Half way Thru the Tour....what do you think???

I wanna know where Lay Your Hands On Me went and why they ignore that song so much. They hardly ever played it on the HAND tour and have not played it for a while on this tour.

Meh, Lay Your Hands On Me isn't great live anyway IMO. If it was a choice of that or any other rarity off New Jersey, LYHOM would be my lowest choice

I don't think it's that bad. It surely doesn't sound like it used to. All the recent clips of it I've seen is the Pru shows and Jon didn't sound well vocally on anything compared to how he sounds right now on the tour.

But I guess if we are now categorizing LYHOM as rare; I'd rather hear Wild Is the Wind over LYHOM anyday.

I don't even particularly like it on Live From London, apart from the extended intro and the extended guitar solo. The main song just doesn't come off that well live IMO, it's very weirdly mixed so as to really dampen down the heavy guitar sound which defines the studio version

Anyone else know what other rarities have been soundchecked?

As much as I love "letting you go" I dont think it will go down well in the stadiums other than with the die hards.

I was at the O2 souncheck where Richie played Stick To Your Guns. I wonder if they have thought about playing that?

In & Out of Love

Hi,

I have mixed thoughts about this tour, like most of you, since despite the surprises they've been throwing lately, we still don't get the songs most hard-core are eager to listen to.

Sure 4th of July, garadgeland, open all night, i get a rush, right side of wrong or I got the girl are nice to hear as a gemn, but we want stuff we haven't heard for at least 2 tours. Like many of you said, if they dropped Runaway, Raise Hands, Born to be my baby, Sleep, Capt Crash and Bounce for example and replaced them by stuff like In and Out of Love, Let it Rock, 99 in the Shade, I Believe, 1 Wild Night and the Distance, fans would appreciate much more.

The other thing I feel is still wrong in the set lists is the balance between albums. Overall they should consider to play at least one song from each record (they could group the first 2 records since those were the less successful), and in every specific area/country throw in more songs from the albums that succeeded the most in that area/country. For instance in North America they could play more stuff from the Slippery and Jersey, as well as the more country influenced stuff while in Europe there should be more stuff from the 90's. But for me no show is complete without at least 1 cut from These Days (that should vary and not only be title track. Good thing they played Damned, I hope it stays for a looooong time), just like they ignore Bounce in a lot of shows, if they threw Undivided, The Distance, Misunderstood, Hook me up, just 1 at every show, I think it would be nice.

The bottom line for me is they are doing an ok job so far. Much better than in 2000 for example. We can't complain about them not showing some variety and even pulling some songs we never thought we would hear again.
But no doubt they can improve their set lists, by 1) balancing the songs from different albums and 2) replacing their audibles with stuff they don't play for more than 2 tours.

Just my short experience I was in the last 5 Prudential shows and was thrilled by show nr 7 and 9. Nr 7 since I heard Right Side and Richie singing Stranger, and the 9th by, well everyone knows, the whole new album + There for you. Overall I loved that they recovered Lay your hands, with the full intro. I was really missing the song. And glad they kept some of my favourite from Hand: Last man standing and Story of my Life.

Just 1 more thing, I really think they should vary the songs the same way Richie is varying on the songs he sings. There for you from Richie is a brilliant song. I think his version of These Days i quite good too, and it was a nice surprise listening to These Days from the King of Swing. And of course Stranger is a treat for all his fans. Just like Richie is switching out of 3 songs, the band could fill a 10 song spot with alternatives from different albums, so we would never know what we would get.

Actually, I'd agree here. It's a song that really benefits from the 'big' production on NJ. Live it had always seemd a little weedy. The Gospel tinge worked a little, but was never really explored far enough to make it a viable 'alternative' presentation.

Man, I must be bored today to be talkin 'bout shit like this.

They soundchecked Stick To Your Guns? I would die to hear that song live

Yup. Well Richie played it.