Bon Jovi plays the same crap again

Well said, Scarlett!

Well sure they need to play the hits, but i personally do not like the most of the crush songs, so in my opinion they can skip them. Only It's My Life and the Next 100 Years should stick onto the setlist.

How about Just Older???!?!??! That is a classic album track!

However Scarlett I know what you are saying and I have to admit I did not enjoy the Huddersfield UK show last year at all (mainly because Jon's voice was completely shot and he backed out of even the remotely high notes)... but if i didn't know the setlist before hand i may have liked the fact they played raise your hands a lot more... MK 2 days later was like another band.

I disagree with what you say on the whole though because they are not actually playing the greatest hits anymore... and the ones they do do don't have the same power anymore... Livin' on a prayer still has that power when you are there (although on dvds and cds does not at all)... but bad medicine has gone too predictable as poeople have mentioned... and jon doesn't sing with the same umph (only word i can think of) in stuff like bad name - even basic stuff such as the way he delivers the words... angels smile is what you say____^^ (what i like to describe as a hiccup - tilting his voice).

if it was greatest hits they'd be playing dry county (released as single and on the 94 crossroads), runaway, in and out of love, lay your hands on me, never say goodbye (electric), livin' in sin (a single of course)...

... but people now think greatest hits is literally bad name, prayer wanted, faith, medicine...

if i was your mother they made a video "for the fans" supposedly on the 93 KTF video but they only ever played that acouple of times...

Think of how much of an improvement the set would be to drop the crush stuff and the ballads and just play the rock stuff (maybe 1 ballad - though livin in sin and i'll be there for you are rock songs if you ask me)...

i don't stay at home and listen to my bootlegs like someone else said instead of going to the shows - and i've gone to all the ones i can do since these days tour in the UK but i tell you one thing... when i do listen to the 80s boots (84-85 tours included - some of best if you ask me) i hear maybe 1 bad show in every 30 or 40, now it really can be 50/50 if not more...) i have a lot of the 95-2001 boots and they are difficult to listen to... because even the best songs jon doesn't deliver correctly...

I always get angry because where i live people have a go at me for liking bon jovi and i of ccourse defend them by saying they have changed after these days etc and gone more commercial but in secret i find myself agreeing with them.

my problem is this: tico still is a great powerful drummer, richie still has that amazing voice (and mroe powerful thatn jon's these days), i have heard jon sing with that 'attack' in his voice like he did new jersey/KTF tour but he doesn't do it often and i have heard him hit the high notes... no offense to hugh but he is just the bass player and BJ songs never demanded more than the basic root note over the chords being played most of the time, and technically david should still be able to play let it rock... so what's going wrong???

richie's solos tend to be 20 seconds and 5 notes max at the moment and very slow and uncomplicated, very chordal and not riff based, jon backs out of high notes... the other problem is with dave (not him but his part in songs) all he does now is play drum loops at the touch of a button (everyday eg) and yet the solos in homebound train and let it rock were worthy of some of the great keyboard players...

i know that potentially this can still be one of the greatest bands again... it's just i;ve been saying it for 3 years now...

thierry i agree with everything you say word for word and everyone else who has agreed with him...

... it feels like this board has reformed though because when i contributed a couple of months back to a similar topic abot jon not being able to sing, people threatened to spam my e-mail and website, and not 1 single person agreed with me (i think 1 did ythat's all)... i like it like this though and people should be more critical...

criticisism opens people's eyes and encourages change.

Cheers,

I personally think what they play is down to crowd reactions. They still obviously getting a really good crowd reaction playing the 'same old stuff' & hence don't see any need to change it.

However I would love a setlist like Grandrapids last year.

Mike

rock on Mike...

Homebound train , livin' in sin....

personally i think musically homebond train is the best song they have done in that it showed off richie's guitar skills, jon's voice as well as his harmonica playing, of course tico's amazing heavy metal drumming, and david bryan's organ playing - it's oustanding to me that he can play the kayboards so well and yet all he does nowadays is play preprogrammed cycled drum loops...

first show even robbed him of his one chance to show he can actually play keyboards... let it rock.... sorry i mean lay your hands on me.

let it rock was replaced by sleep when i'm dead, which fills the same role in the setlist - which would you rather have?

