Bon Jovi and their setlists.

Originally Posted by Supersonic

Aloha !

After seeing the setlist from the Pep Rally and reading the comments I thought about posting this.

Although some songs do need to be heard, it is not necessary to repeat them all over again. Ofcourse, songs like Wanted, Prayer and It's My Life need to be played, however, not all the classics should be in there. For example, ex-Beatle McCartney doesn't tour that often as Bon Jovi does, but when he does he has a complete new set. Sure, he keeps a handful of songs in there that he needs to play, but half of it is different then on a previous tour.

Why can't Bon Jovi do this? They're capable of throwing in more then a handful of songs they haven't played in about 5 years (examples being Homebound Train in 2001, Hey God in 2001, Wild Is The Wind in 2001) all those songs weren't regulars, but were played every once in a while. If they'd make them regulars their setlists would be much more appreciated.

Also the same medley night after night. Shout just needs to be dropped. Sure, the crowd anticipation is great, but even the people who have visited only about 2 concerts know there's the Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell part after Bad Rx. They've become a predictable band. The beginning of their sets is always the same (Wild In The Streets, Bad Name, Prayer) the middle of the set is most of the time Faith, and the ending is Bad Rx with Shout. Yes, know they change it a bit during the tours, but you can easily guess what the set will look like next tour. For a band that claims to change the set every night, fans are expecting more. Much more instead of changing the order of the songs. Rarities should be thrown in next tour. I'm not expecting Hearts Breaking Even or I Want You, but songs they have played before and are still capable of playing.

These guys keep saying they are a great live act, but when looking at other bands they aren't that great. Just because you've got a few hits and because you can fill stadiums doesn't make you good. They should remember that a lot of people visit their shows because of the hits, and not because of the fact that they are so good. I went to the Arrow Rock Festival last summer. I saw The Scorpions, I saw Alice Cooper, I saw Judas Priest, and though the last one wasn't exactly what I liked, they all gave away a better show than Bon Jovi does night after night. They are not thát good as they claim, while they could easily re-establish themselves as one of the worlds biggest rock bands.


They play sets that contain about 20 songs:

Let's say 5 songs as the core:
Prayer, Wanted, Bad Rx., It's My Life and one big ballad: There For You/Roses or whatever.

Then you've got the songs that weren't their biggest hits, but still go down very well, like I Believe, Hey God, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Everyday and so on. These could be chosen in a random way, so not the same songs every night. They need 8 of them to fill the set up a bit.

They don't tour when there's no album, so they'll have to play songs from the new album, even if it suck major like it did on Crush and Bounce. If they take 5 songs from it.

Now we've got 2 songs left to be the real encore. Album tracks like Blood On Blood, Damned, Undivided, Runaway and so on.

The set is complete, contains 20 songs, and when done being this way all fans would be happy with it. Sure, there would be fans who'd be disappointed because Dry County hasn't been played, but there's more then enough to like anyway. This is possible, many bands do it like this when touring. Why can't Bon Jovi do it like this?

Or are they just being lazy and do they prefer to play the songs then can play anyway? If that's true, it's a disrespect towards the fans they claim to love so much. Doing a small tour (because the way Bon Jovi tours can not be called a world tour), cashing in and going home. Or is it a lack of guts? Is it because they don't dare to take the risk to lose the attention from the big crowd for one song? What's made Bon Jovi the predictable band they are nowadays?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Originally Posted by Becky

I totally agree. The setlists are just boring and predictable. They rely too heavily on the same tired songs and, not only do they play the same songs, they don't even vary them up that much in the way they're played. Would it kill Richie to put a little emotion into his guitar playing? He could change the feel of the show night to night. Does Jon have to say the SAME THING every night? How bad is it when you go to a show and you say everything he says as he says it because you've heard it so many times? I remember when he used to talk to the audience and I remember when he stopped talking so much--some fans were complaining that he "babbled" too much. I heard that it got back to him and he stopped talking as much. But I really enjoyed the stories. So, if he can listen to a few fans and stop talking like he used to, why not listen to us and change the set list around? The show doesn't have to run like a well-oiled machine to be good. They lack spontanaiety and inspiration. I don't think I'd go see Bon Jovi over and over on the same tour... they're shows have gotten too close to "if you've seen them once a tour, you've seen them enough." It's depressing. For an act that can be so great live, they're just not doing what they could. They need to go back and consult the These Days set lists from 1996 and get inspired to do something less predicatable and boring.

Becky

Originally Posted by LadyJovi1

Thomas You've never seen them live yet? Here I was thinking you had seen them a ton of times. Never knew.

Well here's too hoping you do have a great time, when you do go see them.