Tutorial: How to write a proper setlist.

...two consecutive ballads...hmmm

Why not? They've actually been doing Always and In These Arms together.

Aloha !

In These Arms is as much of a ballad as is Captain Crash. I seriously don't understand why people classify it as a ballad. It's uptempo, not slow.

Your ordering is bad, very bad. It's My Life as the second song doesn't work, and ending a show with an encore of Dry County and Any Other Day is terrible. If the show in Dusseldorf 2006 would've ended with Dry County it would've left everyone very confused. Happy, but confused.

Order it like this, and your selection works:

1. I Believe
2. Lost Highway
3. Just Older
4. Runaway
5. Summertime
6. It's My Life
7. Keep The Faith
8. All About Lovin' You
9. Lay Your Hands On Me
10. The Last Night
11. Little Bit Of Soul
12. Who Says You Can't Go Home
13. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
14. Never Say Goodbye
15. These Days
16. In & Out Of Love
17. Dry County
18. Bad Medicine
19. Damned
20. Livin' On A Prayer

21. Wanted Dead Or Alive
22. Any Other Day
23. With A Little Help From My Friends
24. I'll Be There For You

And by the way, Neil. Seriously. All About Lovin' You? Summertime? Eh...

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I like most of your theory Seb, a lot in fact, however I do have one issue. it mainly has to do with point 5. There's never going to be a full an proper Jovi show without Prayer, Bad Name, Wanted, Bad Medicine, or IML. I think those 5 songs (and I'm not saying I'm not bored with a few of them) are the core of Bon Jovi, and the core of their hits. Obviously they've had other major hits, and frankly better hits, but those are the core 5 IMO. Also, and this is just personal preference I'd rather drop 7800 and Bounce from most shows, and do ix in a second song for the records that only have one. Still, it's a really good concept.

I really don't see In these arms as a ballad.
And two consecutive ballads IMO totally break the rythm of the show, If we're talking about a stadium show....too many going to the toilets
In an acoustic show in a theatre they could work.

PS : is there anybody that can tell me why these f..ing emoticons don't appear on the lines?!?!?!

Aloha !

If Bon Jovi is can get away with not playing Always, they should be able to get away with not playing It's My Life as well. Always is one of the biggest hits from the nineties, by any artist, that is. It's thé powerballad of the nineties is about their only hit from that era in America as well. Just because we die hards had gotten used to the band not playing it doesn't mean it's not part of their core. It's just as much part of their core as is It's My Life or Bad Medicine.

And if Oasis can get away with not playing Wonderwall, Bruce Springsteen can get away with not playing Born In The USA, Eric Clapton with not playing Tears In Heaven, Dire Straits with not playing Tunnel Of Love, Aerosmith with not playing Dude (Looks Like A Lady), and the list goes on and on, then Bon Jovi should be able to drop one or 2 of the big hits.

Just because many fans have gotten used to the thought that Bon Jovi plays all their big hits doesn't mean that they really have to.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Alright, well this is for a North American setlist, on a typical night, as I'd probably scrap a lot of these rules if it was a "special" show. Also, I followed you rules, but realistically, I think a few of the albums (cough Bounce cough) would be better served with an album track over a single on most nights. Also, I would change up a lot of the album cuts on night to night (Die For You for Wild in The Streets. I Believe for Dry County, drop These Days for TAALS, which leads to replacing ALways for SIBSN to balance out the ballads.) As for the song selection, I tried to really go into the casual fan mindset for some of them, as opposed to my own.

1. Lay Your Hands On Me
2. Lost Highway
3. Runaway
4. You Give Love A Bad Name
5. Born To Be My Baby
6. I'd Die For You
7. Misunderstood
8. Bed of Roses
9. These Days
10. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
11. In and Out Of Love
12. (You Want To) Make A Memory
13. Last Man Standing (Acc.)
14. Who Says You Can't Go Home
15. I Believe
16. We Got It Going On
17. Bad Medicine
18. Wanted: Dead or Alive
19. Keep The Faith

Encore 1:
20. It's My Life
21. Whole Lot of Leaving
22. Blood on Blood
23. Livin' On A Prayer

Encore 2:
24. Always

I agree. However, it shouldn't be IML, Prayer, or Wanted IMO. And While I wouldn't mind a show without Bad Name or Bad Medicine (no matter how much I like them most of the time)I doubt they'll get dropped either.

Here's mine, i changed some of the numbers around and didnt include anything from bounce but tried to balance it out. I really like your formula seb

1.We got it going on
2.Bad Medicine
3.Hey God
4.Runaway
5.Wild In the Streets
6.Sleep/JJF/Mercy
7.Born To be My Baby
8.Lost Highway
9.Garageland
10.In These Arms
11.It's My Life
Acc Set
12.Whole Lotta leaving
13.Diamond Ring
14.Love For Sale
Acc Set
15.One Wild Night
16.Have A Nice Day
17.Last man Standing
18.These days
19.Prayer

Encore 1
20.Always
21.Onley Lonley
22.I love this town
Encore 2

23.Wanted
24.Faith

For Europe/the rest of the world:


LH - 2 Singles, 2 album cuts
BJ - 1 single
7800 - 1 single
SWW - 2 singles, 1 album cut
NJ - 2 singles, 1 album cut
KTF - 3 singles
CR - 1 single
TD - 2 singles, 1 album cut
Crush - 2 singles
Bounce - 0
Hand - 1 single, 1 album cut
rare - 1

Personally, I don't think they need to play a song from each album every single night, they just need to include songs from each album in the list of songs they choose from. I also think there are certain songs that they shouldn't get rid of (sure, they stopped playing Keep The Faith at the beginning of the HAND tour, but was anyone actually happy about that?). Also, you didn't include space for any solo songs, unless they were meant to be included under the rare songs bit?

With that stuff in mind, I present an alternative set of rules for you all to tear apart:

For all shows:
1.Prayer
2.Wanted
3.Bad Name
4.It's My Life
5.Keep The Faith
6.Have A Nice Day

7 - 10. 4 songs from: A. Bon Jovi / 7800 B. Bounce / TLFR C. Boxset / Full Covers (and not all 4 from one category ... has to cover at least two of those categories)

11.Bad Medicine or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (they're both party songs which usually include covers, surey there's no reason to play them both at every single show?)

12. Always, Bed Of Roses, or This Ain't A Love Song

13. I'll Be There For You, Livin' In Sin or Never Say Goodbye

14. 1 sung by Richie (If Richie sings I'll Be There For You, obviously that can't be used for point 13)

15 - 18. 4 New songs

19. Born To Be My Baby, Lay Your Hands On Me or Blood On Blood

20. Album track from either Slippery, Jersey, KTF or TD

21. I Believe, In These Arms, Something For The Pain, Someday I'll Be Saturday Night or Hey God

22. These Days, Dry County, or Lie To Me

23. Who Says You Can't Go Home or Captain Crash

24. Another song from either Crush or HAND - either a single or an album track

And finally, for the record, I don't particularly like Bon Jovi's cover of Rockin' All Over The World ... Rockin' In The Free World on the other hand is a decent opening song