The Official May 31 Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia Thread
 

Setlists, Predictions, Videos, Disappointments, Complaints...

It's touring season again!

The last time they played in in Moscow (or anywhere in Russia for that matter) was way back on August 13, 1989, during the New Jersey Syndicate Tour. Since Setlist.fm doesn't have the setlist for that night, the setlist for the previous night (August 12) is shown below. This is quite possibly the longest gap between shows in a particular country.

01. Lay Your Hands on Me
02. I'd Die For You
03. Wild in the Streets
04. You Give Love a Bad Name
05. Let it Rock
06. I'll Be There For You
07. Blood on Blood
08. Runaway
09. Wanted Dead or Alive [feat. Richie's badass triple-neck guitar]
10. Livin' on a Prayer
11. Bad Medicine
----------------------------------------
12. Hound Dog [Big Mama Thornton / Elvis Presley Cover; feat. Motley Crue, Cinderella, Scorpions]
13. Long Tall Sally [Little Richard Cover; feat. Gorky Park, Cinderella, Scorpions]
14. Rock and Roll [Led Zeppelin Cover; feat. Skid Row, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Scorpions, Jason Bonham]
15. Give Peace a Chance [John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band Cover; feat. Gorky Park, Skid Row, Cinderella, Scorpions]


I was expecting Jon to sound like a donkey with a throat infection, but he sounded better than expected.

2019 Setlist:

01. This House is Not For Sale
02. Raise Your Hands
03. You Give Love a Bad Name
04. Born to Be My Baby
05. Whole Lot of Leavin'
06. Lost Highway
07. Runaway
08. We Weren't Born to Follow
09. Have a Nice Day
10. Keep the Faith
11. Amen
12. Bed of Roses
13. It's My Life
14. We Don't Run
15. These Days
16. Lay Your Hands on Me
17. God Bless This Mess
18. Blood on Blood
19. We Got it Going on
20. Bad Medicine
----------------------------
21. In These Arms
22. Wanted Dead or Alive
23. Livin' on a Prayer

The last time they played there was August 13th, 1989 ;) They did two consecutive nights there.

I hope he doesn't sound like a throat with a donkey infection 😀

Have to say "donkey with a throat infection" really got me laughing ha ha ha!!

This is correct :)

It actually is astonishing to think they haven't played somewhere in 30 years. Is it seriously that hard to arrange concerts in Russia?

They've had a LOT of albums in that 30 year time period, you'd think one of those past tours (especially the 2010/2011 era when they were last at their best) would have brought them back to Russia.

Corrected, thanks!

Aloha !

No. Although Russia does things "Differenty" they're very much like South America when it comes to concerts; Eventually you'll get in but expect it to be a bit chaotic. All compared to European and American standards, obviously.

This isn't the issue though. Jon didn't want to go back. Although the Moscow Peace Fest got a lot of positive coverage Jon didn't enjoy Russia at all. Mind you, this was back when there was still a lot of spionage going on. Promoters have tried very hard to get a deal arranged but Jon's personal opinion got in the way.

There was also no need to travel that far when there were so many options to do shows in western Europe. These options are gone now and thus the band needs to venture into different markets. I've no idea why the band isn't playing 2 or 3 cities in Russia as the market is there but alas, that's not the case.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

There are still a lot of tickets, many of which are given away for free in various contests. They can't sell 1 stadium with capacity circa 60 000 here. The only way they do 2 or 3 cities is to play much smaller venues. Although not many people think the band will come again.

Jon is aware of what their hits are in different countries and caters the setlist a bit to it. I suppose Jon knows that there is no need to play 'Who says' , 'Born to follow' and even no songs of lost highway. (Even if LH is a decent track i.m.o.)

So let's hope they dive deeper into KTF and TD which are their hit records over here.

Aloha !

Yeah, that's why those songs have been in the setlist for Europe the past 15 years. I've no idea why, after so many world tours have had the same set everywhere people believe Jon honestly caters towards a certain audience just because he's said he would. Even during the run at the O2 arena the main set was rather similar to the one done in America.

Going by Jon's logic there's no reason to drop these songs anyway. They've never played Russia so there's all the more reason to include them. He'll spend time "catching up to do so won't waste time talking" only by then ignoring most of the back catalog people have come to hear, he'll talk a bit of half arsed Russian, will do an encore with the wrong Russian singer as the right one wasn't available (Alsou) and management didn't spend time looking up what audiences would like and he'll then end the show saying "he doesn't know why it took so long as they've been great" only to never come back again as sales had been slow and the band didn't make enough money to warrant a return.

If this show would be different it'd be the first time in their entire career they'd change a setlist because they're playing somewhere they haven't been to before.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

If he'd actually do so, setlists in South America would've been a lot different on the past tours than they've actually been in the end.

For Jon, there is a need. Those are about the only songs in his current range.

Sorry but he does the opposite of this if anything lol

Just before the THINFS tour started Jon answered my question on one of his video chats he did, I asked him if they planned on revamping the setlist and play more uncommon songs and he was very enthusiastic, he mentioned playing songs like Misunderstood, The Distance, etc......and it never happened. Just more vanilla sets.

That will always be my main gripe with him. Compared to other artists and bands, he's terrible at crafting set lists. It shouldn't matter if he can't hit the notes on some older songs, improvise, at least make an attempt. You would think he (and the band for that matter) would get bored of playing the same songs in the same order every show.