I think Mike hit the nail on the head. They play to please the crowd. That's why songs like "Bad Name" and "Bad Medicine" and "Sleep When I'm Dead" will forever be in the set list. If you pay attention to the crowd reactions, those are the songs that get people going. I make no secret that I'd be the happiest girl in the world if they never played Bad Name live again. I could live without Wanted, Bad Medicine, Sleep, Prayer, Lay Your Hands On Me, and all the other staples of the show, but that's because I've been to a few shows and have hundreds of shows on audio/video. It's not new to me anymore. To the majority of the people in the arena or stadium, the live experience is a new one or a rarely experienced one. When we go to Atlanta, if they don't do those songs that Julie hasn't seen live since 1989, she will leave very disappointed. There are a lot more Julies out there than Beckys!

Jon mentioned before the Crush tour that the song HE most wanted to play was "Mystery Train" and it was in the set lists at first. He later said that it wasn't going over very well, so it got cut out as a regular. The band aims to put on the best show possible and to the majority of the concert-goers that means the old standbys that casual fans go to hear. If you were a casual Bon Jovi fan who went to see them and they left out the hits, you'd be very disappointed when you left. The band wants people to be happy when they left, not bitching because they didn't do the songs the fans came to hear.

The fans like us who know every word to every song (and every demo) the band has ever released and lot that they haven't released are very much in the minority.

And, about Dave and drum loops... has anyone considered that he's using technology to help him due to his finger injury which he has said still causes him great pain at times?

Becky

I have to disagree; I really like Crush and so did millions of others. Keeping in mind that if all they did was stick to "old" stuff, what would be the encouragement for people to go buy the new albums if they haven't heard them yet?

I never meant to imply that they're doing a "Greatest Hits" tour, but that most people in the audience want to hear songs they know rather than songs they don't. A few of your points, thoughm made me remember that those songs may differ country to country. I don't think "Dry County" was ever played on the radio in the US--not in any real rotation, anyway. Same goes for "If I Was Your Mother." I realize it rocks harder and many hard core fans like it, but it certainly isn't typical Jovi fare. As someone else just said (sorry I don't remember your name as I type), they have to assess what goes over well with the crowd. They can't do EVERY song that the crowd might enjoy, so they rely on tried and true for the most part with a few surprises or "tests" thrown in. I think they probably throw a couple songs in for themselves (can't really blame them), but they have been doing this long enough that I trust they know what they're doing. I have seen every tour since SWW and the reason I continue to go is because I KNOW I'll have a good time.

As far as dropping the ballads, I respectfully disagree. I know they are not the favorites among most of you guys, but Bon Jovi has done some really beautiful ballads. I think two is enough, but I'm glad they do them. As much as it is "frowned upon" on this board, I'm going to say it anyway... Jon is a sexy guy with a sexy voice--at least in most of the women's eyes. (Same goes for Richie.) We like to hear them do a love song, and I'll admit it without shame.

I understand the frustration that some of you are feeling, though--you know the band can rock harder and you'd like to see some of that live. The thing is, they have to appeal to the mass audience. And the albums that sold the most aren't These Days and KTF--no matter how much we like them.

Aloha !

I agree with letitrock, but...

Dry County wasn't on Cross Road. And it was only released as a single in Europe and Japan.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I do agree with Thierry and those who agreed with him. I wished to heat more not so common songs, but I guess a lot of the fans won`t . Maybe it`s because they don`t know the lyrics so they can`t sing along. I noteiced once when BJ played "wild is the wind"a lot af the fans standing right in front, didn`t know the words. Arrgghhh, it was like a joke, standing there and being the only one shouting along. That happened to me when they played "hard letting you go"
Yeah, it`s a strange thing, they are never able to please all of us!