Positives & Negatives - 2022 US Tour
 

Now that the tour is over, it'll be interesting to see what everyone thought was a positive and a negative. I'm sure a lot of us will have the same negatives. We've spoken more about negatives than anything else, really. However, I do think we had some positives.

Positives:

Prayer at Nashville. It was the most enjoyable video from the whole tour, for me. It was nice to see Jon in the crowd amongst fans again. People are complaining saying it shouldn't have to be the last show to do that sort of thing but he's obviously done it for covid reasons, I imagine. The 'it's okay' line was by far the best Jon has sounded.

Just Older, Radio Saved My Life Tonight and Loves The Only Rule being brought back. They may not sound great, but nothing does. So I'd take these over half the stuff we have in the setlist anyday.

Limitless with an outro guitar solo. It's what we all wanted. The song itself is still piss poor but it definitely lacked a solo so thankfully, it has one now.

Jon playing the harmonica outro on Let It Rain. I personally love the guitar on Let It Rain already, even if it is a Springsteen rip off, I don't care. I do love the harmonica outro and I hope it stays.

Acoustic set. I liked it from what I seen. Really liked 'We Don't Run'

Tico Torres. The man is just an absolute beast. I'd miss him more than anyone in the band.


Negatives:

Jon's vocals. Let's just get that one out the way. Not much more I can say that we haven't already. But yeah, he sounds horrendous.

Loves The Only Rule lasting a couple of shows. Don't get me wrong, it did sound bad, but again, I'd take it over half the stuff we have.

The setlist in general. Not enough variety. 20 songs for a band with 4 decades worth of material is poor.

Jon being like he was in 2017 for a lot of the shows. Rooted to the microphone and not much movement. He had moments but a lot of it was stuck at the microphone.

Removing the acoustic set. I quite liked it from what I seen on YouTube. It added some sort of change to the show. Whether it went down like a lead balloon at the actual shows or not, I don't know.

No Blood In The Water or Luv Can. To me, they're head and shoulders better than anything else on the 2020 album. I'd have liked them to have at least been played once. Luv Can could even be done acoustic.


I've tried to keep the positives and negatives to the same amount so it's not just constant bashing. I do think it had some positives but nothing major as you can read from above. And some of them positives didn't last long, unfortunately.

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Agree with you in everything. Those are basically my comments throughout this last month.

I'd also add on positives that raspy scream Jon started doing again in KTF. Didn't expect that it all, and this last concert as a whole.

On negatives I'd put the "deep-cuts". Don't get me wrong, loved the inclusion of Radio, Older and The Only Rule, but that was it, and from footage the band released we know their rehearsals included Joey, Blaze of Glory and at least 20 others that didn't get played. Such a pitty that the setlists were basically the same.

Positives & Negatives - 2022 US Tour
 

Agree with what you have said, and I’d add:

Positives:

- The songs being tuned down is something that should have been done since 2015.
- KTF got back its initial guitar notes.
- Born to follow from all songs also got an outro solo.

Negatives:
- As much as I love the song, WLOL should have a well deserved rest.
- Bad medicine and Sleep… without medleys.
- Losing the acoustic interlude just a few shows into the tour.
- Already mentioned, but need to stress on it: the very limited repertoire played. Many of the 2020 “gems” were left out.

Negatives:

Jon's voice
Living On A Prayer miming
No In & Out Of Love

Positives:

Harmonica in Let It Rain
The Radio and Just Older on the standard Set
Back to Living On A Prayer No miming

I love Radio Saved My Life Tonight but the version that has been played live since 2004 does absolutely nothing for me.

Positives:
'Prayer' being an opener for a show for the first time in idk how long and Jon's energetic performance of the song, getting amongst the crowd
The new guitar outro for 'Limitless', it actually feels more like a rock song live and with the new guitar outro than what's on the record.
The band sounding very tight as always
Acoustic set, it was a welcome change from the usual arrangement during a show. too bad it only went on for a couple of shows.
Tico 'The Hitman' Torres, still the strongest link in the band, he's the literal heart beat of this band, if he wasn't onstage the band probably wouldn't sound as tight as they do.

