Jon at Billy Joel Concert
 

Two things struck me in the clip:

1. Jon looks really animated and enjoying himself more than at his own concerts

2. Whilst the song is fast paced, he doesn’t seem to have breathing issues

https://www.facebook.com/1533600804/...4073488541264/


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Nice to see Jon looking like he enjoys being on stage, and sounding good too.

I agree; and that's not an easy song to sing, either. Lots o' words for someone who seems to have timing issues with some of his own songs. But he seemed to have a good time with it.

I wonder how many songs he did. I'd like to hear more of "Big Shot".

Here one with all of Big Shot. That’s a fav of mine too:


https://youtu.be/6LZgDyM_TI0


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Thanks, ma'am! :)

Jon sounds good and looks like a full blown front man. Probably a ton of factors at play here - knowing that Billy could take over if he stumbles on a line; being on somebody else's stage and that being exciting and new; doing it 'cos he wants to and not because he's on tour and the date has been booked... and maybe also because he really loves the song. Who knows.

Perhaps we can also add not willing to bet on an unfamiliar crowd giving him a pass as his own crowd would.

Sorry, but it's only "good" because the song is easy and you still barely hear him.

These days Jon sounds good when singing other people's songs than when he tries to sing his own songs. That's been the case for the past few years now.

He actually moves around instead of staying planted behind the mic, again unlike when he's singing Bon Jovi songs.

Personally I am out regardless but isn't passable now the standard most people are hoping for? We're never getting great so being able to say "well, that wasn't a disaster" is the barometer for success. I guess the Billy Joel fans were not coming away commenting on how awful Jon was, so chalk it up as a minor win. Looking at the performance on a more granular level (again, it was passable), he still looks awkward even when attempting to do the front man schtick. I believe he has just lost it, whatever "it" may be.

Personally, I disagree. He looks like a guy in his 50s, grey hair and all, doing the front man schtick. I am fine with that - it's like Sinatra on coke (or rather, like a Sinatra affected by coke).

The vibes I was getting from Jon's performance is that he was trying hard to tap into his 2008-2011 stage persona (or whatever you wanna call it) which is why he looked somewhat awkward because Jon didn't want to make a fool of himself at a fellow musician's concert.

This is the maybe the 2nd time Jon has decided to revert to how he use to act on stage,you like how Jon was between 2008 to 2011 where he looked like he actually enjoyed himself onstage and was actively moving around the stage. Rock in Rio 2019 being the 1st time.

You said that's your opinion so I am only coming back to further the discussion and not to try to change your mind.

If he is a guy in his 50s (grey hair, etc.) why would him doing that at 57 be different to him doing it at 47? That suggests something physical impedes him from looking as natural as he used to just ten years ago.

That may be. However, it looks to me that he cannot be the natural frontman anymore becuase he isn't one. He has moved on and needs to force it, which is why it does seem forced to me.

And look, I am no fan of the rock star living in the past and am not seeking that from Jon. That said, there's something missing when I see him perform. I think the most obvious explanation is a lack of passion.

when he could do justice to Billy Joel.
nostalgic mode on

I'm going against the grain here, but I think he did a better than decent job; especially (as I mentioned earlier) with the way he stayed in time and managed to keep up with the words without running out of breath, and apparently without a teleprompter. There's gotta be some reason he can do that with a cover but can't do it with his own songs, most of which don't require spitting out that many words at that clip.

With respect to him being a front man, by the time Big Shot was done I was actually thinking that there aren't many performers who could own the stage like he did in someone else's show and make you believe for a minute that the main act and his guys were Jon's backup band. Part of that may come down to Billy allowing himself to be upstaged; but I thought it was impressive nevertheless.

God, the power in Richie's voice....

How I wish we had a full version of this one...

