December 15th, 2013 - Sydney Entertainment Centre - Sydney, Australia

the choir is a disaster

I think I'd give a testicle for one of those sets.
The opening must've been awesome, I saw Love's The Only Rule in Lisbon and it absolutely blew me away. Anyway, it'd be a dream to watch the band play Hallelujah, just know how lucky you were... ending with These Days and Always is incredible.

Good slap in the face of those who say they can't deliver a proper show anymore. Thank you Jon.

By the way, Jon had said that Happy Xmas (War is Over) was going to be the very last song and after they finished the whole band left the stage and people started leaving. I, myself, had started to make my way to the end of the aisle when David came back up...

In other words These Days and Always was Encore 2

The point wasn't for them to be perfect. The choir were made up of all the female crew on the Bon Jovi team. They are not singers, they are all crew members.

Are u serious !? You are the disaster. It was fantastic , it was a bit of fun . Good on them .

Hey Guys

Last night was my 7th concert and as mentioned previously I was lucky enough to see Sydney night 3 back in 2010 which nothing will compare to! I went to last night's show not expecting too much but hoping for some change ups.

After giving Jon a roasting after some previous shows I have to say that last night he was pretty close to bringing his A game. His voice wasn't perfect but it was better than I'd expected it to be. I think he actually started to relax and enjoy it a bit more once he realised his voice was there again.

Although I love the change of opening I didn't like WWWB as an opener. With the crowd all hyped for the band to come out its a bit of an anti climax when they play a slow song first. Love's the Only Rule was awesome and I'l glad to hear that. I can't help but thinking Jon was listening to The Circle album on the way to the arena with all the songs from that album! Luckily I like WFTWM but most of the crowd didn't! lol

I'll probably get yelled at but I didn't really like The Fighter or Thick as Thieves, especially together but like Jon kept saying through the night, 1 for you and 1 for me! lol

The highlight for me was definitely Always! In all my shows Ive never seen that live so last night was special simply for that. And yes Jon battled all the way through it but to put it in perspective he had just sung for almost 2.5hrs for the second night in a row…. Celine Dion would struggle vocally after that much effort.

Id be happy to never hear Who Says ever again and WWBTF seemed to fall a bit flat with the crowd.

Overall though it was a great show and one for the real fans. I was with a 20yr old mate who'd never seen them before and he loved it so I guess Jon does still have it!

Oh and just to quickly weigh in on the Richie saga, I think he's amazing and I hope he does come back but if he doesn't Phil X is a pretty decent replacement. He never missed a beat.

Cheers
Steve

With the exception of LTOR, Always and IBTFY, I wouldn't be happy with this set list at all

WWWB, ILTT, The Fighter, WFTWM, Hallelujah... those along with Captain Crash, Born to Follow and Who Says make for a lot of lulls.

I applaud Jon on the so many changes, and I understand that he needs these songs to give his voice rests in between the high songs, but I wish he had chosen better songs. Especially given the fact that Keep the Faith was dropped, and there were no medley's in Sleep and Bad Med. I guess dropping Lost Highway/WLOL is a good thing though.

It's not a bad setlist, but it's not as great and awesome as some people are making it out to be... maybe it's just me.

Im glad though that it seems it was a good show overall for those who went. Unpredictable set lists are much more fun than waiting for the encore for a mix up.

One show left!

Hi Guys, After seeing the show in Sydney last night I registered onto DryCounty just because I'm a bit worried but also curious to find out if other people know something I don't ... All positive and negative comments about the setlists aside, it seemed like JBJ was really struggling and not in the mood last night.

I've seen Bon Jovi three times before (in 1995, 2008 and 2010) and JBJ has always been a very energetic, happy, cheerful and positive performer. Last night something seemed off; in the close up shots on the video screens you could tell he looked weathered and run down, and while walking the stage and hanging on to the microphone he was often more limping than walking. We also noticed the aforementioned shaking hands that didn't look right.

JBJ's comments also just sounded strange - for instance calling his audience "Mother****ers" after the third song - if Axl Rose or James Hetfield would say that you'd go 'sure enough', but as far as I know JBJ has never been like that. He also made snarky comments about people being given free tickets, one he even made directly to the record company reps "who were giving away free tickets"- it is rather unusal and bad form for any artist to be so openly pissed off at his record company reps during a concert.

Maybe he just had a cold and was a bit over it, or maybe he only found out on the day he was playing a smaller venue, but he was giving off a weird vibe. It just looked like an unhappy band; halfway through the show my wife said to me "I wouldn't be surprised if this is their second-last ever gig" - and I could only agree with her.

The "One for you, one for me"-Line as an introduction to several lesser knowns songs sounded a bit unfriendly, and during the block of ballads with The Fighter/Thick as Thieves/Blood on Blood JBJ appeared strangely emotional. It seemed also seemed telling that the band members were not introduced anywhere during the gig. And I don't mean just the hired guns; Bryant and Torres got no mention or introduction either. All the above might explain why 'Keep The Faith' wasn't played; it seemed as if Bon Jovi lost the faith. I'd love to know if anyone else there felt the same way as us?

JayDee: interesting comments!

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Interesting observation JayDee. I thought JBJ was actually in a good mood and being cheeky with his comments. I have seen him perform around 10 times and this concert was a highlight. This was an encore concert for the fans....so probably why he didn't introduce the band (although I thought it odd).

JBJ is tired but his weathered look and limping reminded me of what Springsteen does sometimes in concert. I think he was mirroring him to some extent.

I was surprised (and disappointed) that KTF wasn't played. I think he opened with the wrong song. I Belive or Water would have been perfect.

Mark my words, the band will be back....but not for a long time. They need to take some time off off, regroup and start again.