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

Hey all! On the train back to the hotel... Was a great show!

Bad Medicine, Who Says, Have a Nice Day, Always and Prayer were the biggest crowd pleasers I thought. Overall was a good show.

I finally know why Jon always plays Who Says. In Australia no one except the die hards know the song, but omg tonight people around me quickly stood up and cheered when they knew it was being played... I even enjoyed it thanks to everyone else enjoying it.

Jon got the crowd to vote for the last encore after Always... He listed I Love This Town, I'll Be There For You, These Days, This Ain't A Love Song and Blood on Blood. Initially he said he was gonna play BOB but did a revote between ILTT, IBTFY and TD. Was a tight one between the last two (although the cheer for IBTFY was clearly a little louder), but Jon went with These Days in the end.

Will post more when I get a chance.

Side note: after 5 shows seeing the band, I finally got to hear Bed of Roses. It was awesome

Just a quickie since it's 1 in the morning and we all have to work tomorrow. These Days was worth the price of admission (in my book) and Jon is killing himself carrying the vocal part of the show. KTF was immense and the tone that Phil gets rivals what Richie used to get. When Bed of Roses started that guitar cut through the night like it used to.

Yes the set looks vanilla on paper, I expect different on Saturday night, but it was an incredibly enjoyable show.

Also, while Jon was doing the whole "thanks for being with this band for the past 30 years" etc etc, he also thanked the fans for their patience (no doubt in regards to Richie), followed by "there's not a day that it goes by unnoticed"... I kind of took that as a double meaning; both our patience and Richies absence is noted everyday. I'm not sure what others thought of it. Jon seemed pretty genuine with that speech.

So here is my take on the show ...

The main set:

If you've seen them before, the main set is very boring. My last Jovi show was Lisbon 2011, so I was really in need of a Jovi fix. I went to the stadium knowing that I'd get the same main set that has been played to death this tour, but since it had been two years since I last saw them, I was really looking forward to that. I was really hoping that I would enjoy hearing the same old. However, I didn't. Jon was very good tonight, he worked hard to engage the crowd (which was good), but the setlist is very lame and weak. There are so many dulls in the set and only one or two moments (Keep the Faith was fantastic) that reminded me of the band which kept me on my feet for whole shows in 2008, 2010 and 2011. The sequence BWC/WAN/WGIGO was very boring. The same, if not worse, for Crash/Follow/Who Says. (About Who Says: people were going bollocks for it. That's why is should only be a staple here in America.)

The new songs went over like a lead ballon, and Make a Memory was cringe worthy. Jon didn't go for the last long note and the UUUUUUUU's at the end of the song were terrible. It was a snoozefest.

Speaking of Jon, he had some troubles at the beginning with his voice, but he got a lot better during the show. Overall, I though we was ok, but much worse than 2011. He avoided the high notes all the time.

Everything was very boring until Sleep started. When Jon went for the bridge before the final chorus, he stopped and called some covers. That was really fun , and so was Bad Medicine. It seemed that something had possessed Jon. He took the show to another level, and that continued on the encores. Runaway was a great encore opener, Saturday Night and HAND were very good as usual. Prayer is always loud. Jon did a good job on Always, and then started to list songs for the crowd to choose. The cheer for ILTT was louder than for TAALS. (We're in America !!) And even though IBTFY got the highest cheer, Jon went with These Days. It was a good rendition, but it really showed why it isn't played in America: people were clueless and were laughing at me because I was singing my heart out during the song.

So, IMO, there were two completely different shows: a very boring one until Sleep, and a great one after that. Jon's vocals were ok (not good but not bad either), the crowd was nice, however the setlist is very weak and badly structured.

Loved every minute of it! So worth the trip from Ireland! Great seats, full concert in the dark so stage set was awesome, crowd was amazing in contrast to what said it would be like. A full house too which was unexpected for me! Set was fine and the rain during prayer and always was epic.

PS Phil is great. Do not need Sambora. Phil did not let us down tonight and actually had some great backing vocals!!

Great show! The car stage was unbelievable, photos do not do it justice. First time I ever heard TD so I was very happy.

People were leaving after Prayer. I had a banner for "I'm with you" and HG and the woman next to me wanted to know if HG was a new song, she never heard it before.

These Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_ON...ature=youtu.be

more videos tomorrow.

Or not. It went over like a lead balloon. People around me had no idea of what was being played and looked completely surprised because I knew the words for it. Some were even laughing at me.

The cheer for IBTFY was a lot bigger, but Jon really wanted to play These Days. And once again: the cheer for I Love This Town was louder than for This Ain't a Love Song. Oh God !

Glad you all had a great night ^

The dull bits of of the set were definitely Whole Lot of Leaving, What About Now, Born to Follow and Make a Memory.

WLOL is one of my too 5 favourite Jovi songs and even I can tell you that it just doesn't go well in a stadium show (except "the got it anymore" bit).

I'm torn with Because We Can... It starts off slow and terrible but picks up quite well by the end. Jon really needs to stop doing the acoustic bit at the end though. I could barely hear the crowd singing along.

It was embarrassing. Everybody was silent.

Gotta respect your "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" for I love this town. Good job.