Bon Jovi and their setlists.
 

Aloha !

After seeing the setlist from the Pep Rally and reading the comments I thought about posting this.

Although some songs do need to be heard, it is not necessary to repeat them all over again. Ofcourse, songs like Wanted, Prayer and It's My Life need to be played, however, not all the classics should be in there. For example, ex-Beatle McCartney doesn't tour that often as Bon Jovi does, but when he does he has a complete new set. Sure, he keeps a handful of songs in there that he needs to play, but half of it is different then on a previous tour.

Why can't Bon Jovi do this? They're capable of throwing in more then a handful of songs they haven't played in about 5 years (examples being Homebound Train in 2001, Hey God in 2001, Wild Is The Wind in 2001) all those songs weren't regulars, but were played every once in a while. If they'd make them regulars their setlists would be much more appreciated.

Also the same medley night after night. Shout just needs to be dropped. Sure, the crowd anticipation is great, but even the people who have visited only about 2 concerts know there's the Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell part after Bad Rx. They've become a predictable band. The beginning of their sets is always the same (Wild In The Streets, Bad Name, Prayer) the middle of the set is most of the time Faith, and the ending is Bad Rx with Shout. Yes, know they change it a bit during the tours, but you can easily guess what the set will look like next tour. For a band that claims to change the set every night, fans are expecting more. Much more instead of changing the order of the songs. Rarities should be thrown in next tour. I'm not expecting Hearts Breaking Even or I Want You, but songs they have played before and are still capable of playing.

These guys keep saying they are a great live act, but when looking at other bands they aren't that great. Just because you've got a few hits and because you can fill stadiums doesn't make you good. They should remember that a lot of people visit their shows because of the hits, and not because of the fact that they are so good. I went to the Arrow Rock Festival last summer. I saw The Scorpions, I saw Alice Cooper, I saw Judas Priest, and though the last one wasn't exactly what I liked, they all gave away a better show than Bon Jovi does night after night. They are not thát good as they claim, while they could easily re-establish themselves as one of the worlds biggest rock bands.


They play sets that contain about 20 songs:

Let's say 5 songs as the core:
Prayer, Wanted, Bad Rx., It's My Life and one big ballad: There For You/Roses or whatever.

Then you've got the songs that weren't their biggest hits, but still go down very well, like I Believe, Hey God, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Everyday and so on. These could be chosen in a random way, so not the same songs every night. They need 8 of them to fill the set up a bit.

They don't tour when there's no album, so they'll have to play songs from the new album, even if it suck major like it did on Crush and Bounce. If they take 5 songs from it.

Now we've got 2 songs left to be the real encore. Album tracks like Blood On Blood, Damned, Undivided, Runaway and so on.

The set is complete, contains 20 songs, and when done being this way all fans would be happy with it. Sure, there would be fans who'd be disappointed because Dry County hasn't been played, but there's more then enough to like anyway. This is possible, many bands do it like this when touring. Why can't Bon Jovi do it like this?

Or are they just being lazy and do they prefer to play the songs then can play anyway? If that's true, it's a disrespect towards the fans they claim to love so much. Doing a small tour (because the way Bon Jovi tours can not be called a world tour), cashing in and going home. Or is it a lack of guts? Is it because they don't dare to take the risk to lose the attention from the big crowd for one song? What's made Bon Jovi the predictable band they are nowadays?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Aloha !

Oh yeah, I made this topic for the people that are capable of discussing things, not for the people that just want to say that Dry County should be in set!!! Thank you.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Excellent post Seb!! I totally agree. I dont think I noticed the similarity properly until I started listening to bootlegs.

For me though, its not just the tracks that are played each night, its also Jons speachers. They have changed slightly over the years, but not an awful lot. I love it when he tells a story, rather than just the same old sh!t every night. Jon has definately changed since the 80's, even in the 90's it was different. My point is though that each night on the same tour is pretty much the same. It was extremely boring during the Bounce Tour when he kept mentioning the "you guys have stuck with us for the past twenty years and i want to thank you for that". I can see that being mentioned again next tour, which will probably bore us to death.

As far as the setlists are concerned. It really cant be that hard to vary them each night. Throwing in one or even two 'rare' tracks would be the highlight of so many fans night. I would never expect the band to remove, prayer, bad name, bad medicine, sleep, wanted, IML, etc...they are always going to be for keeps coz it keeps probably 70-80% of the audience happy. All we want as hardcore/diehard fans is a song, using Sebs example Hey God for example, to send us home happy.

