The only Bounce-era song that ever sounded really good live is Undivided. I like the record quite a bit, but they really had (and have?) no clue how to arrange the tracks live. The title track is especially bad, especially since the riff can easily played on one guitar with some suspended chords. But nope, instead have one octave chord guitar drown out... is there even a second guitar live? It lacked punch either way.

Jon played second guitar on it for the promo shows leading up to the tour and by the time they started in Japan it was gone.

Switzerland week 2:
#6

Best 2nd week since The Circle.
Week one was #3.

It's charting worse than a greatest hits reissue. Ofcourse there are plenty of other reasons, one being "Get Woke Go Broke"

It's really not doing that bad considering the amount of promo done for the record, at least in Europe, and compared to the last few releases. It's probably doing a little better than I expected, apart from the the states.

Yup. DWYC didn't do for the band nearly what I expected it to and it's holding up okay. It's not selling poorly because people don't like that they went woke, to pop culture they're a dinosaur band and oversatured their own fanbase. I'd wager not enough people even know what the new album is about.

Aloha !

Undivided sounded like ass by the time the band finished the first North American leg. The song was way too slow and Jon was losing his voice. Once Jon's voice was going most of the other songs started sounding like shit as well. Just listen to the show at Shepherds Bush, the arrangements really weren't so bad.

Although I'm surprised how well the album is doing in some markets there's no denying this album is a clear indication of the size of Bon Jovi's true fanbase in America nowadays.

Last week Bon Jovi entered the Dutch album charts at number 20. This week they've disappeared from that same album chart altogether while a Dire Straits boxset with no new songs on it entered at 19 this week. It's kind of hard to believe both the Dutch and the American fanbase has dwindled down as much as it has nowadays. 1 week on the Dutch album chart is ridiculous and embarrasing for a band who sold 45.000 tickets last year.

I've a feeling the album will be gone from the Billboard album list next week altogether considering This House Is Not For Sale dropped 170 places last time after its first week as well. It'll be interesting to see how much of this album will get played live once the reissue gets released next year to pretend people are interested in new songs anyway.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Italy

1st week: #11
2nd week: out of top 100

I guess the fanbase never was that big (but of course smaller now). There were just many people who stayed interested as long as there were some hit-singles. The majority of concert goers wants to hear the hits and is not focused on new material. So I don't see it as a contradiction.

I did just that today (= listen to Sheperd's Bush), and really, it just... I mean, take Everyday. Why the hell where all these samples all over the song? The live guitar got lost in the mix that way. Bounce - same deal, plus even the main riff sounded weak live.

Undivided - this live version sounds better than any of the other Bounce era tracks, IMO:


Of course it helps that Jon's voice was still in fine shape by then (second verse!), and that he actually did the throaty stuff, but even a track like KTF sounds like crap if he doesn't sing it properly.

I really like the Bounce songs and era, so I'd love to enjoy the tunes live, but mostly, it didn't _really_ work all that well. Can't comment on stuff like The Distance (don't really enjoy the studio track anyway) or Misunderstood (I remember the AOL acoustic version being decent, but that's a different arrangement obviously).