Tutorial: How to write a proper setlist.

Aloha !

Be aware: this is a lot of reading. Don't come up with this "you've got too much time on your hands, or get a life, or whatever smart ass comment you can come up with next", because I really don't care. I've got a lot of interest when it comes to setlists, not just with Bon Jovi, but with Aerosmith, Oasis, etcetera as well, and thought it was nice to give it some thought on my busdrive from home to school. I think I nailed it right now, so here's my theory of how to write a proper setlist.

1. Represent every album.
Bon Jovi has a big catalogue but it's not as big as the one from like, for example, one from the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Every album has given the band a few hits, even if some of them were minor hits. Though the band pretends that the album didn't give the band any hits, fact is still that in America songs like In & Out Of Love and Only Lonely were bigger hits than Misunderstood or Everyday were. I bet that's something you didn't know, eh?

2. Assuming that a Bon Jovi setlist has 24 songs, meaning it's 2 hours and 15 minutes long, split up the set like this:


This indicates how succesful every album was. Sure, These Days was more succesful than their debutalbum, however, you need to represent every album in the set, hence there being 1 song of both albums in the set.

3. Like I made pointed out in that chart, when only 1 song from the album is represented, make sure it's a single. If you want to ignore this rule however and want to make it an album cut (for example, trade Everyday for Hook Me Up or something), then make sure you make the album cut (from, for example, New Jersey, a single. If you follow this rule, the set will always keep it's ballance and will always have it's "right" amount of album cuts and singles.

4. When representing more than 1 song from the album, make 1 of the songs an album cut. With an album like Slippery When Wet it'd mean that you get to pick 3 of the singles and 1 album cut. It'd mean something like "Wanted, Prayer, Bad Name ánd Wild In The Streets. For example. If you really want a more obscure single to be played (like Never Say Goodbye), you'd have to trade it for one of the big singles like Prayer, or something. Can you do that? Yes, you can. Just take a look at point 5:

5. So, yes, you can. For years, Bon Jovi didn't play Always. They skipped Born To Be My Baby 2 tours as well (1995 and 1996 tour) and took out Keep The Faith from the setlists on the Bounce and Have A Nice Day tours. So yes, you can leave out one of your biggest hits and still leave the audience satisfied. Not all of the big hits need to be played every show. You can always decide not to play one or 2 of your big hits. Bon Jovi has plenty of big hits, so there wouldn't be any harm done if It's My Life or Bad Name doesn't make it to that one show.

If Crush is represented by 1 song but you want to make that song an album cut, it'd exclude It's My Life from the list. Boohoo. The average concert visitor will get (for example) Bad Name, Prayer, Wanted, Bad Medicine, Always, Keep The Faith and Bed Of Roses anyway, so will most likely miss the song only a bit. He might be sad that he didn't get to hear it, but it's also a reason to go see Bon Jovi next time they tour. If you give your average fan always the same set, then at some time they'll think "well, nothing's changed, I've seen this show", which was made obvious when the band toured Europe. They spoiled their audiences. So yes, even though, for example, It's My Life, might be his favourite song, then he/she shouldn't complain. He/she got an amazing set filled with hits anyway. And you just can't have it all.

Now, about building up the set:

6. Make sure the first 7 songs are rockers. If you don't do so, the start of the show will be very slow. Bon Jovi started doing this on the Bounce Tour and it worked. They still did so on many shows from the Lost Highway tour and those shows had the best kick off. Playing a ballad as your fifth song is nice, but for every ballad that's played in the first 10 songs it takes 2 to 3 songs to get the show going again.

7. If you're doing an acoustic set, do it after 12 songs. Not earlier, not any later. Later means that the second half of the show will be slow, too early means a slow start. When Bon Jovi did their TLFR set it was always after an average of 11, 12 songs. It gave the band plenty of time left to end the show on a high, even though this was rather difficult as the TLFR songs really, really killed a show.

8. Do no more than 3 acoustic songs. More acoustic songs means that the concert starts to drag or people will start to wonder if the rest of the show will be acoustic, etcetera. People come to see a rock band, and although 3 acoustic songs is nice for a change, it's not why people visit Bon Jovi. Bryan Adams, for example, has started his show with 3 acoustic songs and ends it with 3 acoustic songs, which completely kills the show every single time. Not to mention that he plays one of his biggest ballads as the second song (imagine Bon Jovi doing Bed Of Roses as their second song).

9. You're at song number 16 now. Make sure the song after the acoustic set is a sing along song to get people going again. Back in 1996 Bon Jovi almost always did Something For The Pain as the song to continue the show, which worked rather well with it's "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon" thing in the chorus. Other songs that'd work rather well would be Lay Your Hands On Me, The I'll Sleep When I'm Dead medley, Born To Be My Baby, just to give you an idea.

10. In case you want to end the show with one acoustic song (like Never Say Goodbye) make sure that song number 16-19 are all rockers.

11. You're at the first encore now (in case you let the show end with an acoustic ballad). Now build up the encore like this:

1. Big hit
2. New song
3. Fan favourite
4. Big hit

I've mentioned this before somewhere else, but this always works. When a band leaves after the main set, people want more of the same in return. This means that because you ended the main set with 4 big rockers, they want more of that, and would love to hear that one big hit they didn't hear yet. If you play a big song as the start of the encore, it leaves them satisfied. They know they get more of what they want, and will appreciate the new song a lot more. If you open your encore with a new song, the energy that was left after you ended the main set will be gone immidiatley.

Do a fan favourite in your encore. Leave the most rare song of the night for last. Die hards will know by now that they'll be in for something special in the encore, and will be incredibly happy if you play a rare song in the encore. This worked incredibly well in Dusseldorf 2006, when out of nowhere there was Dry County. I'm not saying the band should play Dry County in every encore, but I think you get my drift. If you, after that rare song, play one more big hit, everyone will be happy. The die hard will sing along to pretty much anything because he/she just got what he wanted, and the average fan just got 3 extra songs ánd that one big hit that ends the show.

12. Ending the show with an acoustic ballad is an option. If you do, make sure it's a ballad everybody knows. Ending the show with an acoustic rendition of Thank You For Loving Me or All About Lovin' You is pointless. Ending the show with an acoustic rendition of I'll Be There For You is brilliant, you can extend the outro a lot and everybody goes home happy.

These are pretty much the 12 rules to write a proper setlist. It works in every case, as long as you keep a certain flow in the set. I will post 2 random example setlists, one for America and one for Europe, as an example. Feel free to add yours to this topic, but you'll realize that even with these 12 rules it's a lot harder than you might think.

Assuming that Lost Highway is the new, upcoming album.

Example setlist North America:
Now I know this theory would no longer work if the band starts to release more albums, but by the time they do so, they could always start dropping the less succesful albums from their career. This means that Fahrenheit would be dropped first, then Bon Jovi, then Bounce, then These Days, etcetera. In my opinion this theory is fault proof, but if anyone feels differently please start a debate with me why.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I think what you have said there is really good, I agree with you on a lot of stuff. I've always thought at least one song from every album should be represented, no matter what. Even if off 7800 it's In & Out Of Love every night, it keeps a balance. However, Bon Jovi sometimes makes some ridiculous desicions to their setlist IMO.

For example: Ending with 'Rockin' All Over The World' or even starting with it, just wouldn't work IMO. I've always thought after Richie's 'I'll Be There For You', something similar to Damned/Hey God would work, and to be fair they did that on the last tour. The mistake they made on the last tour and the HAND tour(and even the Bounce one if I'm correct) was breaking up 'Lay Your Hands'/'Sleep When I'm Dead'/'Bad Medicine', which were really great together, whether it was for ending the main set or just in the middle.

For the record - they should open with 'Runaway' on the next tour in my opinion.

Good stuff there XD If only they'd listen to you! LOL

I agree with the acoustic part especially.

Seb, all I can say: You have the vision.

Actually, one thing , I don't think there should be any acoustic sets for a stadium gig.

Great post. Give yourself a nice long wank tonight Seb, you've earned it.

I am in shock Le-Ann

Aloha !

I agree with you that ending the show with Rockin' All Over The World doesn't work.

Starting with it does though. I was there in Amsterdam and it worked like a charm. It's got this big party vibe. However, I do think it only works if the audience has gotten a proper support act before it and looks forward to the show in a more special way. In Amsterdam we had all watched the match Holland - France and Holland won, which set the atmosphere straight for the rest of the night. Opening with the song when it's pissing down and there's no atmosphere at all is pointless. It all depends on what the atmosphere is like.

I don't see that as a mistake. It was great to finally see them breaking it up, and to see Sleep return as a proper fun song. When it was played early in the show it got the show going like crazy. Bad Medicine, though it's nothing special to me anymore, should always be one of the few last songs of the main set or be somewhere in the encore. Yes, they did play it in the beginning of the set back in 1996, but the 1996 setlists were completely different compared to anything else the band has done. You can't really compare them to any other tour.

I don't think they should. The song has no great party vibe in it, sure, it's a great rock song and I do think it works very well as one of the first songs. But as an opener? No.

Not for stadium gigs, no. It would work incredibly well for the arena shows in America (if the band would fill it with hits over there) and for shows on an open field like Hyde Park or the Hippodrome in Belgium. And again, it depends on the audience. If the audience is really laid back, an acoustic set works like a charm. It'd give the show a bit of a festival vibe (without the bottles of piss and bad smell). If the audience however is very hard to please, an acoustic set will only make it harder to for the band to connect to it's audience.

I know, ouwhoer.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I actually forgot about the opening of Amsterdam with 'Rockin' All Over The World', judging by a video, it does look good.

'Lay Your Hands'/'Sleep When I'm Dead'/'Bad Medicine' - I just alwasy thought that was a great part of the setlist, 3 hits after another with a rock feel. But,then again, I'm probably biased as I love 'Lay Your Hands' and would do anything to see it return to the set.

'Runaway' as opener - I've always thought it would make a great opener,, with the lights in time with the drum/guitar bits in the opening. However, that would probably only work in an arena, as it wouldn't be dark during the first song of the European shows.