Opinions of HAND tour so far?

I remember in an interview where Jon said this was going to be the shortest tour of Bon Jovi's career. This is turning into quite a trek.

Ryan

It has definitely exceeded my expectations. For everyone who has seen both this tour and Bounce it is has been like night and day. The biggest and best surprise of the tour has been the quality of Jon's voice and the passion of the performances. For me that has been even better than the changes in the setlist.

This tour has been so enjoyable. Bounce was eh - OK I guess. Maybe it had something to do with the post 9/11 depression those of us that live here had in 2002. It just didn't have that spark, Jon didn't sound particularly good, and the album itself just wasn't as good.

My first concert this tour was Madison Square Garden - night 1 and that concert just exploded. It was incredible. Then came night 2 which was even more over the top - just watch the DVD. The energy in that building was amazing. Becky is right in that bootlegs don't always give you the true picture of a concert but that one comes close.

Kathleen

How was Richie on the tour ? Any additional guitar stuff on the new songs or does he just play it straight off the album. I always thought Bells Of Freedom would be great live with an extended end solo like he does with IBTFY. It always made the shows a bit more special when the songs are different live like Hey God, Keep The Faith, Runaway etc with added solos.

I remember seeing Van Halen support Bon Jovi at Sheffield and they just copied the albums exactly, they could have just played the CD's and mimed. I thought Eddie would really go crazy live but no he just played every solo note for note off the albums. I know some people like to hear note perfect renditions of songs but I prefer to hear Richie and the band rocking out a bit. You know all those "Take it home boys" bits were the band rock out to the end of the song.

That wasn't the right gig to see Van Halen. During the 2004 tour, Eddie improvised in every song and threw a wicked solo. I think VH is just not used to opening. But that's what you get if you ignore the overseas market.

They had a decent length set though, I think it was about 90 min and Eddie was even trying to claim in the press that they weren't opening for Bon Jovi it was a co-headliner tour. This was obviously bollocks as Bon Jovi sold most of the tickets before Van Halen were announced, did about 2 and a half hours and had all the lights and everything. Van Halen had a drape with the Balance cover on it! I would like to see them live and had tickets to see the ill fated Gary Cherone line up but they cancelled. I've got the Right Here Right Now live album as well and there's not too much improvising going on there. I'd still go see them anyway as I'd pay to see Eddie play anything.

Get some boots from the 04 tour... I may be able to hook you up.

I was VERY pleased with the North American tour. Hey, I went to 19 shows so something kept me coming back. Now, to look for that MSG dvd, lol!!

deb

Agree with a lot of what has been said... Setlists were certainly more interesting second leg, but the show i went to first leg (boston, night 1) was fantastic even though there were no surprises.


One thing that hasn't been mentioned that I liked a lot was I Wont Back Down as an intro into Have a Nice Day. I'd love to hear Richie sing that, too...

I was blown away by this tour. I saw Bon Jovi play in Madison and Milwaukee and both shows far surpassed my expectations. I would have loved to hear some of my favorites that weren't played, but so many were played that I am completely satisfied with the shows (even considering I paid way too much money for a ticket off of e-bay to have good floor seats - lesson learned). I just hope that this isn't Bon Jovi's peak and that next time they go on tour the energy and interaction will decrease - see I'm already wanting another tour and worried about it not happening. It is going to be a hard and long wait.I think that Bon Jovi concerts make going to other concerts seem less impressive because they always give their all- but I'm a little biased