The Band Is On The Road To Oblivion

From the latest (Bob) Lefetz Letter:

"... if your fans are angry at you, you're on the road to oblivion."

and

"Yes, clubs utilize velvet ropes, but they have a tiny audience inside. Then again, if you believe you're only entitled to a tiny audience, have a huge cover charge and sell overpriced drinks. Which is kind of like when Bon Jovi and the Eagles go on tour. Those are dead acts. You've got to be alive. If you're not growing, you're over."

I think this tour is the beginning of the end for the band if they continue the same policy of overpricing and catering to people in their mid 40s and those with much disposable income. They are already at risk of oversaturating their markets by touring every two to three years and playing what is, in essence, the same show. I've noticed a huge difference in the demographic of the shows in just the last decade. "It's My Life" brought in a younger crowd but those people didn't come back, because the last tour was a middle aged audience (disclosure, I am in my mid-30s) with little energy.

This is the first tour that I (a die-hard fan with bunches of bootlegs and tons of money spent on their product) is considering not even bothering to try to attend. Will it make a difference to them? Of course not. However, I'm starting to believe that more and more shows on this coming tour will be more and more empty and, while this tour won't be it, subsequent tours might lead them to what Lefetz describes.

Thoughts?

I sort of agree. I'm also thinking about skipping this one.
Not too sure why exactly. I guess it's a combination of many factors, but I definatly think real fans are gradually drifting away from the band.

Loved seeing Richie in London last week - saw more passion & enjoyment than at any time since the 'These Days' tour, it was great.

I feel same about upcoming Jovi tour. It will be the first one I've missed since 1987 when I was just getting into the band at 16 and was too young to make the Slippery tour.

Do I want to see Jon going through the motions again? Do I want to see 'who says', 'bad medicine' and all the usual suspects again in a football stadium or field?

Unless they change the setlists, come back with an amazing album or play inside instead of fields it will be a no from me.

I'm not the slightest bit angry with them and loved the last few tours. So yeah, I'm not with you on this at all.

i agree with this thread tremendously - not shocking....

Weren't you drooling along with the rest of us at the Lisbon gig saying how extremely good it was?

Unless the tickets are stupidly expensive, the tour won't lose me. Ive been more than happy with the live shows, setlist issues not withstanding over here they've generally been good.

They will lose the more casual fan if they keep hiking the prices up though, and BJ are very much one of those bands that people can know a good few songs of and go along without being much of a fan. But when they price these people out you have a problem. Theres been a lot fewer concerts from other bands that Ive gone to purely on the price, when they are going over £50 I'm not too bothered.
It's embarrassing trying to convince a friend to come with me to see BJ, and say well that'll be £80 for a ticket then please. Reasonable prices for the stadium gigs will sell them out no doubt, but there's only so much disposable income people have at the moment, and die-hards aside, people won't want to spend loads on an act that to the wider public, hasn't done a great deal in the last few years, and would still be performing most of the same songs as when they went to see them last time.

It's pretty true - the band are not churning out quality material, are playing it safe and are catering to an audience that they know they won't lose.
If you were to ask Jon about creating music for a new audience you can be sure that he won't care about it. To him new albums are just a way of keeping the old fans interested. If they don't sell loads he doesn't care anymore because he knows they can sell tickets for tours and make the money that way.

There's no two ways about it, they have become, like many other classic acts, a nostalgia band who play only a couple of more recent tracks in their concerts. It's been debated many times here before as to why that happens so I won't go into it again in too much detail. It's the same reason that I'd expect classic songs if I went to an Aerosmith gig as a casual fan. Hardcore/long term fans always want something different at a gig, whereas a casual fan wants to hear the hits.

As for next year's tour - I will only be buying tickets based on three things. Firstly, date/location of UK gigs. For me it's Milton Keynes or Wembley Stadium only. Secondly, ticket prices - I spent a fortune on a pair of the best seats at the O2 in 2010 and it took me ages to pay it off the credit card. If tickets are more than £50 each including booking fee, it ain't happening. Finally, when they go on sale. If they put tickets on sale before the new album comes out then I'll take the risk of not buying them. When you do that it smacks of over-confidence in yourself, and for once I wish they'd end up falling flat on their faces because of it. After all, you'll only get 2/3 songs from the new album anyway.

I'm quite happy to risk not getting any tickets at all. Look at what happened with the O2 run. They got overconfident in their ability to sell out and ended up reducing tickets to £5 each - and also had to upgrade people to make the front area look full. They claim 100% sell-out on that run (check stats on Wikipedia), but we all know that was a lie!

I'll still go to a local show, but won't travel anymore to see them. It's simply not worth it. I don't say that simply because of the cost of tickets, but because I feel the shows have become stale. I get it that we're going to get Bad Medicine, Bad Name, Who Says, etc. I just can't for the life of me understand why they can't be mixed up in the set a bit? And why can't their be 5-7 rarities switched up every night? And....

You know what - Waste of time. We've been asking for this since the Crush Tour, and it ain't happening.

I've more or less said the same. Ill def go to one big show, meet up with some good friends and enjoy it what for it is. However if the album is shit that will be more of the set taken over by toilet break songs. Unless they dramatically change things up, I won't be doing multiple concerts.

Good post by the way, the demand is getting less and less each tour yet I bet the prices will be increased.