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Jovian · 07-02-2003, 01:27 AM

...with a fever, a cough and a runny nose. And five more shows to live through in my book of memories.

Provided I can still remember anything about the shows and the tour, I'll try to write some kind of a tour diary at some point... But for now, a few summarising thoughts about the shows I saw. Or, should I say, about the feelings they evoked...

The shows themselves were just fine, I couldn't possibly find anything wrong with them. Apart from maybe the Glasgow, Wolves and Manchester shows being cut too short, because of the guys' need to fly back to Dublin/London for the night. But other than that, the shows were fab. Especially the HP show, which was definitely the best one of the lot. The guys seemed to be in a good mood at the Dublin/UK shows, they were interacting with the crowd and with each other a lot. And handing out smiles left, right and centre, which of course made me very happy.

When the next tour comes along, provided I have the time and the money (which might not happen, but we'll see about that), I'll probably end up buying a handful of tickets once more... But I have to say that I might think twice before actually going on the road again. Or should I say, I might want to check out some set lists from the pre-European shows before making the final decision on whether or not to get on the road. Why? Cause apart from some half a dozen or so songs that tend to get changed, I have now seen and heard the same basic set list 31 times within the past three years. And even though I know that every show is different, whether the set list is changed or not, I can't help feeling that there's just too much of the same old same old in the current set lists to justify a fourth ridiculously expensive tour.

It breaks my heart to say that, but that's how it feels at the moment anyway.

I mean, if the band was to get back to the 1996 style shows, with maybe an acoustic bit in the middle or something else as special as that, I wouldn't think twice before getting myself in debt once again for the tour. But if they still keep doing these same set lists on the next tour, whenever that will be, I really don't know... There are SO many songs they should definitely include in the set lists (Something To Believe In, These Days, Diamond Ring, Hey God, something else from TD, Love For Sale, Ride Cowboy Ride, Wild Is The Wind, Stick To Your Guns, I'd Die For You, Living In Sin, Dry County, Blame It On The Love Of Rock'n'Roll, Two Story Town, something from the first two albums in addition to Runaway, etc), and so many others they should do away with ASAP (I Got The Girl, Captain Crash [yes, despite the "swinging"], Everyday [do we need another IML in the set list?], Wild In The Streets or Raise Your Hands [two very similar songs, they should keep one and lose the other and change that around too from show to show], Saturday Nite, Bad Medicine and ESPECIALLY Shout).

In my personal and very humble opinion, the only songs that should belong in the basic set list "skeleton" are Prayer, Bad Name, Wanted, IML and possibly Bounce and KTF. Everything else should be replaceable, and they should also MAKE some changes for every show. And that doesn't mean changing the order of the songs or swapping maybe one or two songs for something else.

To be able to say that their set list varies from show to show, Jon should swap, say, 6-12 songs every nite, and also keep changing the order of the songs, according to whatever criteria he wants to use. If they had maybe 40-60 songs practiced for a tour and played an average of 24 songs at each show, they would indeed have numerous combinations for those songs, and wouldn't have to keep playing the same set lists over and over again. I should imagine it gets boring for them too to do the same numbers night after night, in the same order.

Anyway, getting back to this tour, I would like to say hi to all my friends who I met on the road... And I would also like to say hi and thanks to the "braided twins" Taija and Laura who had to endure me at the UK shows when we were sharing hotel rooms. Hope I didn't snore too much, LOL. Also, I would like to thank Late, letitrock, Mike McRock, Mike, Masa (mvsips or something?) and all the others for defending us when we were getting bashed and attacked here and on the Backstage Board. You guys rock.