The Circle live claim!

Aloha !

I don't get it. When the band played 5 to 7 songs of Lost Highway per night on the Lost Highway tour people bitched on how the songs didn't work and shouldn't be played. Now that people actually like the songs they want the songs to be played, yet they don't work at all in concert apart from We Weren't Born To Follow. No, Love's The Only Rule doesn't work, no one gives a shit about the song every time I've seen the band play it, no matter how much Jon wants to sell the song. The same counts for Superman Tonight. Just because you like the song doesn't mean that it works in concert. Every now and then the odd song is ok, just like the odd song like Dry County is nice, but so far the only people who have realized that the songs don't work in concert are the band themselves, while everyone who loves The Circle still thinks they should be played. They don't work. What's the point?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I agree with you Seb. I personally, do like a lot of songs from The Circle, but other than WWBTF, they get polite applause at best. Also, had the cd sales gone up as is usually the case with a tour, I think Jon would have kept more of the stuff in. But, sales never increased so.....

How do we know that will not work if you do not play the songs?

Brokenpromiseland will work better than Right Side Of Wrong or Next 100 Years

Learn to Love will work better than Bed of Roses (TLFR) or Always.

Thorn in My Side and Love The only Rule are working better than Complicated or Summertime.

One Show needs new songs, need diferent moments, not only Hits.

The routine kills shows.

I assume you mean TLFR Always?

what the F... did you smoke??

Who has the right to judge if a song works or doesn’t work live? There is no general rule for that. And you can’t judge it mostly on audience’s reception. It’s also a matter of liking/not liking and knowing/not knowing the song. You think that people do not get into TC songs because these songs do not work live and I say it is only because they don’t know them. I for example was one of the few people in my block in London that knew Bullet when they played it. Most of the people didn’t know the lyrics and the song at all. They did not jump, scream, show they like it – but I did. But still does it mean the song doesn’t work live? Bullshit. Imagine yourself at the concert of the band that you listen to occasionally and you know only few hits (that’s about 95% of the BJ shows audience as we all know). Would you jump and scream on the songs you didn’t know at all, no matter how good they were? And if you do not know the song you can’t like or dislike it, because you hear it for the first time. I for example did not know a single song of Kid Rock and I was just watching it, listening and not showing my interest. But that didn’t mean I didn’t like the performance at all. I was just getting familiar with those songs. When BJ got on stage I went crazy right away because I knew the songs. Simple as that.

For you the new songs don’t work live because you don’t like these songs and the new album, and that’s the fact. And no matter how great they would play them you’d still be looking for faults and what went wrong and would like to hear other songs instead. So it all goes back to one main thing - it’s all about what anyone wishes/wants them to play and what they play at the end. If anyone likes any song of any artist, he/she just wants to hear it being played live at least once, to compare it with album version for example. That’s why people go to music concerts, right? And if you like a song on the album, it would be really hard to say that it doesn’t work live for you. It’s still the same song. If it’s played a little bit different than on the album, than I say it’s even better - that’s the beauty of the live performances. If you want to hear it perfectly - play the CD. If you want to experience something you know but in a little different way, from a different perspective - go to live shows.

I agree on the main subject though – they should play as much Circle songs as possible at each show. At least 6-7 of them. The tour is called The Circle Tour and I don’t see any reason to drop the title songs. That’s my only complaint about this tour and band’s decisions. The album is amazing and it deserves to be played. And if people do not know the new songs, that’s the only way to show it to them. Avoiding them is the worst decision in my opinion.

Do you??? Really... Because what he says is right (except about always). If not, keep your TLFR, summertime, right side of wrong and complicated with you anytime!!!

I agree with him. The circle must be played in its entirely and in the sets have to appear at least 5-6 of its songs

and the sets are quite annoying with the autopilot mode on!!!!!!! its a shame with so many gems!!!

