Pepsi Center 03/14/2018 Denver, CO - TREAD

Critics 2017: Jon moved on stage like if there's no tomorrow. People were louder than the band.
It was a great show like if this was 1989.

Real 2017 Bon Jovi concert: Opposite.

That's because Critics aren't following every show like we do. When Willie Nelson was in Asbury Park, NJ a few summers ago, the Press was drooling how he did a song for Wayland. He's been doing a song for Wayland for friggin years, but they don't know that because they don't follow every show obsessively.

https://303magazine.com/2018/03/bon-jovi-denver-2018-1/

"Then, in Bon Jovi fashion, the singer immersed himself amongst the audience in his signature concert stunt. Flocking the stage-left crowd, the vocalist performed beautifully executed ballads of “Amen” and “Bed of Roses” amongst his fans, even slow-dancing with a lucky audience member. With red lights streaming into every corner of the venue, this passionate portion of the night reminded everyone that Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals have only grown more magical over the years."



LOL - Yeah, OK.

This is some of the biggest BS I've ever heard.

I'm laughing, yet I don't think this is funny. It's actually pretty sad.

Here's LYHOM from the show:

https://youtu.be/DDens8Mwy1k

Jon nails the long note again, but he sounds noticeably thinner on it than last year or even at the iHeart radio show in February, with his tone actually reminding me of November/December 2013... I don't know what to think.

By the way, it's been very refreshing to spend time on the official Facebook comment section of the Denver show tonight. Both me and DavetheGodofKeys have been exactly as harsh towards Jon's vocals and the setlist there as we always are here (we're doing it on the band's official FB page surrounded by overly defensive casuals, so we're REALLY brave, right?), yet we haven't gotten in the middle of a shit storm.

Maybe also the casuals are finally starting to notice that something isn't right? I mean, there are dozens of comments there about Jon being unable to hit the high notes anymore, and no one seems to get butthurt about them... a miracle has clearly happened!

This level of horridness simply can't be unheard:

https://youtu.be/22GBnPByY8Y

I think this is legit because this person was actually there at the show,you were not.

You're right, I wasn't there.

But let's compare this (KTF from two days ago)...

https://youtu.be/UqXbjBJM-Yc

...to this (KTF from the Denver 2013 show):

https://youtu.be/8fpl48ouZo0

Five years in general don't mean shit. Jon could still sing pretty well in April '13, although his high notes were no longer as strong in general as they were in '08-'11.

That said, he basically lost his voice for good between the first and second weeks of July 2013 - within a week - and hasn't been able to regain any of it since then, no matter how hard he's tried multiple times and in multiple different ways; he's actually getting worse all the time. Just listen to this:

https://youtu.be/B3w3IF4Kv9I (Always from London, July 5, 2013)

And then this:

https://youtu.be/pc1vf38FrXM (Always from Boston, July 20, 2013)

On the London performance, Jon manages to hit most of the notes quite well and sounds powerful in general. At times, he even sounds pretty close to how he did in '08-'11.

On the Boston performance delivered just two weeks later, all the choruses are sung flat, his vocals are terribly weak, he can't control his volume at all, there's no smoothness or resonance of any kind, and he absolutely runs out of gas during the outro, ending the song by shouting completely out of key + breath.

And no, it's not that you "can't judge a performance if you weren't there". I've heard dozens of old bootlegs from the KTF and TD tours, many of absolutely abysmal quality, and yet I can clearly tell that Jon sounds superb on them. Being able to hear his current vocal poorness is the same thing - just the other way around -, and basically none of these new recordings sound nearly as terrible as most of the old audience-recorded stuff.

It would be a bad sign if you hear him too light on that high note in LYHOM in the next few years.
Lightening (On purpose) voice a lot when you didnt need to lighten it that much a few years ago for the same note can mean a loss of chest high notes.

I hope they play Living In Sin tonight.