Official April 20, 2011, MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas thread

Huh? Neither of those songs have been played at all this entire tour.

OUT
I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover)
Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)

IN
Born to Follow
Water


And there you go, an awesome set list that they could play today and don`t sound dated

I stand corrected. I saw the LH tour and circle tour in Vegas. I don't remember those being long shows, but I haven't checked a setlist. I've just always heard there is a curfew...

I Won't Back Down was actually a pretty sweet intro to Have a Nice Day on that tour.

Born to Follow should never be a choice to add IN. Love's the Only Rule if you want to add a Circle song.

7 new songs from the new album, plus Radio, that was a new unreleased song. They had balls back then.

Plus, that album is tons better.

Interestingly, they played 7 songs from Slippery.

[QUOTE=bounce442;1123832
Encore:
I'd Die for You
Last Cigarette
Keep the Faith
Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Wanted Dead or Alive
Never Say Goodbye[/QUOTE]

I'd pay money just for that encore.

I was at this concert. Perhaps I'm spoiled, since I'm from New York, and I've mostly attended concerts in the New York/New Jersey area, but this was one of the worst. I don't mean that it was terrible or that anything was wrong, but they gave 100% when they usually give 200%.

There were a few positives, considering the circumstances. Compared to the last time I saw them without Richie (Uniondale 2011), Phil X seemed much more comfortable with his guitar parts, and Bobby's solos and lead guitar parts were not perfect, but were actually recognizable, compared to what he usually does. Jon also seemed to be in a decent mood.

However, the main concern was obviously the length and quality of the setlist. In 2011, I would've blamed a setlist like this on Richie's absence, but recent concerts have proven that they can still do a long setlist with at least a few rarities, even without Richie. I think this was the first time that I Love This Town was not played in the encore since the Lost Highway Tour, and I was hoping that this meant there would be at least one additional rarity in the encore, but there wasn't. The removal of I'll Be There for You without being replaced by anything else was also surprising. I actually don't mind When We Were Beautiful, but "wasting" a song with that, when they could have started the encore with Dry County or Always or something like that was disappointing.

What bothers me most is that the setlist posted on bonjovi.com reveals that they played exactly what Jon had planned, and there were no audibles. During the concert, I hoped that the placement of I Love This Town meant that there would be another rarity in the encore. I also assumed that the decision to skip I'll Be There for You was a last-minute decision, perhaps to move it to the encore or replace it with something else. When they left the stage after Livin' on a Prayer, I assumed that it was because of the audience (most of whom were leaving even before the bows). However, it seems that they probably would not have done anything differently, even if the audience was amazing. I asked an usher before the concert started whether there was a curfew, and he said that there was not and that the band was expected to play until approximately 11:30 or 11:45, so that can't be an explanation for the length of the setlist. (Even if there was an 11:00 curfew, they could've played one or two more songs.) The only explanation, then, is probably that Jon was tired (vocally or just generally) from the previous night and knew that he did not want to do a long setlist or any vocally-challenging songs under any circumstances.

This is relatively minor, but another complaint was that they did not use the video screens/columns for many of the songs - even ones that they have used them for at other concerts (e.g., That's What the Water Made Me, Lost HIghway). There were also no seats behind the stage, and Jon didn't use the "steps" during We Got It Going On. Surprisingly, Last Man Standing was one of the few songs for which they did use the video screens, which suggests that it was one of the "main" songs they prepared to play at the beginning of the tour.

He probably meant the fact that they were on the setlist as audibles.