The 'casual' fan will certainly not go home disappointed if they couldnt sing along two one or two tracks. They would still be extrmely happy to have heard all the greatest hits, and the odd 'rare' track that I mentioned could possibly entice them to go out and purchase an older album which could lead them into becomming a bigger fan.

I dont know why Jon and the band can't work on this. Songs that they havent played for years can still be played, it cant take that long to go back over the guitar chords. Look at Living In Sin for example that was played at the Giants Stadium at the Homecoming in 2003. The crowd loved that, as it was a rare song. They should be able to surprise the crowd at least once a night or it really isnt worth the entrance fee.

Unfortunately I doubt them dropping tracks like I'll Sleep When I'm Dead or Shout, but we can hope for it anyway. With each new album they have more new tracks to play and as such have to drop some older tracks, either that or play longer each night, which is probably not likely.

I think that the core songs need to be Livin' On A Prayer, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Keep The Faith, It's My Life and possibly You Give Love A Bad Name, just to keep the casual fans happy. Other than that they'd have to play 5 or 6 new songs, and I'll guess a few songs from the boxset will be played in future too, and maybe one or two TLFR style performances, so it leaves few gaps for the more rare tracks.

It would be great if they'd play Dry County, sorry Seb but I had to say it, but I think that it is very unlikely. Any of the more rare tracks they do play in future will probably be ones they've done on the past few tours, such as Homebound Train, Hey God, Wild Is The Wind and I Believe. Obviously we all want more but in the end we just get what they give us, take it or leave it.

Personally I can't wait for the tour this year, if/when it happens as I've never been to a show. As such I don't care too much about the set, as although I've seen/heard quite a few good bootlegs I've never been to shows so haven't seen the songs done live, and would love to see all the classic tracks like Livin' On A Prayer and Wanted Dead Or Alive etc.

Lets start a petition :lol:

Is it just laziness on their part? Whatever it is, if you go to enough shows, it gets old. They have such a huge catalogue of songs, why not break some out now and again. There are so many songs that I've only heard live once (and a few I've never heard live) that I would be very happy to hear. I can even understand not playing Always because Jon has problems with it but there are so many others that he could sing and won't.

The contrast is even sharper for me because I go to as many Springsteen concerts as I can also. In 2003, I went to 9 out of the 10 Giants Stadium concerts that Bruce did. His strategy was to play 6 to 8 songs from the album being toured (The Rising is this case), then he played some of the big hits but never the same ones on consecutive nights. He only played Born in the USA once out of 10 concerts at Giants, but he played Rosalita every night (that was once a rarity), and then he played a rarity or two.

I never got tired of those concerts and I wish Bon Jovi would do the same. During the same summer I saw many Bon Jovi concerts and there were two basic setlists. Once was like the last night at Giants 03 which was full of old hits. The other was the standard Bounce show from the album being toured.

I would like to think that a new tour would mean some new songs but I don't think so based on the direction they are going.

Kathleen

I totally agree. The setlists are just boring and predictable. They rely too heavily on the same tired songs and, not only do they play the same songs, they don't even vary them up that much in the way they're played. Would it kill Richie to put a little emotion into his guitar playing? He could change the feel of the show night to night. Does Jon have to say the SAME THING every night? How bad is it when you go to a show and you say everything he says as he says it because you've heard it so many times? I remember when he used to talk to the audience and I remember when he stopped talking so much--some fans were complaining that he "babbled" too much. I heard that it got back to him and he stopped talking as much. But I really enjoyed the stories. So, if he can listen to a few fans and stop talking like he used to, why not listen to us and change the set list around? The show doesn't have to run like a well-oiled machine to be good. They lack spontanaiety and inspiration. I don't think I'd go see Bon Jovi over and over on the same tour... they're shows have gotten too close to "if you've seen them once a tour, you've seen them enough." It's depressing. For an act that can be so great live, they're just not doing what they could. They need to go back and consult the These Days set lists from 1996 and get inspired to do something less predicatable and boring.

Becky

I have to say that I agree with all of you. This is the first year that I am actually debating on seeing them live. Yes, they put on a great live show, but if I hear the same old freakin set list again, I just might start pelting eggs at the band members heads. :x When Living in Sin was played at Giants, the crowd was in awe. I think each night BJ should manage to awe the crowd by switching things up a bit and becoming less predictable.

Heck, BJ copies Bruce during their live performances anyway, so why can't they copy this aspect of Bruce too?

