Aloha !

Well, my mate Thierry is absolutely right this time. I totally agree. Bon Jovi wants to be taken serious about their music, that they're not just a simple guitarband, but a band who can do more and tell real story's and so on. Well, they should do something about that then.
When they released Keep The Faith the critics were that they started to grown up from being a hair band. When These Days was released they were really taken serious, and the These Days tour got very positive reviews, about that Bon Jovi was more then just a guitar band and so on, and that the songs were deeper as usual. So everyone was excited and expected Crush to be very good. But instead of that they came with a very simple album. The Crush tour was just a tour, nothing special.
Now Bounce has been released and again the album is not as good as everyone hoped it was. Sure, there are some powerful tracks on it, but also again a lot of weak tracks. But they kept on telling in interviews that this album was deeper and better as usual. And that this tour was going to be very special. But now that I see the setlist of the first gig I don't see anything special about it, the only thing that surprises me is that they don't play Prayer and Bad Name after eachother, and that Richie is singing a Bon Jovi song. But I don't expect that to happen in the European tour. The Japanese always get something special on their shows.
The only thing I'm hoping for is that they play more from These Days. That album sold best in Europe compared to the rest. Last time they only played Hey God and Something To Believe In, but also a lot from Crush.
Sure, Crush did it a lot better then These Days, but that was only because of the succes from It's My Life. These Days has got much better songs then Crush, and I think that when These Days had a hitsingle on it like It's My Life, it even would have sold much better. So come on guys, bring on some These Days stuff, and some songs you don't play so often. Raise Your Hands is cool, but they did that on the One Wild Night tour too, so time for something new like Blame It On The Love or Good Guys or something.
Otherwise the critics will be the same as usual, just a good Rock & Roll concert, but nothing special...

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan