Because We Can Tour, 2013 - Song Tally

That's where I'm different. I love getting bootlegs from tours and having shows with songs that are mega rare that I can watch and appreciate. When I look at setlists, I look for songs that I hope got recorded and can be put on disc for a bootleg. I don't look for the same songs that get played and played every night. I don't mind it when I'm there except a few songs. I always want that one song that blows me away which I didn't expect to hear. 'Garageland' for instance at Manchester. I didn't expect that and I'd love to have a bootleg of the Manchester gig because of that.

If the performances were good this tour and they played the same songs every night then I probably wouldn't care half as much, but the performances weren't great so a rarity in the setlists were the only thing to look forward too.

No no, I hear ya, I am/was the same. I follow setlists and youtube vids purely for anything out of the norm that pops up on tour and don't care for the usual setlist staples, but this type of fan is so few in numbers (back to the old casual vs. diehard debate). I doubt JBJ is choosing the core songs for the tour with us the diehard or bootlegger in mind. So rather than the hit or miss approach I say stick to something more solid.
The setlists often suck, as do the song list selection overall due to so many factors. But like I said, I would be happier to stick with a killer 25-30 song setlist that actually *works* than variety for the sake of variety.

Scorpions played 50 songs? Maybe including acoustic and promo gigs or something. Every show on every leg of the tour is identical unless there's some special occasion. I have just seen them for the first time since 2010 and they played the exact same set other than one change. They replaced Dynamite with Hit Between The Eyes. And that's in two different countries in almost three years.

Aerosmith I don't really know to be fair. Completely lost touch with their liver performances since 2007 but back then they played almost identical 90 minute gigs every time. But yeah - don't really know...

Maiden has a standard set of 17 songs to which they sometimes add a song or two. A lot of it is due to the elaborate stage production though. Every song has it's own theme - and no that's not always necessary - but that's how they do it so fair enough. That also means you never get a bad Iron Maiden show (unless you somehow happen to hate them, as it is with you). And yes, the same with AC/DC.

As to DestinationJovi's point around Bon Jovi being famous for different setlists or whatever. That's completely pulled out of the air. If anything, it's a recent development. While Bon Jovi were at their prime as a live act, their setlists were mostly static for entire legs of their tours. And that's the same from Jersey to These Days...

Seriously? When they were in their prime they only had 3/4 studio albums. Obviously those setlists were fairly static, there was little material to choose from.

If the band has always played such little variety like some suggest, why did so many of us used to do so many shows on a single tour? Why do we have multiple boots from the same tour? Because the setlists were always different. Maybe not to the extreme that Jon likes to claim to the media, but he has always changed it up more and played more band songs than this tour.

I'm not going to argue this anymore. If you're impressed or satisfied with 56 songs, good for you. I'm not.

I think we're arguing the same points here. I don't like the amount of songs they play, they need to switch it up. Every tour since 2000 has slid more and more into static-ness and the tours feel like they are melting together.

At the end of the These Days Tour they had 6 studio albums and two solo records. Plus all the other stuff they had in their vaults that they'd play like Good Guys, Cadillac Man, etc.
So yes. Plenty of songs. Yet you said yourself:

Maybe in your Jovi dream world that was the case. Not in reality.

I went to multiple shows on the same tour for the fun of it. For the occasional gem but mostly because of the energy and rush I'd get from a show. Yes, if they played some rarity, that was a special moment. But some of my favourite concerts had hardly any rarity at all. Same for the bootlegs. Every damn version of Dry County or Always on the Crossroads/ These Days tour was different. Yet on paper, the set list was the same. But yeah - if you go to Jovi concerts just to hear as many songs as possible, you might miss out on that detail. On a similar note - those 10 O2 gigs they did a few years ago were horrendous. Yet they did manage to play around 75 songs or more in those 10 gigs alone...Just saying.

There's not much to argue about. All I said is that that's more than most bands. As some people pointed out, that is in fact true. Whether I am happy or satisfied with it - hell, I don't give a shit since I am not seeing this band live any longer. But tell you what - the reason is not the total number of songs but the total number of terribly bad songs, low energy, and extreme dullness. Ohh...and yes, I prefer they play covers (especially the AC/DC and Scorpions ones) because the alternative would be listening to some more of this garbage that they package nowadays and call a record. Surely, that's why in my mind playing something around 75 songs is not shabby actually. There's things a lot more broken than that that they need to fix first...

I'd be happy for them to play the same setlist every single night if they played their best songs. Rarities are nice but if they're not good songs, why get excited about it?

I think we all would. If we chose to have our best songs as the set list then I'm pretty sure that most of us would have the rarities in it.

Not necessarily though. The likes of 'These Days', 'Always', 'Dry County' etc. are now being labelled as boring when, in reality, they're three of the best and should be played where possible.

Aloha !

They're no longer being labelled as surprises, because they just aren't. Why people can't get their head around this is something I fail to understand. Always has been played about 50 times this tour. How does that make it a rare song?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan