Ive just watched the full performance.
Really really surprised.
This must be the best Jon has sounded/sang since 2013 with the band and 2014 solo.
I watched after it,both iHeart 2018 and HOF performances,and the improve is evident.
Yesterday performance is edited? It is evident,but there were also edited the other performances Ive mentioned,and its not the same painfull voice.
Strange how Wanted is the song he most suffers to sing.
Btway,I liked how the band sounded and I actually enjoyed Phil Prayer solo and Shanks Bad Name one.
I didnt like both new songs,neither Lost Highway and Who Says.They were quite boring.
I dont like Phil voices on Wanted,I think Everett would do it better,remembering how he did it with Richie on the 2005 rocking the corps performance.
The worst part,as many of you have mentioned,is the lack of ambition and passion.
Jon seemed to be bored the whole performance,as if they were rehearsing at his home studio.
I dont get the argument that if theres no audience,there can not be passion.
Any guy who has ever played on a band,even on a garage with your friends knows the feeling of playing live a song,and on this performance I only see this feeling on Tico,Everett,Phil and the keyboard player,
Jon is there like if he didnt want to be there,so sad.

Regarding Prayer's backing vocals, I think Dave not being there was a prominent reason they were different/potentially live. He's pretty high in the mix of the pre-taped parts.

This. If had only heard it, doctored or not, I would've said that it was certainly okay in the context of the last few years. We won't be getting any great vocal performances anymore, anyone who still thinks that Jon "only needs to rest his voice" or "can get back to 2011 standards" again is living in a bubble after all.
But the presentation is what bothered me more than anything. Is it strange doing it this way? Surely. But it's the same for any other artist out there and I've seen tons of more passionate performances from bands whose music I'm not as connected to in the first place. Jon's Hampton Water thing was much more dedicated too. David used to refer to Jon as the guy with a chip on his shoulder who "constantly has to prove himself" and that's what makes them work so hard. In 2015/16, Jon constantly repeated that he's at a point where he doesn't have to prove anything and that's the problem in this case.
When they did the promo shows for THINFS, while being vocally subpar as well, there was something about him as a front man that connected to me to the songs. I felt that he had an urge to present us what these songs meant to him. Just what I want to see from an artist.
At iHeart, he appeared like a kid that's standing in front of the class reciting some poem for the first time in its life.
On that last two albums, the live shows beforehand made me look forward to the records (both on WAN and THINFS), but if the full album run will be as "dedicated", I don't think I'll even bother with this record.

Looked like Jeff Kazee? But I could be mistaken.

Greg Mayo, he plays in Kings of Suburbia as well.

Ah of course. Thanks! :D

To be fair, my eyesight isn't that great so I was mostly going by the hat. :lol:

Do the Kings of Suburbia still exist?

saw the whole show!! it was nice!! expected much worse!!
1. jon sounded better!!
2. tico was the highlight for me as well
3. the excitement and the magic wont return without Richie. he was a huge part of this band and they should get together and finish the band together
4. limitless sounded better than i d thought
5. the lead work of shanks in wanted was great and really puzzles me why noone did it before him .. really adds to the song ..
6. i find it a bit funny from our perspective to continuously critise jons desire to be there.. if he didnt wanted he wouldnt be there, i believe he was just thrown off by the lack of an audience and the cuts between each song..it was obvious from the short clip after the show that he didnt enjoy the procedure and he d like to have some audience to interact with..

Prayer sounded too good to be true.
Jon is still a very fit guy. He still could move around the whole time if the vocals are pre recorded or fixed afterwards.
But standing on the same position all the time and still don't use the live vocals is ridiculous.

They most likely do - after all, their latest proper gig was only in January this year.