Why so bad in Japan?
 

What has happened?

In Japan they sounded so bad and seemed to have lost the will to put on a killer show. In these recent months they have sounded the best I have heard in a long time, even giving us 'Always' & 'Hey God' to name a few. What has changed and what went wrong in Japan?

I hope they can keep this form going for the remainder of the tour. The people who have not snapped up tickets could be missing out on the best Bon Jovi show in recent years. The crowd can make a show come alive, my guess is that the Europe crowd seem to get the band going.

If you have not brought tickets then please do so. I think we are all in for a treat this time.

People where slagging this band of as being past it (me included) I can remember one sad muppet, now removed from here who said he would not go to the Munich show as they are now crap etc, what a mistake, the Munich show looked/sounded amazing.

It might be overstated to say it all goes back to Jon's voice, but that is undoubtedly a big part of it. I can remember his vocals sounded noticeably better in the summer shows last year (especially Live Earth). And even on this tour prior to the nefarious 'Japan' incident, Jon sounded pretty good and the band was performing fairly well, they just were putting out pretty shitty sets. I think he's started giving a shit about his performance again outside of the ass bullshit, and the effort he's put into it the past year or so is showing, especially in the past few months.

Yeah, Jon's voice did sound bloody bad, that being said how is it now so much better??

I did wonder whether it had anything to do with the fact that most shows were not sold out in Europe. It is possible that the band have upped it in the hope that good reviews mean more ticket sells.

Anyway for whatever reason I am really pleased this band has again proved me wrong. This is why I love this band.

I don't know any better than anyone else, but it seems like the band just had an off trip East.

Good question. I don't think they'd go the extra mile just because of poor ticket sales, because the average concert go-er isn't going to care about the sets or even JBJ's vocals the same way we do. One thing Jon does seem to genuinely do is snoop around the internet. Maybe he's been shrewd enough to look past the ass-kissing he gets at that god damned official site and found motivation to prove himself. It almost seemed that way when they first did Always back in Iowa. I think that, along with possibly ticket sales and popular opinion (is Bon Jovi still a rock band? Or just a fading act?) has been the fuel here.

As for why they sucked so bad in the Japan disaster, the excuse at the time was that Jon was sick. Who knows if that was the case. Even if he was, there's no denying the concert just was flat in general. Hard to imagine that, just six months later, they put out what they did in Rio last night.

They need to come back to Japan by the end of this year and redo some concerts! :)

I think there were 3 reasons. For #1, it's just because they couldn't fill the stadium even 1venue for the Japan shows and that let Jon down. (Maybe that was his first experience of that bad ticket sales in Japan. It must have been very shocking to him.) The tickets sales were perhaps the worst in their history in Japan, it was not even close sold out except 1st Tokyo show. I've never seen such lots of empty seats in the stadium but only the 1st Tokyo show was pretty filled with 40,000+ for the capacity of 50,000-55,000 so the show was full of energy and excitement and a few of Jon's talks between songs sounded heartfelt messages to Japanese audience.) #2, the "Lost Highway" album let Japanese fans down. I think that most of the Japanese are not interested in Country music/sound including myself. I think the Japanese Jovi fans expect the band Rock sound. If Any Other Day or We Got It Going On or Summertime was the 1st single in Japan, the result might have changed. #3, I think this was the biggest failure factor for the bad ticket sales for the Japan tour that the fanclub tickets were sold in disorganized way, and by that, many of fanclub members were let down and got stress out and were made them lost their passion to schedule (a) Bon Jovi show(s) in after a long New Year holidays as they believed Jon's brother as much as they believed Jon and his band. I do hope time will ease their broken hearts and strongly wish them to come back the next Japan shows.
Besides, the fanclub management is I think getting better.

Well, the promoter set the "sell out" capacity low enough for the Japan shows because on billboard the two Toyko shows and Osaka are all reported as sell outs. Here's the link:

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/boxscore.jsp

Edited to add, the Nagoya show is ranked #23 (you can't see the full chart unless you have a subscription with Billboard which I have). The attendance/capacity is listed at 12,113 and it is listed as a sell out as well. The promoter for all the shows is Udo.

To put it frankly, the band had an off night in Japan and a lot of people wrote them off completely. I had the time of my life at the 5 shows in Toronto and the band were in top form, and they're even better now.

Thanks for the very interesting Billboard data. OK. I’ve learnt when I should to say “sold out”. I think many of the audience or Japanese fans don’t know the Nagoya show and Tokyo shows and Osaka show were sold out because of plenty of empty seats, which usually doesn't happen at Bon Jovi show in Japan. Also, I’m happy that Udo protected the band’s honor not only in Japan but also in overseas. I’m glad to know that really there is a bond between Mr.Udo and Jon and the band.
I thought they sold approx.30,000 at least for the Osaka show at Osaka dome (Big baseball stadium), where the band USUALLY fill over approx. 50,000. (When there were 2 shows there, the 2nd show usually was sold out for 50,000 or more, typically the 1st one is less than the 2nd one, which can be said to any event/show.)
Only 23,426 for Osaka dome show…………..Looking at the figure, it’s like they did a show at an arena…………
60,549 for 2 Tokyo shows, then the 2nd one was 20,000 or less for the venue capacity of 55,000..........propably the # of the attendees was 1/3rd...................Although I already got shocked and was worried when I saw the view at the show, I got depressed again now revewing it with the figure.........
12,113 for Nagoya show………….I really appreciate that they didn't quit and performed in front of such small crowd for their Japan show in that big stadium.
I’m wishing that I can see the view that Tokyo dome and Osaka dome will be filled with people again on the next tour. (Maybe that’s not going to happen at Nagoya show, though.)