Especially since there's the big misconception that songs like Who Says, Born To Follow, Because We Can etc. are in there because he can still sing them easier. Anyone who had followed the shows the past few years knows that these are some of the worst-sounding ones in there. That mid-range of his is by far his weakest point, at songs like Bed of Roses he sounds much better in comparison. Even back in 2013 in Munich I though his voice was gonna blow out during the verses of Who Says and Born To Follow. He adds them because he thinks they are timeless and universal.:rolleyes:

It's not a misconception. Those songs are in a more comfortable range for him. He sounds like shit on them, but he doesn't have to strain to sing them. Him screaming through songs like Always or These Days is an absolute train wreck. Without filler songs like Born to Follow, LH, etc, he'd never be able to get though a two hour show anymore.

BOR is an anomaly. It's the only more challenging song that he actually still performs well.

LOL, where have you been for the last 10 years ??

David Bryan said they will play new songs at this concert. Let's wait and see

He meant "new" songs like Lost Highway and "old" like LOAP, that they've already played in 1989.

Jon says Lost Highway, Born to Follow, Captain Crash etc.


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Hmm I wonder if he means a new track or two from the new album? Has Bon Jovi ever played a new song in concert way before a new album reveal? Some bands do.

At this point, I'd be happy with a set list change that includes Labor of Love or Born Again Tomorrow. Please Jon, no more copy and paste sets for this leg, please! Give us something different for the European leg of this two year tour!

Yes, on the tour for Crossroad they performed some songs from these days.

What About Now also was released while the band had already been on tour and about 7 tracks had been on the setlist before hand. However, in this case I think we'll "just" get a copy/paste setlist of the last few years. They haven't been in Russia for three decades and he can easily get away with that. Maybe one semi-rarity in there.

I think we'll either get a very boring setlist or a really surprising one and I genuinely don't know which one it will be.

Playing devil's advocate here, because that's fun, I'm not going to go after the band if there's nothing for the diehards. There'll be a low percentage of people that have seen the band since '89 so vanilla to us ain't vanilla at this show.

Aloha !

No, but the first hour of the show will be boring to them nonetheless.

They've done about 80 shows with this band and the first hour of their current set has never worked so far yet it's still there. Of the first 10 songs about 7 go over like a lead balloon yet there's nothing the band can replace them with as Jon's barely able to make it through this selection. Hence the lack of changes in Australia as well.

Bon Jovi have ignored Russia for 30 years. The last time anything was played on the radio was 19 years ago. It's a pointless idea to shove Lost Highway, Whole Lot Of Leavin', We Weren't Born To Follow and Who Says down these peoples throats. They'll have zero interest in them so it's most likely what Jon will do. "Educating the crowd and telling them what they've missed". It won't work though, it never has. They're there to hear the hits and I never thought I'd say this, but that's really what this setlist needs.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

This show needs nothing released after Its My Life in the set.


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To be fair I'm pretty sure that's your view on pretty much every show that they do right?

Moscow is definitely getting a fresh setlist. There will be the mainstream hit songs but THINFS won't be left out and probably WAN songs either.

4 days to go, JBJ already posted a photo (which looks photoshopped imo like he was added in the picture but nvm) at Red Square

Any setlist predictions? Mine is something like this:

1. THINFS
2. RYH
3. Bad Name
4. Lost Highway
5. Runaway
6. Roller Coaster
7. BTBMB
8. We Don't Run
9. WGIGO
10. KTF
11. Memory (on the catwalk)
12. BOR (on the catwalk -> Jon returns to the main stage during the outro)
13. Who Says
14. WWBTF
15. Captain Crash
16. Sleep
17. Medicine (w/Shout teaser)

Encore:

18. In These Arms
19. Blood On Blood
20. IBTFY
21. Wanted
22. Prayer

They definitely won't do any out-of-the-blue rarities at their first Russian show in 30 years.

Honestly that's still better than most shows we get these days

So they won't be having their special tour stage in Moscow. Some tour guys in Tallinn told that Moscow is a rehearsal and Tallinn is the first real show of the tour with the proper stage and all...

Rockin All Over the World

That makes NO sense whatsoever. Moscow is a HUGE show and I sincerely doubt Jon would accept to have a generic stage at Luzhniki stadium. I remember some Austrian sites said a similar thing in 2013 - that Vienna will be the first show with the new car stage while they'll use the old 2011 Open Air Tour stage in Sofia, Bulgaria. Guess what? We got the car stage in Bulgaria and Jon named it after our capital city of Sofia.



As for Tallinn, I'm not even sure if they'll get the new stage at all. Isn't the Estonian event a festival including many other artists? If so, I wouldn't be surprised if Bon Jovi use the stage provided by the promoter. Given that promoters would do ANYTHING to save a penny or two, they usually try to get away with the cheapest production possible. That being said, I hope that I'm dead wrong about that because I LOOOVE the new Bon Jovi stage and really want to see it in Bucharest on July 21, 2019, even though there's a festival scheduled at the same site for the very next day (July 22) by the same promoter who has so far refused to confirm whether Bon Jovi will bring their own stage or not.

It is no festival in Tallinn. They are building the stage already in Tallinn, saw it yesterday with my own eyes. The same stage you find photos here on another thread. I am not sure about Moscow but the guy who told me surely was...

They usually have two or three stages since the schedule simply doesn't allow travelling with only one. Other than obvious festival shows or ones with a pre-built-in stage (Hyde Park 2013), I can't remember them not bringing their tour stage to a European outdoor concert in the last decade (or ever, to be honest).

Some hour ago in Tallinn…
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=...59144589307839

Also the promotor of Live Nation Baltics and the creator of the stage show Doug Brant confirm that their "tour stage" is not in Moscow.

Not sure what stage will be in Moscow but Tony Bongiovi posted on Instagram (on Saturday) under the sauce account that the "video gear is on it's way to Moscow". That is for sure the big LED screens so take that for what it's worth. :)