I think he looked VERY well! -_-

I get both sides. He was good in terms of timing, but then again, that song (in terms of key and singing) is really not demanding.
In terms of him sounding better on other songs: I guess it has to do with muscle memory. He had so many "wrong" tricks over the years when he sang the catalogue that he falls back into the habit of doing them, but they don't work with what he has left now.
And in terms of teleprompter: There were some on stage. You can see the one on the left in this video and another video of the show shows one center stage at the front. Jon spied on it a bit as well.

I actually REALLY enjoyed this. I thought he sounded alright. There was a certain line he sung and it sounded like Jon from a few years ago.

I don't even think he looked awkward. It's just dodgy dancing that he's always done but I'm used to it and expect it.

For the first time since about 2014, I actually thought he looked quite cool. Black suit jacket that was nice, smartly dressed and looking really relaxed. This is the type of Jon I've missed.

This will sound stupid but looked like he felt comfortable in his own skin a bit more. Winks to the crowd, the old smirk we are used to seeing, lounging on the piano when Billy Joel is singing etc..

The feedback on twitter has been decent from what I've seen. I don't think this has done any harm to ticket sales anyway.

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Me too. I actually contacted the people behind Musicares over e-mail around the time I sent you this clip and asked, if there is any chance to release the video of the whole performance but they said they don't have the rights/approval. :(

Jon's poor vocals have become the focus of some music fan channel as well:

The middle aged housewives obsessing over JBJ's looks are out the door, in are the YouTube music experts constantly mentioning that he still looks good :D

But that guy isn't wrong, is he? He's just doing what most BJ fans do, including some people here: finding the silver lining.

I cringed when I saw this video, both vocally and a performance-wise, it's come to a point where I feel uncomfortable listening and watching Jon on stage, but to the average fan the fact that he is almost 60, looks great and has a good stage presence compared to lots of his peers is more than enough to make up for his poor vocals.

That's the problem, I acknowledge that Jon still has it when it comes to the hot factor and his charming boyish looks have bailed him out more than once. It is part of his shtick and I have no problem with that other than it doesn't work for me anymore because I expect much more from him. It's not even about value for money, other performers charge more and deliver worse shows, Bon Jovi is far from a waste of money by the average concert-goer standards It's just a matter of principles to me, a singer that was on top of his game 10 years ago shouldn't strive to survive on good looks, smiles and ass shakes. He should die each night on stage, poor vocals be damned.

To me 2-3 semi-decent performances (being extremely generous) in 7 years and a ton shit of shows is simply unacceptable. To most people is the normal decline and not even that noticeable when you take into account that Jon looks good and he smiles a lot and still has the crowd going wild with every (inmyopinionpainfullyawkward) interaction. And I understand it, lots of people love this kind of performance and it's not that different from what he used to do, so they give him a pass because "it's not that bad when you are there in person having fun" (*cough*this board*cough*) and here we are, about to embark into another 'sold-out' tour and then another and then another and I highly doubt one day everybody will realize the emperor is naked. Why would they? He still looks good...

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The countless comments about Jon's poor vocals even on the band's own social media pages must have gone unnoticed by you...

Trust me, it's not a secret anymore. There will always be a certain amount of those overly defensive fans who continue to think Jon pees honey and craps cup cakes, but there definitely are also thousands and thousands of fans who are no longer either blind or deaf to the harsh reality. For example, Zürich, Vienna and Bucharest were absolutely slaughtered on the official BJ Facebook site last summer, and basically every new post gets negative comments regarding Jon's voice to this day, so the emperor is basically being ripped off the rest of his clothes on his own land in addition to all the other pages. So, I guess there's really no need for you to worry about the overall sanity of the fanbase :D

I guess the comments on his looks come up because it is in big contrast with his vocal chords. If he'd look like the fat Elvis where all physical elements show a person who's completely out of shape, it is probably easier to grasp the idea that one can't sing anymore.