Negatives:
JBJ's voice, the obvious elephant in the room, the most speculated topic on this forum and it's all been said before so no point in explaining further on this matter.
Acoustic set being cut, honestly a big mistake on Jon's part, despite the acoustic set leaving Jon's voice bare and exposed it actually gave Jon a bit of rest from trying to sing loudly over the band during full electric set.
The lack of variety in the setlist, this is probably the second biggest issue with this band, 40 years worth of material and the singer chooses to neglect and ignore it. Full albums with 'live worthy' material are ignored and disappear into the abyss like they don't exist.
No live performances of Luv Can or Shine, probably the 2 best tracks from the dumpster fire which is the '2020' record.

Positives:

phil x... i think he is the highlight right now in bon jovi

first half of the show reminded little bit of rock show

love the live version of limitless i wish they had produced limitless this way on the record...it sounds so more rock

Negatives:

jon' s voice...there's nothing more to say

second half of the show with a stupid song selection... can't stand songs like who says,lost highway,wlol or do what you can all these songs put me to sleep

the overall guitar sound/tone is very watered down needs more distortion

I’m struggling to find something positive about this “tour”.

What makes me really sad is to realize that Jon simply can’t do it anymore. Why doesn’t he do something special like the Prayer opening every show ? I think it’s safe to say that he can’t afford it physically plus he doesn’t care anymore. Sure, if you dissect every song you’ll find some glances of his past there, but for every good thing you find there are a lot of bad ones. It seems that just going through a safe 20 song setlist is an exhausting marathon for him nowadays.

They tried to bring back some songs, an acoustic set … and the idea was much better than the execution. He couldn’t carry on LTOR, Just Older was very flat and powerless, and the acoustic set was a snooze fest. All because he can’t do it anymore.

Yes, I know most casuals still have a good time. Even some diehards. As for myself, I won’t spend a cent on a very dull sound together with a very limited Jon. They’re done as a live band for me.

Cheers

Eduardo


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Interesting, why don't you think he cares? I understand and agree with most of the rest, though to me he put the hardest song to sing first because it's the last show of the tour so tomorrow doesn't really matter.

But I think you're right, he could have brought back starting the show in the crowd. Might be a Covid thing, who knows.

To me, it was a covid thing. He was shaking hands and stuff with the fans, something I doubt he'd have done the rest of the tour.

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Unfortunately, I very much gotta agree with Eduardo.

Yeah, there was some "moments" like some ad-libs or him going through the crowd that had glimpses of his past glory, but for one of them you have five others songs around that are poorly performed.

If this tour has shown one thing, it's that the last two streaming concerts were made bearable due to an incredible amount of post-production and that Jon simply can't do live shows at this scale anymore.

In 2015, despite the poor vocals, I felt I may get on board with it due to the duo Phil X / Matt O'Ree having had some chemistry and complementary playing. Ever since Shanks joined the live line-up, it's musically bland boring for most of it since they rarely find the heart of the songs anymore.

Everyone had different reasons why they became a fan of the band. For me, it was that Jon could elevate songs to another level live, that he was able to capture a crowd of any size they faced, that his and Richie's vocals mixed beautifully with each other and that Richie's playing gave songs that certain spark. Well, absolutely none of this is there anymore.
If people are happy with spending a few hundred bucks and needing to get drunk to get on board and have a good time, then that's great for them. But I personally can't and don't want to justify spending that amount of money for a setlist where half of the songs are tracks that don't do anything for me and the other half are hits that I had heard a dozen times before (and done ten times better).

When it came around that they were downtuning the material, adding an acoustic set and starting to bring some odd cuts back into it, I was having hopes for a moment. But since it reverted back to the same old water withing 5 or 6 shows, I had gotten the feeling that Jon had kind of given up on all of this as well.

