Really?

Seven Years Gone is for my more significant than all burning bridges.

Live songs from Aftermath grow. More Rocker. More energy. More passion.

We Dont Run from Burning Bridges is poor in live shows.

The reaction of the audience is evident.


I like some songs of Burning Bridges, but is nothing new, there are some interesting things, but not their best effort. I can only say that as a whole is more interesting than What About Now, and that the best of both would have been a worthy of The Circle successor.

Aftermath is better than Burning Bridges and What About Now, it is still a poor record though. It has more guitar for sure, but it is the same generic playing that has been in Bon Jovi for years, just more of it.

Aftermath, especially the guitar playing, highlights that Richie was a big problem in the way Bon Jovi's sound went too. There isn't an inspired piece of guitar music on the album, even the dearly held (by some) Seven Years.

Richie has never been a master blues player, so making blues albums would result in him falling flat on his face. Stranger is very blues based, but place it next to a record from SRV, Clapton, BB King, or any of the blues greats and it falls way short.

That said, it was an excellent album taken on merit coming from an 80s player who many thought was just another show off.

Richie at his flashiest and most dynamic = 80s
Richie at one with his guitar and most creative = 90s
Richie on a downhill spiral of generic playing, recycling poor phrases and licks, and using a sloppy fretting hand = 2002-present.

While I hold Aftermath in a higher regard, yeah I agree with most of this points. Im not saying I wish Aftermath was a blues record, I was more saying I wish it had bluesier guitar licks, something with some soul. It was very formula-based. You can Only get So high with some blues in it would have been stellar. The verses were personal as all hell but the chorus gets dragged down so hard with cliches and comparisons.

I am no fan of John Shanks (infact I am still blocked on twitter after an altercation with him) but to call Jon's voice boring is absurd.

I just wish Shanks would leave the guitar playing to Phil X.

The crowd just didn't know the song WDR like they do older Bon Jovi songs so they didn't react to it as they do the older songs. Personally I love WDR.

And somehow I don't see Richie coming back for one show.

John shanks could be better guitarplayer on studio than Phil when referring to guitar solos. Who Would You Die For and fingerprints have very good taste, love the guitar solo. Even WDR has a better solo in studio than in live shows with Mr X.

Richie could return for something specific, like Alec in giant stadium 2001.

While, I'm not a Fan on Shanks as a producer, I was actually really impressed with his playing on Burning Bridges. Some of the solos were great! I've not seen anything by Phil X yet that has convinced me he could have come up with something better....