Official July 25, 2013 -> Metlife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, USA thread

I went last night with low expectations hoping to be pleasantly surprised, and that's exactly what happened. Not going to write a massive review or anything, but some simple pros and cons of the show. Going to start with the cons, since there are less of them:

Cons:
- You can see it reading the setlists, but being there just emphasizes that the main set structure is SO tired. It's completely static to 2010/11/12. Granted, those were themselves similar to the HAND and LH tours, but at least those were a bit different. Also, the flip flip of KTF and Bad Rx just doesn't work, though the Faith outro solo jam was awesome.

- Runaway is a terrible way to start the encore, and I don't mean that in a "I'm a die hard who wanted (insert rare song) way." It was anti-climactic, and sucked a lot of juice out of the building even though it was a hit.

- I know I'm in the minority of people who love the song, but I was severely disappointed in BWC, as I knew I would be based on live videos. It's too damn soft and slow, and the acoustic outro part didn't work. Actually led to one of the funniest moments of the night when a guy behind me actually said: "Ugh, this song sounds just like the last song."

-WWBTF has to dropped. I'm not a hater of the song per say, but it's just plodding live. I also think it shows something about the stagnant state of Bon Jovi that the video on the screens for Follow is based almost entirely around the WAN album artwork.

-Jon sounded good most of the night (I'll talk about it in my pros) but he literally mumbled his way through What About Now. If I didn't know the lyrics, I would have had no clue what he was saying.

Pros:
- Jon was in very good shape vocally. Now before people start yelling at me, I'm not saying he was perfect or 1995-good or anything like that, but for 2013 Jon he sounded really good. No noticeable blown notes, and only seemed winded briefly during the post-outro solo verse on Always. In fact during Prayer a major reason I wanted a second encore was because Jon sounded too good to let the show end there.

-I love the stage. Granted, I'm the kind of person who cares a lot more about pure performance than anything else, but if a cool stage production that compliments the music is always welcome to me, and this one certainly does. The car itself just looks damn cool for starters. On top of that, most of the videos and graphics were well done. I loved how the windshield of the car changed to various places (ala' on top of make out canyon during BOR) and the use of the smirks during HAND was great. Also, I've seen some people talk about the stage being too big and overtaking the band, but that certainly wasn't the case up in the 300s where the whole production came together. I can't speak for being any closer.

-While I still despise the song live, the Jersey Shore tribute video on the screen during WSYCGH was actually a moving moment, and the crowd LOVED it.

-Outside of Runaway, the first encore was great. Grants there were no "rare" songs, but WDOA, SIBSN, HAND, and LOAP are all massive encore worthy songs and really whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

-What can I say about the second encore? When Jon pulled the one more song schtick during the bows I had a feeling to would be Always, and sure enough it was. Pretty strong version. Not as good as the MSG '11 ones (as far as ones I've heard live) but he didn't struggle with it. After that he rattled off a few song titles (BOB which got a reaction, ILTT which got a very small reaction, TD which got a small reaction, TAALS which got no reaction, and IBTFY which got a massive reaction) and eventually they started These Days, which based on equipment and common sense was the one they planned on playingnall along. A lot of people were pissed at TD over IBTFY, in fact one person actually booed me when they started TD, as if Jon has decided to play it soley for the dude in the Yankees cap in section 332. From a personal emotional standpoint this could never touch the MSG 11 version, but this was probably a better performance, at least vocally. I was the only person in my section who enjoyed it, as most people filed out when it wasn't IBTFY.

All in all, I'm glad I ended up going. It wasn't the best Bon Jovi show I've ever seen, but it was certainly worth it for $20, especially the encore. Hell, getting These Days alone was worth $20 since it's my favorite song ever.

A few other random notes:

-BTBMB went over rally flat with the crowd, which surprised me.

-Not only was the Merch overpriced, but it sucked.

-I loved seeing everybody.

That's always how they do the acoustic intro to Prayer on this tour.

It seems like people have developed selective memory about the 2010 MetLife shows that god Dry County twice, Always, Never Say Goodbye, Diamond Ring, I'd Die For You, Just Older, and Livin In Sin.

Nice. That's hilarious.
I can just picture the guy saying that....

Thanks for the review

Jon's daughter was in the 300 section?

Some of my friends were in the 300 section, i was on the floor. Other friends were scattered throughout the stadium as they didn't want to pay for floor seats.

Brian, Great review, I'm sorry I missed you. We had plenty of food/drinks set up before the show. Glad to have seen Kathleen, Paul and Kat.

RD enjoyed your review too. hoping for some good encores on Saturday!

Thanks for the reminder Brian, I get sick of trying to convince anyone anymore that those were decent shows. And the MSG shows in 2011, especially #2 was incredible. This was just the encore:

Encore I:
26. Dry County
27. Wanted Dead Or Alive
28. I Love This Town
29. Livin' On A Prayer

Encore II:
30. Always
31. These Days
32. In These Arms
33. Just Older

So yeah - we do get some good shows here.

Aloha !

Right, with this set out there I still prefer the predictable setlist of 2010. The first show in 2010 was predictable beyond belief, with the exception of Dry County in the encore that is. And it's still a better set than what was done last night. I do hope they will play This Ain't A Love Song for those that are going to the second show though, many die hards there of which I know will love it. As for other songs, I'd be surprised if they'd throw any more bones at you that night. Night 3 in 2010 still had no real rare songs in the set, so chances are you'll be treated to rare stuff like In These Arms and the likes.

Well yeah, but that's spread out over 3 shows. Show number 1 and 2 had quite predictable setlists. Granted, show number 2 was better than number 3 despite the third one having a better set (which was perfect proof that a show doesn't need spectacular surprises for it to be good), but out of the 3 shows none of them were as good as most shows I'd see in Europe a year later, or the better shows I'd seen in Europe just a few years earlier. And as for earlier shows at Giants...2001 and 2003 were very average compared to European performances of that same tour.

It's only people from New Jersey/America who have never seen a European show that think these homecoming shows are the best thing out there. When everyone from America had just seen the last show in Lisbon there was no one thinking that the shows at Giants were even remotely special anymore. Good? Sure, but special? Nah...

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I think it's a question of you remember what you've seen. I wasn't fortunate enough to go to the MSG shows. The last truly great set I saw was Giants in 2006. The funny thing is, the sets would look so much better if they simply mixed up the order of the songs so we didn't all know what was coming next. It's no longer a question of reading the sets online. Once you've been to 1 show on a tour, you pretty much know what's coming. Bon Jovi isn't the only band guilty of this, but for a band with their size of a catalog, there's really no excuse, especially when they're playing songs like Captain Crash and not playing songs like Wild Is The Wind.

Not all of us. Why do you think I skipped the Jersey shows this tour? I've learned my lesson.