows, including 2 on this tour, that I know he's the real deal. I've seen him suffer injury on stage and keep going. He's a total professional in every aspect of his career. Someone screwed up the song--one song at one show-- and they probably got their walking papers by now too. If he was faking it, every show would sound exactly the same and they don't. Sometimes you just have to apply common logic to a situation to see that it's much ado about nothing.

That was my gut feeling, right from the beginning Becky. Mistakes happen - and as I said I was at the show and didn't notice anything but some odd sound.

[Gabriel Shoes]

I don't wanna be disrespectful but there's no other way to ask you:

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT YOU ARE SUFFERING HEARING PROBLEMS?

[Tooka]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Shoes

I don't wanna be disrespectful but there's no other way to ask you:

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT YOU ARE SUFFERING HEARING PROBLEMS?

The whole point of lip syncing is to appear like you are singing the song. Do you think the band would continue to play in completely different timing for over half the song?! Come on it doesn't take much to realize that this was a technical ****up. Why would Bon Jovi need to lip sync?! And if jon did - why would he do it on THINFS of all the songs? Its not a difficult song

Come on people, what is this obsession with arguing? Or is it that there are other motives here? For instance oooh look how bad the band is now after Richie left!

Bon Jovi is and always been a live band, they don't lip sync, dont need to. If a song is too hard on Jon's vocals they simply avoid playing it. I have been a fan for 20 some years, lip sync is not in the catalogue.