I'm all for them still doing music in one way or the other, but as a live act, I think they're just done.

I think that the song selection more than shows that he doesn’t care. He plays songs that nobody wants to hear but him. Songs like WLOL and LH for example don’t do anything for both the die hards and the casual fans. And as for the argument: “it’s easy on his voice”, nowadays no songs is, and there are much better ones that are at the same level of difficulty as those two.


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Totally fair. To be clear I wasn't accusing you of anything either way, just curious.

I don't think I agree that no song are easy on his voice, some he can certainly do and some he gargles glass over. But it's wild the ones he chooses. He's killing himself over songs for no one, yeah.

Yep, I understood what you meant to say ! No worries !


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Negatives…how long you got?

Positives - it’s over


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It's such a shame really because the band still sounds really good, but now they don't have their singer. Other bands can replace singers, but Jon could not be replaced in Bon Jovi :(

I disagree that the band sounds really good. Yes, Tico, David and Hugh are there, but Phil X’s tone and playing doesn’t fit the “traditional” BJ sound. He is a great guitarist, but not for Bon Jovi. And Shanks for me is a snooze button on a fire alarm: useless. I’d rather have Bobby murdering solos but doing some great vocals than having Shanks up there.

I find their sound to be very dull as of lately.

Cheers

Eduardo


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Positives & Negatives - 2022 US Tour
 

Said it on here 100 times on here. Phil is an amazing guitar player….but he isn’t the right fit for Bon Jovi.

He is a shredder - a great one. Jovi songs have soul and feeling.


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One other thing that's not directly band related is the sound mix for me. Back in 2013, it was said they had a new team for mixing their live sound. And ever since 2013, I had not heard a concert where the sound was well balanced. It's so often muffled whereas even up to 2011, the mix was mostly quite good (and judging from older reviews and recordings, it was often pretty great up until 2001).
In 2013, Jon was still mixed on top of everything which made it kind of tough since he was pushing the "whiny vocals" at the time, afterwards he was drowned in the mix which made him barely audible.
It sometimes feels like they transferred the Shanks-production-sound onto the stage: big wall of sound, but you can rarely decipher the instruments properly.

in 2015 they still had a raw rock sound everything changed after shanks joined the band on stage

Jon's voice aside, this is such a cool sounding era of the band, yeah.

Not sure if I agree with the "nobody wants to hear" part but that's just my opinion, I suppose those two are overplayed, I'm a casual fan and would've been thrilled to hear "Lost Highway" on the original tour and the other times the band played it before Jon's voice got even worse. Maybe I'm the only one but I Ioved it. AXS TV aired on April 22nd (my 30th birthday) that show where the band performed the whole album, guess it must've been shortened for TV since I noticed it wasn't like the DVD track listing, but I plan on buying it. The only thing is though I feel that the song really needs Lorenza Ponce's violin, not sure how they play it live when she isn't a full time band member.

Other than that I can't think of a positives/negatives list right now. Jon's voice is obviously the big one so it would be kinda redundant to say it again but it makes me sad.

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Yeah I've also thought the same, the whole atmosphere changed musically onstage when Shanks joined the live band,I've noticed when watching videos from the 2015 tour that the band still maintained a very raw rock sound the classics still musically sounded very hard rock. Shanks guitar playing during the classics comes off as sounding generic and 'pop' sounding, it's too clean sounding instead of the heavy guitar distortion tone which most of the hits and classics require.

To me at least.....neither are bad songs. I would put Leavin' in my top 15 songs of of the post 2000 area. I think the frustration lies in that neither of them are well known. They're two songs Jon really likes, which is great but he has so so so so so so so so many songs that could take that place. The Lost Highway tour song selection has felt like the blueprint since 2007. I think people would appreciate Lost Highway more if it was played once every fifteen shows or something.

