Aloha !

- May 30, 2003: Schalke Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Jon came on stage, threw a glass of water into a journalists' face and refused to talk at all during the show up until the point where he had to as it was Richie's turn to sing. The whole performance was on auto pilot and Jon sounded dreadful.

- June 28, 2003: Bounce Tour - Hyde Park, London, UK
Hyped up as the last show of the tour, many rare songs would be played, we'll play requests and we all look forward to going there. It turned out to be a very mediocre show that was long, Jon who was on auto pilot, sounded shit and the sound went up and down all night. The location and crowd saved it a bit, but show wise this was very below par. Afterwards many fans raved on how immense it was considering they played for 2 hours and 45 minutes, but a long show doesn't always mean a good show.

- May 25, 2006: Have A Nice Day Tour: Goffertpark, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Bon Jovi had played in Amsterdam 3 times now yet due a contractual thing between promoters and ticket sellers they were forced to play in a park in Holland. It had been raining all day, cleared up just before show time but Jon could never be arsed. He never, ever got the crowd on their feet due to a terrible setlist and a very nasal performance. Halfway through the show no one bothered anymore and when the songs from This Left Feels Right were performed it turned into a joke.

- May 22, 2008: Lost Highway Tour - Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
What was supposed to be a huge kick off of the European tour ended up being quite disappointing. The band being jetlagged from their show in Abu Dhabi and Jon who thought that after throwing the fans a bone by playing Always was enough resulted into a show that became very predictable. It wasn't the worst show, but definitely below par.

- June 27 and 28, 2008: Lost Highway Tour - Twickenham Stadium, London, UK
Like usual, the supposedly spectacular ending of the tour. It didn't really happen that way. The first night was auto pilot, yes the setlist looks good on paper but the delivery was poor. Dry County was perfect note for note, but no one cared. Not Jon, not the band but certainly not Jon. After the second show that, like in 2003, was very long, all I could say was "Jon was definitely not there with his thoughts". It started promising, but right after the second or third song Jon wasn't there anymore. Years later it turned out that he was busy organizing the Central Park performance, which was a clear example of how him being the CEO interfers with him being the performer. The afterparty we had in London was brilliant, but I felt I threw away 220E for 2 shows I could've easily lived without. Those 2 shows were proof how surprises in a set do not mean a great show.

- July 9, 2010: The Circle Tour - New Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA
Being hyped as "Round number 4!" where there were plans for a round number 5 which didn't happen in the end, this show was easily the most dreadful show I'd ever seen since the show in Holland back in 2006. Richie pretty much messed up every guitar solo, missed his cue in Have A Nice Day, Jon who was flat all throughout the performance and took everything out on Richie and a crowd that was clearly there for Kid Rock. Some claimed it wasn't horrible, but if messing up every guitar solo isn't horrible they either don't hear it or their standards for horrible are a bit different compared to mine. It's the first show where I walked out because of utter boredom.

- July 24, 2010: The Circle Tour - Gilette Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Another big stadium show they struggled to sell out (12$ tickets were sold etc.). Jon didn't care about the show, it was bog standard with nothing in there to keep anyone entertained apart from Jon. The crowd didn't give a **** either, I'd bought 2 of the 30 dollar tickets and we both saw an insane amount of people walking around all the time. The second show where I walked out because I was so bored.

- June 12, 2011: 2011 Tour - Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany
A show of which Bon Jovi knew fans were expecting a lot off. A show of which Bon Jovi knows a lot of die hards travel there based upon previous experiences, and a show of which I thought was rather disappointing. I know, Blaze Of Glory, Dry County, Always, These Days in one set, but that didn't matter. Jon couldn't sing any of them properly and none of those were sung with passion apart from These Days. The entire show was one big snoozefest for me. I never felt the crowd were on its feet the entire time either though later reports indicated that the parties were now in the general admission area which made sense, but it was a sad indication of what CEO Jon had now started with the snobs being up front.

Typing this I do realize that some of you might've seen these shows and thought they were great. However, I've seen shows that were great, and once you've seen more than just a few shows you start to notice things that others don't. I recognize the hand gestures Jon does to Richie, or can just see when he's on auto pilot. I've seen shows with a very standard setlist (Edmonton, Saratoga) that were a lot more fun than shows with a killer set. It's still a sad thing that as soon as Jon's vagina starts to bleed the entire world has to know and suffer.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan