#08 - Amelie Arena, Tampa, Florida, April 15th 2022
 

Round 8 in Tampa tonight - the place where the band once pulled of one of the most magical shows I've ever heard. But well, that was a lifetime ago...
Is the acoustic set gone for good? Will Wanted return as a setlist regular? Or are we continuously falling into more and more familiar patterns?

Last time the band played Tampa was on February 14th 2017:

https://bjtours.jimdofree.com/the-to...a-florida-usa/

Setlist:

01. This House Is Not For Sale
02. Knockout
03. You Give Love A Bad Name
04. Born To Be My Baby
05. We Weren't Born To Follow
06. Lost Highway
07. Roller Coaster
08. Work For The Working Man
09. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
10. We Got It Goin' On
11. Who Says You Can't Go Home
12. It's My Life
13. We Don't Run
14. God Bless This Mess
15. Scars on This Guitar
16. The Devil's in the Temple
17. Lay Your Hands On Me
18. Blood on Blood
19. Have a Nice Day
20. Bad Medicine
21. Keep the Faith

Encore:
22. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
23. Wanted Dead or Alive
24. Livin' On A Prayer

Stay tuned for shows in Florida. There could be surprises.... or no.

I am expecting the return of the epics Captain Crash and WGIGO!

It's tough because it's very easy to dog on those two songs due to how much they were brought out but they both did their job of crowd involvement VERY well compared to say LH and Leavin and Sleep.

And of course, there are now decent tickets available for tonight at $55 each.

If that was the case before, I would have gotten those.

What a scam Ticketmaster is.

Now, it's too late and I'm out of luck.

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Dropping ticket prices the day of the show is nothing new. Releasing tickets the day of the show is nothing new either. But that's the promoter, not Ticketmaster. The promoter decides when to release tickets and when to drop prices. Tickets that pop up the day before and day of the show are unused promo tickets, unused band/guest tickets, seats added after the stage is built, etc. I'm sorry you're missing the show, but this is very common.

JBJ: "I want to go out there and celebrate the 40th and the continued success that we've had."
That sounds like a 2023 Tour
https://www.indystar.com/story/enter...se/7046571001/

When was that? Do you have a youtube link?

https://youtu.be/fh9bBhfYi9Q

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No Wanted tonight.

I just got home from the show. I’ve been what I consider to be a hardcore fan since 2000. Attended probably 25 shows; a few runaway events; the cruise. Went tonight with my wife and 3 boys; sat close (set list attached as proof)

The fact that they didn’t play Wanted is criminal. As you can see it was on the set list but just skipped. On the way home my 12 year old asked why it wasn’t played. You just can’t not play one of your core hits, irrespective of the why

When you are there live, you truly do not notice the vocal issues unless you are looking to hear them. The background singers cover up Jon significantly and the instruments are loud and tight enough you just don’t notice. My wife told me that she noticed he was struggling. I asked her how; she said only because she’s gone with me 15 plus times. Again, that shows that Johnny casual fan probably wouldn’t notice the slippage

I was in the front with several self proclaimed die hards. Literally none of them could even tell that the songs were tuned down a step. I could notice Jon was singing behind the beat; a sign of straining to ensure that he hit notes, as well as a lack of confidence; no one else could tell he was behind. Not claiming to be an expert, just stating again that Johnny casual fan isn’t seeing what “we” are

I absolutely enjoyed myself being there. I’d say it was 80 percent as good as a show I would have seen in 2013, which is still enjoyable. That means Johnny casual fan had a blast. Which means get your minds right for the 40th anniversary tour

Great update. Crazy about Wanted though. It's on the set so there must have been a valid reason for it. Maybe Jon's voice couldn't handle it.

So true about not noticing the struggles as much when you're there. You can tell he hits a bad note ever now and then but nothing like what you hear on YT.

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not playing wanted is plain stupid, if anything bad name or bad medicine could be dropped.

Wanted is a must.

Thanks for the review, glad you enjoyed it.

Seeing where Wanted was on the set list it can only be his voice that wasn't up to it. Not sure why the acoustic section has been dropped. Wanted has been done acoustic before, we had it in the UK along with I'll be there for you and In these arms, admittedly a long time ago. That would be a way to get in a couple of hits and perhaps be kinder to his voice. Either way Wanted absolutely has to be played.

American Reckoning is way too political for me to enjoy as a song, it's a drag if I'm honest. Seeing WLOL coming back is frustrating when you consider some over tracks that never see light of day. Each tour gets more annoying and I really can't see him getting this tour to work in Europe.

No Everett Bradley either so maybe there's a link if Jon's had to work harder with his vocals during the main set. Wouldn't surprise me if this tour ends early...

Is it known why Everett Bradley wasn't there last night?

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Is Wanted really that difficult to sing? Asking as a genuine non-vocalist-expert. I used to think the rest of the band dragged Jon through it anyway…

'Wanted' does have a few highs but nothing too harsh unlike 'Prayer' but the song does require a consistent 'high' tone and Jon's biggest problem is switching vocal registers, he can longer switch between mids and highs or even lows.

Honestly if it’s about saving his voice I am
sure most people would be happy losing American Reckoning and WLOL from the set and getting Wanted instead.

Also they could of just played the TLFR version in the abandoned acoustic section.

If his voice just can’t take Wanted, let the audience sing up to the second verse, have Phil do a verse and more than half the song is covered. If it’s that or don’t play it I’d say the second alternative is better. Wanted has to be done especially in the States.

A song I don’t get why he pushes himself to play is I’ll Be There For You. It’s absolutely horrible. Rather do Bed of Roses. That was one of the few songs he did a decent vocal delivery on in 2019. Why not bring back a snippet of Diamond Ring as intro for it like back in the days and you’d have something interesting for the set list as well.