It had every right to be there on it's designated tour. It had every right to be sporadically played on the following tours. But with such a rich back catalogue....Lost Highway is the band's 22nd most played song. I know Setlist.fm is a wonky site but its been played one less time than Have a Nice Day. Which was a hit and was played the entire tour preceding it.

Anyways that's my daily rant, haha.

Positives:

Seeing my favourite band.
Jon playing the harmonica
Band being solid

Negatives:

Acoustic set being removed especially since I did not get to see it at my shows
To slow between songs, Jon needing a rest?? Phil / John changing guitars every song. Either way that lull dampens the energy
Set list.
Jon voice, I think set list is now based on what he thinks he can sing. He once blamed RS leaving/Phil joining as the reason for the stagnated set list, well this can’t be used any more

Blood in the Water not being played, I wanted to hear this one

Positives:

I enjoyed the shows I went to. All sorts of reasons can be suggested as to why this was, but ultimately I found that in the moment, the gigs were great fun.

The clips I saw from the Nashville gig (posted on the thread on this forum) suggested to me that Jon still can pull it out of the bag. It could be that the tour was over and the shackles were off so he felt more relaxed, or that he felt he had something to prove and wanted to go out with a bang. Whether he would have been able to pull that off several nights in a row is another question.

Jon on the harmonica. I don't think I've seen that live before and I am so glad I had the opportunity.

Negatives:

Jon's well-documented struggles. Seeing an aged rocker unable to hold a tune like they used to be able to is one thing, seeing them struggle, in pain and frustrated on stage is quite another. By contrast, I saw Blondie at the London O2 Arena last week. I would say that Debbie Harry can hold a tune even less than Jon can (she is almost 77!) but she coped better than Jon did. There's of course quite a difference between Blondie and Bon Jovi songs.

The lack of variation on the setlist, especially after we were told there were going to be 'deep cuts' and they apparently rehearsed 20+ songs that didn't get played. I would have loved to have seen Joey, a real favourite of mine!

The cutting of the acoustic set. It was was a good addition for all sorts of reasons and I'm glad I was in Greenville for its final airing.

Do we have to give the same amount? OK, I'll try with two each.

Positives:
- The LOAP intro / entrance through the crowd during the last show in Nashville was cool.
- Thanks to the new tuning, with my below average baritone voice, I can now pretty easily singalong to the whole set in the few videos I watched on YouTube.

Negatives:
- I am now a better singer than my favorite singer of all time.
- The sheer amount of "vocal reaction" videos I saw on YouTube from people watching videos on this tour (even Jerry had to address it!) should tell everyone the damage this tour has done to the legacy of this once great band.

Positives & Negatives - 2022 US Tour
 

I think I’m not going to list the same positive and negative aspects as almost everyone on this thread. I agree on almost everything.

For me the highlight would be the opening of the last show, that LOAP made me remember why I love this band. That was a brave move.

Hearing him struggle on every song during the entire tour breaks my heart of course.

I almost booked myself a flight to the US, I almost went to see them in Nashville, yet on the last minute I decided not to go. Right now I wish I had. It may have been the last opportunity to see them in a proper full band setting.


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Clearly Shanks is one of Jon's closest friends. After losing Richie, he felt that he needed someone to look after him.

I'm not a big fan of his overly compressed sound production either but this guy is actually helping the band the stick together.

From what I heard and to my understanding Shanks joining the touring band was a last minute thing and I doubt Shanks has anything to do with "helping the band stick together".

Shanks isn't core to the existence of this band, the only thing Shanks has done is tarnished the band's reputation with the amount of generic crap that's been put out in the last decade.

Ehh but Shanks is doing what Jon wants. If it's not Shanks, it's someone else. Jon wrote the bulk of 2020 alone and you can tell when it was a song Billy and Shanks were involved in.

I also don't agree he's holding the band together but he sure is making Jon's vocals sound tolerable.

Shanks is responsable for the best solos of the last Bon Jovi albums. He is a good guitar player, but live he does nothing for me.