Agree 100%. It's amazing that one band has attracted so many different types of people for such varied reasons; and that something that drives one person crazy can be the very thing that drew someone else to the band in the first place. Even when what originally drew them in isn't there any longer, or isn't being done at the same level, there's still something that keeps them coming back for more. Sometimes it may seem like it's only the hope that the next concert or the next album will prove that the band still has "it"; but for whatever reason, it says a lot that they're still here.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that when people are critical, most of the time it comes from that place of wishful thinking; rather than a place of hate. It's like the new "well, back in the good old days..." when everything is seen through the soft-focus lens of time. That could explain why some fans would give anything, now, to hear the same quality or the same setlist that they were so critical of a few years ago.

By the same token, I think when most people say, "Jon should..." or "Why doesn't Jon just...", it's not because they think they know better than he does what he should do, or that he's too stupid to have thought of those things himself. Instead, I believe it's frustration talking, the feeling that there just has to be something - some pill or a magic wand - that will recapture what was.

I know there are some people who get tired of the criticism, but I think it says a lot - for the band and the fans - that people still care enough to be critical. IMO, criticism won't ever kill a fan base; but indifference would.


(And besides, what else are we gonna give each other grief about when there's not much else going on?)