Bon Jovi Live
 

Ok I've got to speak up about something that's been driving me crazy.
I've been off this board awhile due to technical difficulties so I spent some time today catching up on my reading. Came across a few threads about the Soaring eagle show and a couple about how the band was so much better live back in the SWW and NJ era than they are now.
I am a long time Bj fan and back in the day I was a live show follower. I've seen this band as of last Sun 99 times in 21 years, and about half of those shows were during SWW and NJ.
heres what bugs me. All the complaints about how Jon's voice isn't as good ( no he can't hit the high notes anymore). Let me tell you there were some pretty awful shows on those two tours. Nights where Jon couldn't sing at all, where his voice was a rasp and nothing else, when Dave and Richie were singing for him. nights when the band were drunk on stage and played like crap. Nights toward the end of NJ where Jon was so exhausted he couldn't hardly stand up.
Now don't get me wrong there were alot more great nights and shows than bad ones but they did happen.
Alot of you seem to have put this time on a pedastal. It was "their' time in the sun no doubt, but in truth I have seen more cosistently good shows from this band since KTF when they started to figure out how to pace themselves a bit.
Jon doesn't wail songs out like he used to, he learned that if he wanted to get through a tour he had to dial it back a bit. Are there off nights?? Absolutely, I saw one last Sun. Jon was off for whatever reason, Richie struggled for whatever reason, it happens.
This band is still one of the most consistently great live bands I've ever seen. I've nevr been afraid to put up my money and go see them play.

I have to agree. You make some very valid points.

Aloha !

When listening to bootlegs from those tours and from the last tour, Jon has more off nights now than he had then. Almost have of the entire Bounce tour Jon's got an off night when it comes to his vocals. He's nasal, wails a lot nowadays, and there's no depth in his voice as soon as he needs to put more effort into a lot of songs.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Yup, that is exactly it. Back in the day you didn't hear that nasal quality that he now posesses. And it is possible for him to sing without doing that. During the last show at Giants, a few years back, Jon sang a bit more like he used too, without so much of that through the nose stuff. Maybe it was because it was the last show and he didn't care, but I just wish he would go back to singing normally full time. It sounds so much better.

I think it just comes down to laziness. It's obvious when Jon is just going on auto-pilot and giving about 50% of what he could and that's when he starts to sound nasily. When he's really concentrating and doing the song justice he sounds perfect. Look at the TLFR Live DVD - he sings Missunderstood straight through his nose and he looks like he's about to fall into a coma and then he gives an incredible vocal on "Last Man Standing" and "Sylvia's Mother" and you can tell he really means it. He's still completely capable of putting on an incredible show, and I've witness many in the last few years but in my opinion, I just don't think he cares as much or gets as big a thrill now as he did back in the 90's and that's why you'll get a few more off nights.

Hopefully with the new album and tour things will be shaken up and Jon will get back into it alot more. Of course you have to take into account his age and the fact that he smokes so obviously his range will not be what it used to be and there's nothing you can do about that, it's just a fact of life, it dosen't mean he's lost it though, he's still a heck of a singer, it just means he has to give a little bit more and concentrate a little bit more and I think that's the problem.


Phil

rainsong is right on with this one.

Jon is more consistent these days, he doesn't have such peaks and valleys in his performance as he used to. I taped a show in 87 where he sang about 1/2 the words, he was just too tired and exhausted vocally to perform.

We may not still get the WHAAAA---HOOOO in IBT4U but through years of vocal training he can still sing 96% of the band's hits and not have to take steroid shots in his throat as he did almost nightly for the second half of the slippery tour.

You have to realize that the Jovi's did 2 of the longest, hardest tours of all time back to back on the road basically from 1986-1990. It's frankly a bloody miracle Jon doesn't sound like Tom Keifer after that stretch.

Jon is a much better singer than he used to be, he has a mature discipline that keeps him able to rockand roll, from the pregame warmup to the restraint of not going 110% and losing his voice for 2 days after each show to the postgame warmdown.

Imagine how disapointed we would all be if Jon went Meatloaf on us - great pipes, great performer + vocal abuse = 10 years of silence + surgery + agony

I would rather hear Jon with whatever tricks and techniques he has to use to get by for the next 10 years than J-Lo for the next 10 minutes

Paragon

P.S. they do not use any recorded vocals at live concerts despite what some here may say.

Seb, bootlegs are really not a great source on which to judge consistency IMO. the quality of them often varies depending on what was used to tape them from where the show was taped etc...
I'm not saying Jon doesn't have off nights he does. I'm not saying he doesn't struggle with his voice at times, he does. But he always has, it's not something new.
The point I was trying to make was that putting that era up on a pedestal as Jon being at his best vocally and/ or the band playing at their best is probably not fair. Were they great alot of the time? Absolutely. But of the six shows I saw on the Bounce tour four of them were also great, one was very good and the one was just a solid performance.
Overall, IMO, Jons voice has been more consistently good since KTF. Alot of the differences I hear now are due to a different style of song being written. Jon's voice range is lower no doubt about it, the high end vocals are just gone, period, but at the SE show last weekend when the mic and sound were working Jon's voice was very strong. He sounded excellent on HAND and much to my surprise they played the original version of Runaway in the encore, taken down an octave and Jon had no problem belting it out. KTF was the final song there and Jon nailed it solid and this is a song I've seen him struggle with sometimes over the years. At the Brew-Ha the night before SE, Jon's voice was in excellent shape throughout the show, he sounded great.
All I'm saying is that Jon and the band have gotten more consistent in the last 12 or 13 years than they were in the 80's when there were alot of very high highs and some pretty low lows at shows. I just think glorifying that era as always being great is untrue and unfair.

and where come the "hey's!" at lay your hands on me?

Aloha !

Which counts for every tour, old or new.

Yes he has always struggled, but in the older days, he only struggled during a show when he had an offnight. Nowadays he struggles every show. That's the big difference.

Jon hasn't had a problem belting out Runaway since he stopped singing the high parts in the end. Runaway isn't such a difficult song to sing anyway.

It's not unfair. Yes they might be more consistent, but the overall level or performances is much lower than during the glory days from 91-96, or even the eighties. A not so good performance of the glory days is an alright show nowadays, when it comes to Jon. Also, it seems like you think that from 93 to now there's no difference, while there was a completely different singer on stage since the Crush Tour started.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan