Too Much Guitar by Jon?

Now, before I start, this is all my personal preference. I have my opinion, you have yours, and that's OK. We all are entitled to our opinion.

OK. I think that Jon is playing guitar live a little too much as of late (since the HAND tour). I mean, there are plenty of songs where it makes sense for him to play guitar (see WDOA and IBTFY), but there are a few where it doesn't. Here's a few moderately played songs in the past few years where Jon uses guitar.

Yellow means that it sounds nice with Jon on guitar but he doesn't need to play it or use a different guitar
Green means that the song should either be played with a different guitar or none at all
Blood on Blood (I think it's much better on electric guitar like in the Bounce promo concerts)
The Radio Saved My Life Tonight (could be much better on electric guitar)
We Weren't Born To Follow (needs no guitar at all; see performance from Giants parking lot and Bradenburg Gate anny,)
These Days (awesome song, but it looks and sounds much better on electric guitar like in the These Days era)
Last Man Standing (another good song, but it just does not make any sense on acoustic guitar, may be better on electric)

I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading this.

Considering when he does play guitar it's buried in the mix for the most part I think you're making a bit too much of this.

Maybe, but songs seem to pack more energy with Jon walking around on the stage. I'm just talking about the visual appeal of it. It sounds good, but it may not look good.

Yes. He plays guitar far too much. I mean he even plays it on 'Twist And Shout' sometimes. What's that about?

I once covered this issue in a post (not as fancy as yours though ) I totally agree with you. He plays way too much.

When Blood on blood was played with Jon on electric guitar listen closely to it, for some odd reason he used that tele with an acoustic simulator instead of just playing acoustic guitar like he always did. The same hapened on the earlier performances of The Distance.

I agree in some cases that it doesn't make sense for him to play acoustic on the song (WWBTF, LMS, Radio) These Days has a beautiful acoustic guitar on the album version that wasn't really used until now, and since they have Bobby B. there, it makes sense for Jon to use that opportunity to try and get it as musically close to the album version as possible.

by the way


what a great performance

It's pointless when Jon plays the acoustic sometimes. He doesn't even play it.

Just shakes it about to make it look like he's rocking out.

I noticed that on the Zepp Tokyo performance, but I could hear the electric guitar apart from Richie's on the Shepherds Bush performance. The way it's been most of the time, on acoustic guitar, sounds really good, too.

There is an acoustic part on the album, and I like it, it's just that I think it's better VISUALLY for him to play electric guitar.

In all fairness, I think he's using the guitar as a fashion accessory a lot less on this tour than on the last. If he has it, he's generally playing it. Whether we can HEAR what he's playing or not . . . I'll leave that up to you guys who know a lot more than I do.