What do you say about this setlist
 

I agree, that Bon Jovi has became a predictable, lazy and "old" band. This is a selist for a big and loud stadium concerts. If I had to choose songs that would make a compromise between the new and the old songs, those would be. But, I personally like the other songs to be played live. Songs like These days, Fear, This ain't a love song, Two story town. And I'm bored of hearing It's my life, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I don't know why but I couldn't find any place for any of the songs from Bounce. There are 6 new songs, depending of their nature, if it's a slow or fast song, they should fit in the show. There are a lots of old songs from NY and SWW. From Crush I just have Just Older. It's very difficult to put all the songs I've wanted anda I repeat I like that I would be glad to see other songs on the stlist, at least every third show they should give as a surprise.

1. Intro
2. Lay your hands on me
3. I’d die for you
4. Wild in the streets
5. NEW SONG
6. Born to be my baby
7. Just older
8. NEW SONG
9. Hey, God
10. Dry county
11. NEW SONG
12. Runaway
13. Raise your hands
14. You give love a bad name
15. NEW SONG
16. Homebound train (with a long Richie's solo)
17. Living in sin
18. Never say goodbye (acoustic)
19. Wanted dead or alive
21. Bad medicine

Encore1:
22. NEW SONG
23. Keep the faith

Encore 2:
24. Bed of roses
25. Livin’ on a prayer

Sorry about my english. It's very bad. Adios

I agree with all of you

However I would like to add some points to the discussion:

1 - Bon Jovi are famous for giving their hearts out every night. It's not about the set list. The shows are so great because everybody participate in the show and the band makes you feel like you're the only one there, like every line is sung for you. That's what makes this band's shows so amazing.

2 - Regular set lists were always a problem in their carrer.
Most shows from a tour are likely to have the same stuff. If you look to New Jersey, Keep the Faith, Croosroad(1995) and These Days(1996) Tours, all the shows are similar within a tour. They change a bit everytime they start a new tour. I'll give some examples regarding the Bounce tour: In 2003 Richie started playing IBTFY, BTBMB had a fake ending, LYHOM was only played on few shows,, Raise your hands was moved to near the end of the main set. Bad Medicine/Shout ended the show - breaking the LYHOM, ISWID, BM traditional way of endind the main set. Richie started playing some notes in the begining of LOAP, Runaway was played again - the original version wasn't played since 1996..

3 - As to throwing gemns, I agree that I'd love them to bring back tracks like Hey God, Something for the Pain, Livin in Sin, tracks from the first 2 albums (other than Runaway), Next 100 years....
But I have to say that the band always brought something old back on every tour- 2000: BTBMB (this song wasn't played regularly since 1993) Runaway (acoustic version never played before) 2001: Raise your hands(wasn't played regularly since 1987), In these arms (the original version of this song hadn't been played regularly since 1993), 2003: Runaway (original version wasn't played regularly since 96), Die for you, Livin in Sin, Always (these were played ocasionally but are nowardays gemns on a BJ show). Also tracks like I Believe, Blood or These Days are always played in some part of the tour.

Realistically I think a good set list for the next tour would be:

7 big hits: Prayer, Bad Name, Wanted, Medicine, BTBMB, KTF, IML, IBTFY
5 regular tracks: older, runaway, Everyday, Undivided, Raise Hands, Radio
6 new songs

The rest of the set i'd love them to pick randomly from 2 real gemns (I'll only mention tracks that realistically they could play. Yes I also dream of listening to Dry County, Get Ready or As my guitar lies bleeding, but I choose to pick tracks that they are more likely to play):
WIld is the Wind, Next 100 years, i believe, Hey God, SFTP, Damned, All I want is everything, Something to believe in, LYHOM, Livin in Sin, Blood, Die for You

I thing solo tracks have no more room in the set lists. As for covers I think the band play them for fun, so I think they'll always play 1 or 2 on every show.

As to the order of the tracks, my sugestion would be to tear the whole set down and rebuild it from scratch. Like in 96 when they re-invented their shows by adding a 3 track acoustic set in the middle of the main set, kicking off the show with LYHOM, and playing Gloria in stead of Shout. They need to do similar changes in the new tour.

But I have Faith, and Believe that they'll bring both something old and new to add to this year's tour:)

good post! and yes, they DID mix it up the last few tours, just not enough to impress this motley crew on this bored! :roll:
But id be happy hearing 2 rare songs at a gig, while joe bloggs next to me would be happy if he heard Prayer and bad name, so everyones happy!


andi