Didn't see this thread and have just made one of my own about setlists so will wade in here too.

Yes, performance is key and I would rather go to a vanilla bon jovi show than a great one by other bands because Bon Jovi are the band that have lived with me now since 1986 - however - and this is key to me - to see the band play essentially the same show tour after tour with largely the same songs is dis-heartening.

Jon did seem to care about the setlist in the WWWB film, much more than I expected, but it frustrates me that he pours over the set each night and there are clearly songs he loves that he would like to play (like 'Open All Night' from 'Bounce' which is namechecked in the film) but when push comes to shove he lacks the courage of his own artist impulses and chickens out from playing them in favour of cover versions!!!!

The problem comes from playing huge stadiums where there is no atmosphere - jon is obsesssed with keeping the mood up, the tone light so that these huge stadia full of people go home tapping their feet - thats not what I love about Bon Jovi - and thats a change for Jon, I remember being in a field in Milton Keynes somewhere around 1995 and watching both 'Something to Believe In' and 'My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms' mesmorize everyone with the intensity of they way they were being performed.

Jon has completely forgotten that you don't have to play 'Bad Medicine' to interest a crowd and has settled for the easy option once more again on this tour.

It might be different for the O2 shows because they still have an awful lot of tickets to sell so they financially need to hit the ground running with the first 4-5 shows being different - do that and they will pick up a lot of last minute ticket sales. Also the O2, whilst being a huge arena, is still smaller and more intimate that most places they've been playing in the UK in the last 15 years, so the atmosphere should be better.

Setlist choice for me is a key part of enjoying the show. They could play the best version of Bad Medicine that I've ever seen but I'd still take a ropey 'Only Lonely' over that any day!