Verizon Arena 03/20/2018 Little Rock, AR - TREAD

Originally Posted by Supersonic

Aloha !



You still don't get it. Saying 99 In the Shade is known by 4 people is saying a song like Raise Your Hands is known by 4 people. Both are album cuts from the big albums from the eighties and both were never issued as a single. Raise Your Hands works well because of its catchy chorus, 99 In the Shade might just work the same way. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead has been played at pretty much every single show since 1993 yet it barely charted in America. I very much doubt a casual fan knows the song, but it's got a party vibe. Little Bit Of Soul would work the same way but that one gets ignored.

Further on, Whole Lot Of Leavin' caused a piss break at every Bon Jovi show I've seen in America. The same for Lost Highway and We Weren't Born To Follow. You keep going on about vocal issues being the reason why he won't play the rare stuff, but considering how he sings Bad Medicine there's no reason to believe that's the reason why.

I saw 4 shows in New Jersey back in 2010. The show with the most rare songs had the loudest crowds because there was no Lost Highway/Whole Lot Of Leavin' combo. It kills a crowd every single time I saw it getting played. Yet he insists on keeping it in there. I'm sure Jon loves the songs, but if your argument is not being able to play other stuff people don't know, it should count for those songs as well.

By now the band has released roughly 200 songs. They've got 10 top 40 hits. And you're saying out of the other 190, stuff like Amen, Lost Highway, Whole Lot Of Leavin', We Weren't Born To Follow and so on needs to be played in order for a casual fan not to leave disappointed? They can't risk it?

If you honestly believe this band would lose people over 4 songs in a set including 10 top 40 songs you have little faith in the hits anyway. They're in the Hall of Fame exactly because the huge amount of hits and the people who keep coming to these shows. Even with the band at its all time low right now they're still able to play Madison Square Garden. They've got nothing to lose, which should be all the more reason to mix it up.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Originally Posted by manarosi

as you said, both hands and sleep have been played a lot so, even if those didn't chart, them are well known to the fan that goes to the concert and just don't care about jon's vocals, richie's absence and so on. same thing works for lh, follow and so on that have been overplayed (i agree that those have grown tired to many) but that have been at least heard few times by that same fan.

Originally Posted by manarosi

meanwhile 99 or soul are going to be the same way a piss break,same as whole lot of leavin', but for different reasons (just because people don't know them...and please don't tell me that nowadays the casual who goes to a bj concert is interested in knowing new songs or rare songs like 99 'cause that's not the case)

Originally Posted by manarosi

btw how long do u think they can sell out msg?? i don't see big and florid days coming for this band...we'll all be happy when probably they'd retire as a group and jbj will sell acoustic shows in theathers playing the entire catalogue rearranged

Originally Posted by Supersonic

Aloha !

Manarosi, you twist your argument as you see fit. It's hard to debate things when you switch your point of view from one way to the other. Plenty of points you try to make, make me wonder if you've actually seen shows in America, or if you've even seen shows yourself as your judgement towards the way an audience reacts to certain songs is off.



On this board there's I'd say just about 10 people who can tell you the last time a certain song was played. If you honestly believe a casual fan remembers the songs he's heard in concert he hasn't heard before you're delusional. Your average fan can barely remember what hits were played, all he remembers is how "he knew many songs". Hence the argument how the songs your average fan doesn't know can be exchanged for pretty much everything. A song like God Bless This Mess is just as interesting as a song like Lost Highway; Neither one is known by the masses and thus can be exchanged for anything. An average fan will always prefer a hit over something he doesn't know though.



If a song like Wild In The Streets or Raise Your Hands didn't cause a piss break 15 years ago why would a song like 99 In the Shade do so nowadays? During the 3 opening shows I saw at Giants in 2010 the ones without the massive bathroom exodus was the one without Lost Highway and Whole Lot Of Leavin'. By your logic the average fans have gotten used to the songs nowadays, yet 8 years later it's still causing the same massive piss break. In 2010 however, during 1 show the songs were exchanged for stuff like Just Older and In These Arms and people stayed in their seats. But, by your arguments, mixing it up this way wouldn't work because people still prefer the other stuff to take a piss break? The shows in America I saw with the best crowds were the ones with the better setlists as well.

Further on, especially in America, the eighties stuff works incredibly well over there. While in the rest of the world their career really took off in the nineties and people go see Bon Jovi play anything, in America a lot of people go see Bon Jovi to hear the eighties stuff. It's a gimmick, a fad people want to relive for nostalgic reasons. Anything afterwards is irrelevant unless it's a ballad, a hit, or a party song. Hence stuff like We Weren't Born To Follow not working and a song like I'll Sleep When I'm Dead does. A lot of fans over there, and I'm not talking about the die hards, either just want to punch their fist in the air during the eighties stuff or hold their partner during the ballads. And then take a piss during the songs that falls out of the category.



Again, right now, Jon butchers anything they're playing. I'd say a die hard who's still going would rather hear him butcher a song like Breakout than hear the band go through Whole Lot Of Leavin' for the umpteenth time.



I don't think Bon Jovi will ever have a problem playing Madison Square Garden. Their fanbase over there is huge as New Jersey is quite close and they're a pretty big band around that area. It's the rest of the U.S.A. that's slowly losing interest.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan