Official June 15, 2013 - Slane Castle, County Meath, Ireland thread

Actually - that review describes perfectly why I stopped going to Bon Jovi gigs.

So glad i never stopped going, i had an amazing time in Manchester and Sunderland....the Manchester one especially will stay with me for life.

''...one might think that peppering the set with well known tunes at a venue like Slane would go down well.''

'Cross Road':

'Always'
'Wanted Dead Or Alive'
'Someday I'll Be Saturday Night'
'In These Arms'
'Livin' On A Prayer'
'You Give Love A Bad Name'
'Runaway'
'I'll Be There For You'
'In These Arms'
'Bad Medicine'
'Keep The Faith'

'Greatest Hits'

'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead'
'These Days'
'Blood On Blood'
'Lost Highway'
'When We Were Beautiful'
'We Weren't Born To Follow'
'It's My Life'
'Have A Nice Day'
'Who Says You Can't Go Home'

Twenty of the twenty-eight songs played appear on Greatest Hits/Best Of compilations. That might be too much of a simplistic view but I'd say it's a fair bet that those who know of Bon Jovi would have been satisfied with what was, in all honesty, a best of Bon Jovi setlist.

Oh, and I ****ing hate how 'tune' gets used so much. Just call them songs.

The press rave about Springsteeen's sets of length and rarity, and Bon Jovi play a 27 song set with loads of hits and a whole THREE new songs and they get told to just stay to the hits. The sets are far from perfect, but they just can't win.

Springsteen will always be a media darling and Bon Jovi will not. It has been that way since the 80s

It's not about hits though. With a song like Letting Go they could entangle the world and bring tears to their eyes. With a song like Amen they bore people to death. This topic has been over engineered and it's not worth going into details. But this is a band of 1000 songs and surely they could get the setlist right. The middle section is such a drag, even die-hards get bored. I am not even a Springsteen fan, he never ever bores anyone in that crowd. And yes, they can win by getting the setlist right. It seems like a detail but it's so important. The reason Sambora's solo gigs where seen as mediocre was not his sound, energy, performance - but the poor setlist choice as well. It must be contagious.

Never understood the hatred towards Amen, its the one song i wish i had seen live but never ;-(

There was nothing wrong with the show. My heart wasn't in it due to the lack of Richie, I really am missing the harmonizing between him and Jon and Richie's stage presence, in general. After attending 50+ shows with Richie it's hard to go to one without. So I am honestly thankful the crowd gave me something to watch and the opportunity to see people could still honestly enjoy a Bon Jovi minus Richie Sambora show.

Fair enough on your opinion about Bon Jovi but the review is not accurate.

Jon was immense I thought. Oozing charisma, him and the band gave it their all for over 3 hours. Forget what the set looks like on paper - on the night it worked very, very well. Jon may be many things but his ability to work a crowd is close to unrivalled. Thought Phil was excellent too. It was a bit uncomfortable seeing him there instead of Richie throughout the night but that isn't his fault and he did great and looked to be loving it.

As for the review. I believe that the reviewer isn't an actual music writer and, apparently, she spent the entire gig in the VIP area drinking. I'd bet most of it was conceived and written before Bon Jovi even took the stage.

Yeah - quite possibly. Still - I wrote a review of one of the O2 shows in 2010 - it was so very similar, unbelievable. And I remember taking a couple of friends to the 2008 Hamburg show and they were non die-hards. I loved the show, Hey God was played, Jon was in great spirits, I had a blast. They were bored to death through the mid-section. It's something Bon Jovi have never got right. That doesn't meant they didn't enjoy the show, but up until We Got it Goin' On/ It's My Life came in the set, they just looked bored and confused, despite all of Jon's charisma and stuff. So, yes, I can completely empathise with what the reviewer was writing.