Based on the warm up shows, it's a good bet that Last Man Standing is going to be the show opener. From what I saw....it needs a little work.

Thematically and lyrically...the song makes perfect sense as an opener. Vibe wise...it's a bit too laid back, even with the heavy overall sound. They just walked out on stage and played it straight. I thnk they should have at least extended the intro some...getting it chugging along with Tico laying the groove in a few bars before Jon actually start singing. Instead...things don't start movign along until right when Jon starts the first verse. It needs some change in the arrangement or presentation to pull it off.

Shows CAN successfully start off with a down-tempo number. It starts the show off smoothly..extending their arrival a bit. Consider it as the anouncement of the band's arrival to the stage.

Depeche Mode did it exactly this way on their 1992 Devotional tour. This was the band at the height of their creative peak...their own "These Days" period to give a parallel. They started with the song "Higher Love" a highly moody slow tempo number that had plenty of impact and edge regardless of the tempo. At the same time, you could not see the band throughout the song. Partially transparent curtains were up in front of the stage. So all you saw was the lights lighting up the curtains in different colors while the band was backlit, their shadows projected on to the curtains..for the duration of the song. There was a sense of anticipation in the air. At the end of the song, the curtains would drop and then they would go into Policy of Truth, finally visible and picking the tempo up.

Another example is Metallica. On the Load tour, the band simply walked out into the arena with the house lights still on. They would walk around high fiving the audience before getting on the stage to their respective instruments. They would then just start playing "So What" while nothing but the houselights were on. Then midway through the song they would shut the houselights down and the stage lights came to life. They then would launch into Creeping Death with burst of pyro going off.

With Bon Jovi, the band could all gradually arrive on the stage as they play LMS.....being lowered from the top of the lighting rig slowly, not settling on to the stage into after Richie's solo, before the lines "Take your seats, now folks – it’s showtime, Hey, Patrick, hit the lights." They would all be pretty much stationary for the entire song.

They would get things really moving along with the 2nd song, which would pick up the pace and get the show going full throttle. Now in reality, it's probably going to continue to be Bad Name, immediately showing they are a slave to their past and must appease the masses with the hits. Personally though, as they did in the 90's..they should hold off on that. Back then, they opened with an album track off the latest album, Raise Your Hands or Lay Your Hands On Me, depending on the respective tour. They would then follow that with I'd Die For You. You have to keep persective as at the time, these songs were very fresh. I'd Die For You was another album rock track, having no single or video status as with the first song. On the Jersey Syndicate tour..this was followed with Wild In the Streets..yet another album rock track. They didn't hit you with an overplayed hit until song # 4 with Bad Name (and even then..at that point in time, especially the way the band played it, it had far more impact than it does now.) So the whole point is...they can still do this.

So what I would like to see is they follow LMS with Story of My Life. It picks the energy up and thematicaly follows LMS lyrically, where the focus shifts from legends and the soul of music in LMS to Bon Jovi specifically in SOML. As with I'd Die For You...it could easily be one of those songs that is performed so energy-charged that the song is elevated past it's studio version.

Anyway, just some ideas I had that I wanted to share.