Of course CD sales will not go up -- How can they if they don't play the songs? In the usual tour album sales go up because the artist actually plays songs from the new album. I don't get Blood on Blood as an opener -- to me it does not fit. Every other artist I have seen starts off the set list with a new song. In their current tour, U2 started off their set list by playing 4 to 5 new songs back to back. Happy Now, Thorn, or Bullet would be better openers. Yes, the casual fan will not know the songs and just stand there not singing or clapping but at least give them a chance to hear the song. We can't make claims that a song would or would not work if they don't play it. Brokenpromiseland was only played once. Why not try it again? Thorn seemed to go over very well so why not keep playing it?

I liked the point someone else raised about Lost Highway. I don't like that album at all and judging from the reception those songs got on the last tour, I don't think fans liked them either yet that didn't stop Bon Jovi from playing the songs. I think that is the same attitude they should adopt with respect to the new album.

For the record, I am a huge fan of their more recent albums (Lost Higway being the exception). My favorite BJ albums are The Circle, Bounce, and Have a Nice Day. Unfortunately for me they don't seem to be playing many songs from these albums on their current tour at all.

I have no problem with rarities for the die hard fans. These Days is an amazing album and I would love to hear songs like Hey God, This Ain't A Love Song, My Guitar Lies Bleeding... But why has this tour become a greatest hits tour and not a tour to promote the new album? I don't get it

Aloha !

Yes there is.

Polite applause; Song doesn't work.
Crowd goes nuts: Song works.

Song sounds shit live: Song doesn't work.
Song sounds good live: Song works.

If you think a certain song works because you like it that means your biased. When Bullet was released many people over here liked the song, yet everyone questioned if the song would work live because of the many layers the song has on the album. You jumped up and down because you go crazy on songs you like and I'm all for that, but that doesn't mean that a song works. I personally think All I Want Is Everything of These Days is a great song, but it sucked live. Jon never nailed it and it needed an extra guitar.

A crowd not knowing a song doesn't have anything to do with whether it works or not. Many people in the crowd don't know Capt. Crash, yet it works live because everyone in the stadium starts swaying their arms. If a crowd does not get into the song, it just means that it doesn't work. It's very easy to understand.

That's no fact at all. That's just you needing to find an excuse for my reasoning of why I think the songs don't work so you got a reason to get your right. However, I've seen the band on various tours by now, and there have been many songs on Crush, Bounce, HAND that didn't work, and the band stopped playing those as well. Two Story Town? Dropped. Mystery Train? Dropped. Welcome To Wherever You Are? Dropped. All songs that got pretty much no love at all from the crowd apart from the polite applause. The reactions to songs from The Circle are a lot worse though. When Love's The Only Rule has ended there's this soft noise of "Yeah, it's over. NEXT!" I've never experienced that with any song apart from All About Lovin' You in Gelsenkirchen 2003.

Everyone who's been to shows of The Circle tour agrees that the new songs don't work. Superman Tonight doesn't go over well. When We Were Beautiful tanks, and this is the first album of which the songs of which the band thinks are the best songs pretty much tank in concert, which is a huge contrast to Whole Lot Of Leavin', a song that was never a hit yet still goes over extremely well, hence the reason why the band keeps playing it.

People go to concerts to hear songs they like. With The Circle tour people don't go to concerts to see Bon Jovi play the new stuff. Do you honestly believe they could do 12 nights at the O2 because of the success of The Circle? No. It's because people want to hear stuff they like, and Jon's tried a lot of things and still tries to sell Work For The Working Man, but it's just not happening. People don't get excited over songs of The Circle.

Yeah, and once again, playing 5-7 new songs in concert of which none go over as well as any of your older material it pretty much means that there's no point in trying to sell your new stuff at all. People didn't care for the album and people didn't care for the new stuff. I'd love it if they'd play BrokenPromiseland, but it'll go over like a lead balloon. And that's just the way it is. Songs of the Circle just don't work live, and that's got nothing to do with my personal opinion of the album, because I don't rate any of the last 5 studio albums very high, yet I can understand why Lost Highway is a regular and Love's The Only Rule isn't. And that's the way it is. Once again, Jesus has spoken.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan