O2 residency ends - JTers overall opinions
 

What is your overall opinion of the whole O2 BJ residency ?

I'm just disappointed since the core of the set isn't good at most of these shows. The beginning is really badly balanced and it just picks up during We Got It Goin' On. It's great to see a lot of rarities played again, but the set isn't balanced well enough.

Pretty much agreed. I couldn't see a show myself, but judging from recordings and personal opinions and reviews performances itself were very good most of the time, Jon's voice was great and they did a lot of stuff I thought I'd never hear again in my entire life. But the structure of the setlist, especially the first half, was predictable at most of the concerts and had a terrible balance.

Setlist Jury - The Balance Department KICKS IN!

I personally felt it was the best....

first there was residencygate being in once place for same period of time.... ticketgate at the prices.... seatgate at the free upgrades....

On the whole... I think the residency was a good idea, lack of pr + ticketgate did let the tour down and didnt fill as many seats.

However on the plus side seatgate meant many fans who had never been up close had their dreams come true with upgrades.... last minute price reductions meant we could go more than once.

Setlists yeah they had a main setlist and added a lot of rare songs. The guys were in amazing performance form.

Its been great ...come back soon BON JOVI :D

Dawn

Band were better than I've seen them for years. Jon was in really good mood most of the time and his voice seems to be better than it has been.

Atmosphere was amazing

Location was great (20 mins door to door for me).

Tickets were too expensive although good value when they brought the prices down.

Highlights over the 4 nights I went (11th, 13th, 23rd, 25th):

Homebound Train (Richie)
Let It Rock
Diamond Ring
These Days (Acoustic)
Damned
Open all Night (Guilty pleasure for me - sorry)
Blood Money

Lowlights:

Captain Crash 3 nights out of 4
Not hearing Dry County :-(

Setlist was more varied than it has been in the past, although depends what night you went to. Nights 11th & 23rd had a lot of variation when compared side by side. Acoustic section was completely different 3 out of 4 nights. Got 3 different openers.

That said - structure of main setlist was very similar between nights 23rd & 25th.

Don't agree about the balance not being right. If you struck the perfect balance the setlist would start to become very predictable so don't think balance is really a consideration. Variation for me is key and it is moving in the right direction however I don't think songs should be played as a one off to reach a target, and songs that aren't major hits should be rotated far more than they are. The target could have been reached easily while playing some of the rarities more regularly.


This marks the event that I have truly converted my Wife who give me a telling off for not securing tickets to tongiht (would have been her 3rd show of the occupancy). Hope they come back again!!

I pretty much agree with everything Mike said above.

5 shows - 50 different songs not including the covers snippets. That's incredible in the space of 17 days. :crazyeye:

If any of you think that is not incredible, you are lucky you're not fans of other major touring artists who you'd be lucky to get any different songs night after night at all.

Oh, but Captain Crash at all five - I could happily never hear that song again! LOL

I'd give it an 8/10. They exceeded expectations as far as setlists go, changed up some, and played a lot of hot rarities. All the while, all videos and reports seem to indicate that the band was on fire.
Only major lowlights to me are the David-Less show, and the fact that on all but two nights, the encores were only 3 songs.

Seen them 3 times. I great show, 1 decent show, 1 bad show.

I actually agree with what most people have said. Playing 70+ songs is damn amazing. The band sounded pretty good, and there's now way they can ever please everyone.

However the core setlist is very bad. They do play for 2+ hours, but if they cut off the first 6-7 songs or so, nobody would tell the difference. The show only picks up with We Got It Going On or maybe In These Arms. It's dead up until then. It' almost like them saying: "right, let's get all the junk out of the way early".

Moving on, I can understand why they play songs like "It's not Right" Who Says You can't Go home, Captain Crash, Lost Highway, When We Were Beautiful, bloody stupid I Love This Town yesterday,and the like...but when I get ALL OF THEM in one show (again, yesterday), there's no way I can enjoy a concert, even if they do play Letting Go and These Days and Diamond Ring and Blaze of Glory and Bed of Roses. Purely subjective.

Their best "core"songs have really lost their edge. Keep The Faith is underperformed. Wanted just doesn't sound right. The only one that has improved, and seems to actually become the highlight of the show is Bad Medicine. That one rocks big time and Prayer works well as a closer. Other than that, they're all a bit mehh. Born To Be My Baby?? Just doesn't work. It's My Life? Was never any good live although it does the job of waking up some people in the audience. Lay Your Hands on me performed by Richie...uhh...not really.

The band:

- Jon, I just can't relate to him anymore. He's got some of the voice back and he is a great frontman, but his comments, his politics, his showing off all the time - just makes me want to throw up. Yesterday he went on about how they sold more tickets than Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park. Those were the most unnecessary comments ever. His political nonsense rambling? I mean come on Jon... what the **** is wrong with you??? Lost your pension, took my ID??!? Those lyrics are an insult to the intelligence of the people attending a concert. Having said this, one of yesterday's highlights was NOT seeing Work for the Working Man.

-Richie, is probably the laziest person in the world (right after me). He got all the talent, the charisma, the skill to be a legend. Yet he hardly plays anything. I mean, Keep The Faith completely lost it. His solos all kind of sound the same (blame it on his stupid signature guitars)...there's nothing exciting about Richie Sambora anymore. He just does the bare minimum to make the show sound ok. Just lazy.He strikes me as one of those people who never play the instrument at home. He never practices. And you can tell by now. Sambora hasn't evolved as a musician since Undiscovered Soul. Frankly, that's a waste of talent. At least he looks like a mother****in' bad ass rock 'n' roll star.

- David, yesterday I noticed how hard he tries to be an entertainer and how he never gets the spotlight. Dressed with skinny jeans and still looking like he could rock out that keyboard. I wish he was given a bit more spotlight.

-Tico, the powerhous - thank God for him. Whenever I get bored, I just stare at him. The way he smashed those drums is incredible. And the man is almost 60. Kudos to him.

- Bobby , all I can say about Bobby is watch the In These Arms solo yesterday. Are you ****in' kiddin' me??! And someone like this is back up guitarist for one of the biggest bands in the world??? There was a busker outside the O2, he'd do a 100 times better job.

- Hugh McDonald - the definition of mehhh-ness.

Also disappointed with the effects and the stage. And going to a seated Jovi concert is not right.


Overall, I'd give these shows a 6/10. There were some damn special personal moments...Blood Money, Santa Fe, Diamond Ring, Letting Go, These Days. And some others that I wasn't lucky enough to experience like Let It Rock. However, the band lost any edge it has ever had. They are safe and predictable and if it wasn't for this gems, frankly, the shows would suck.

Was great meeting a bunch of people again, like Tom and Laura, Thierry, Emil and Vanessa. And it was nice meeting some new people, like Geoff (Com'onFeet) who, as you would have thought from the forum already, is a great guy. It definitely improved the overall experience. However, I do think that my years of being a Bon Jovi fan are approaching their end.