You'd think that a guy who's so well in shape as Jon Bon Jovi would also have his vocal chords in shape, but unfortunately he does not. It's really like the top-sportsmen and women who have had too many injuries over the years. At a certain point they won't be able to compete anymore, even if they are still people with an overall physique that is much better than you and I. With Jon, this is the case as a singer. No amount of fitness, workouts, pills nor vocal training will help this anymore. Surgery? Not sure. It's my guess that Jon has tried everything possible yet. If surgery ( maybe he had it) was an option, he could easily go under the radar for 6 to 8 months to get surgery and fully recover.

Probably, Jon's doctors will have advised him to maximum tour 3 months a year and to pace it into shows of max. 2h, limiting the amount of songs that are too hard on the vocal part and playing max. 2 shows per week ( which is exactly how the tours are paced since THINFS)

I suppose this is not far from the truth since I am a non trained unprofessional singer who plays solo acoustic shows in bars and I am suffering from vocal problems myself since a few months. My vocal coach and doctor are now advising me to respect following rules ( at this time)

- Max 1 show per week
- respecting breaks
- no more than 2 hours
etc etc ( this alongside other things)

If that's the case, that is why we get the shows we are witnessing now.
Shorter than before with a lot of newer songs that are easier to sing. In the older songs, he sings them in a way that does avoid a maximum of tension on his vocal chords and he saves just a few moment here and there for a few high notes or power bursts.

For what I'm doing musically, there's also many restrictions in my setlist. Fortunately, people who see me play do not have any expectations about my setlist, so as long as if what I do is well done, I get compliments about it. It's far of from JBJ where people go and expect him to play all the big hits.



In my opionion, Jon should adress the matter and being open about it. If he'd share his situation with the fans everyone would understand and perhaps have more respect for the bad vocal performances. With that known, anyone can still decide if they'd be cool about it and buy tickets for shows that you'll know will be heavily based on recent song that are easy to sing, shorter setlists and plain bad singing in general. It is just about being honest about it and setting and accepting new standards, both for Jon and the fans.

Up till know, Jon has been acting like nothing's going on and selling the ' we are better than ever + we are not a nostalgia act who's relying on their greatest hits ' story. That's BS if I can say so.

Compare it to Def Leppard's drummer - that guy has one arm and adapted his playing around this. He can't do what other drummers do but he doesn't pretend to either and so everyone loves what he's doing.

Or I am thinking about Prince, back in the 90'ies when he was in a big fight with Warner ( his label): he refused to play his hits any longer and so all fans new that he'd only play recent stuff. With that in mind, those shows were often excellent.

It is all a matter of being clear about what people can expect and for fans to go to shows with the right expectations.

End of my rant :)

I think there are two stages of Jon's voice now a days...

1. Unlistenable 2. Tolerable

I've heard him sing songs that physically can not be listened to... And then there are songs like these Billy Joel songs that are somewhat tolerable... I still wouldn't classify them as enjoyable. If I had a soundboard of them, I'd skip them in every mix.

The bar has been shifted so much that people are now taking these tolerable songs and stating that Jon still has some range left..

Bottom line, Jon's voice is gone and is never coming back. I honestly think we blew a chord. He can't even keep up and sings behind every song.





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Even if it'd be an honest move - and people like Paul Stanley or Klaus Meine (and probably more) had done so openly in the past, I can see why PR people advised him not to do that. I mean in the eyes of his defend-everything fans that'd make him an even more humble and great human being. But for them, even him losing his bowels up there would do that.

If he'd openly announce tours with only recent stuff, it'd tank really bad. Keep in mind that 80% of the crowd are still made up by casuals and out of them, the latest they may know could be Make A Memory or Born To Follow and that's been over a decade ago. Bon Jovi has drawn audiences in because of their big, pompous, soaring ballads and due to their fist-pumping, anthemic rock songs with big choruses. Since about HAND, we pretty much had none of that. For middle-of-the-road pop songs, the average Joe won't buy tickets, especially not at these prices.

Fat Elvis sang better than Jon today. His voice never left.

Elvis sings better now & he's dead.

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OUCH! That was cold! Funny as hell; but cold!! :D

It's true, too.

Elvis is not dead, He just went home.
;)