It probably really depends on your voice type, but personally I do find it quite difficult to sing compared to other songs that may seem way harder to sing at first glance.

I think if you have more of a coloratura voice type (so your voice is very agile and singing runs comes to you pretty easily) Wanted probably isn’t particularly difficult to sing, but if you have a much thicker voice like Jon does you gotta work way harder to hit all the notes correctly. And since he’s already struggling with pitch on songs that are much more suitable for his voice, I can see why Wanted is such a monster to get through nowadays.


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It's OK they don't do things like 'back in the days' - that's what we all complain about when things don't change. As much as I love BOR and Always, they won't be in this tour. IBTFY is the one they have to play cause it's probably huge in the US. Bigger than BOR or Always. Still - when you go and see BJ, they aren't putting up a greatest hits. I wonder if it's vocal related or anything else.

For a band like Bon Jovi not playing BOR, Always, Runaway, Blaze of Glory... that's a lot of big ones to easily make the crowd happy. Yet, Jon puls 'Whole lot of leaving' in. Maybe cause he saw a 'whole lot of leaving' in the audience?

This is what confuses me. It’s not a greatest hits set, it’s not a new album set, and it’s not a set for the die hards that are just looking for rarities. The song choices are so poor, consistently so. Their back catalogue is vast - Jon must know what people really want to hear so it must just be a case of picking 20-30 easily sung songs and making the ‘best’ of it.

Eddie Trunk was seen at the show last night. It'll be interesting to hear his thoughts.

Spankymagee, I'm happy to hear you had a good time, but you were front row. Of course you had a good time. The energy up front makes up for Jon's terrible vocals. Johnny casual in the back of the arena or in the 2nd level heard Jon's issues much better than you.

If (IF!) Everett has covid, it's only a matter of time before more band members get sick and the tour is cancelled.

IF he does have COVID I'm assuming everyone else got tested and came back negative or else I highly doubt they would've played the show last night.

They could still catch it elsewhere of course, but that risk has been there since right from the start of the tour.

Another fan said Everett has Covid, as well as 35 crew members. His backing vocals were really missed, I’m sure.

The setlist selection is all about what Jon can sing now, IMO. He even struggles with This house, it’s bad. I was at Charlotte and Greenville, 3rd and 6th rows. The music does drown him out, but we could still hear and see him struggling, coming in late, etc. The crowd in Greenville went nuts for I’ll be there for you (including me.) it was a huge hit here. I still had a great time. But I have to wonder, how will he have ANY voice left for a 40th anniversary tour?

Not that simple. Richie taking a verse, then maybe... Phil? Not so much.

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Bon Jovi's catelog is very difficult to sing. I've tried Wanted a few times in a karaoke bar and failed miserably.

Jon makes it look easy but it's extremely difficult.

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I actually feel sorry for Jon.

I honestly think this tour was Jon's way of getting himself out there and doing it for him.

He was watching those older archive videos, never played the 2020 songs in front of alive audience, and just needed to fill a void.

I think his voice is so damaged that it's just not built for this anymore.


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He does have covid, along with 15 other crew members. I'm sure they are all tested daily. Negative yesterday does not mean you're in the clear. It just depends on when you were exposed.

A month ago John Mayer's drummer and background singer tested positive; Mayer tested negative so he played a show that night. The following day he tested positive and the next several shows were cancelled.

Expect more band members and/or crew to test positive in the coming days.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago he said the band and crew would be in a bubble and yet there have been several photos of him out and about with fans! Maybe this was the plan - everyone gets covid and the tour is cancelled and he doesn’t have to blame the fact he can’t sing!🤔

I can't believe they omitted Wanted - and no more acoustic set, no more Love's The Only Rule, the return of Whole Lotta Leavin and Everett Bradley is sick??! What is going on??

It's kinda shady how you keep promoting your YouTube channel here.

I do? I think I've linked a video twice.. this was within the topic of the thread so I just thought I'd drop a link but if it's "shady" I'll stop. Check my posts and see how often I promote my youtube channel.. not very much at all.

Not that hard but if you want to sound like in the album you'll need to go raspy, then you'll overheat your vocal chords and you'll probably end up singing two or three songs.

If they're going to drop a hit from the setlist I'd prefer it be Bad Medicine which sounds much worse in my opinion; Jon really struggles with the verse.

I was 3rd center and Jon’s struggle and poor vocal performance was noticeable on every song. Of course, you are going to have a ton of people say it was fine but if they actually listened, knew the songs and have seen a ton of shows and know how he should sound, they would agree. You can also watch his facial expressions and realize something isn’t right. It’s heartbreaking.

The entire arena was in shock that Wanted wasn’t played. They could have gotten rid of WSYCGH instead.

Jon said that 15 crew members were out with covid including Everett.

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Bon Jovi Rollercoaster @ Tampa April 15, 2022

Yeyeyeye part in ktf is a desperate Scream

Took my son to his 1st concert at the Tampa show. He was so disappointed they didn't play Wanted. I was shocked.

As for the rest, I'm convinced it's not just a vocal issue. I think Jon has hearing loss. His pitch is just awful but his timing is way off too. Some songs he didn't sound that bad. Mostly the new songs. He absolutely butchered Who Says, Lost Highway and WLOL. Surprisingly IBTFY didn't sound half bad. The band was tight as always. Tico was a beast. Phil had some killer solos. As for Everett, I didn't even realize he wasn't there until 6 or 7 songs in. I actually enjoyed the show more without him. Glad I got to take my son but I'm officially done with going to see the band live. To answer Jon's question during WLOL, No - You don't got it anymore.