What's interesting is that, due to the low quality of the audio, one can almost only hear Jon's voice in the clips from this dude, and given the current state of his voice, I was pleasantly surprised :-) Yes, it's not perfect, but it's perfectly listenable most of the time. Check it out, if you haven't:

https://www.facebook.com/stormi.ford

Johnny B. Goode:

Oh, just found out that Chuck Berry just died yesterday. Thought they'd just played the song out of fun. Sad to hear, though I thought he'd already been dead for a long time... Shame one me :puppydog:

I do agree... However, there are many factors to take into consideration... Jon used to be like Bruce where he could pull out any song and ride it out... Those days are done (or temporally on hold)... Jon is now doing what 95% of the industry does...

1. For starters, he lowered his playlist count to average around 23 sounds per night which is the right move IMO... Once you factor in the main hits & the new material, there is not much room left for an array of material.

2. 15/16 shows in at this point (which is half the first leg), they have played 35 songs (if you count the 2 Medley Covers)... Yes, there are only 1 offs here and there but that's still a decent amount of songs for a new band in this short amount of time... You also have to factor in the following:

3. I think he's got more preprogrammed stuff going on than we all think... It's not just the 7 guys on stage but the guys working the boards too... Almost all bands now do this... They use backing tracks all over each song... It's not just Living On A Prayer and it's not just Jon's vocals... It's used all over from the slightest ping to the background vocals on LYHOM... It's not Dave hitting the buttons, it's all computerized which makes it very difficult for everyone when Jon swaps songs out... This is why most bands stick to the same set list each night (or the same set of songs)...

4. Jon has new members up there... And yes, they are more than capable but there is no margin for error... They are not playing clubs. They are playing arenas and probably stadiums so they really need to get into the routine and master these basic tracks... They are one of the biggest bands in the world and Jon does not like mistakes. Because his voice is shot, he probably holds all the other pieces up to a higher standard. They are building chemistry... It's not the KOS up there, it has to sound like 'Bon Jovi'.

5. His voice... I'm not going to go into detail cause there is no need to. Yes, there are songs like Captain Crash that Jon can do but John Shanks and Everette Bradley might be like "what the f is this". Now they have to go learn it. And I'm sure all you musicians will say that it's not that difficult but like i said, this is not the KOS, it has to sound like 'Bon Jovi' and it has to be perfect. When they are ready, they will bring it in... The one song after the encore is Jon's rarity where a little error might be accepted if he feels the rest of the show went great...

6. Jon can't treat this tour like any other tour... There are too many moving factors... I do agree that he could replace certain songs for better ones... But I also get why he's playing it strategically safe. We are a small population of fans... He doesn't have to please us.. It's the demographics of the 20 thousand people showing up each night...

7. This is a tour that many of us questioned, including Jon himself, would ever happen. It's actually working... Attendance is there, reviews have been surprisingly positive, & fans are into it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

I'm looking forward to the new songs, I'm looking forward to seeing John and Phil interact, watching Everette Bradley is a show in itself. There are so many other things to enjoy besides hearing the same hits for the millionth time... The crowd, the energy, hanging out with friends... There is so much to still enjoy!!!

Not when you're there.
But a massive video screen showing his facial expressions would make it obvious.

RD, I don't buy the not much room for other songs bologna. The casual fan doesn't know the album cuts of LH through the current album, to them they are all new and it's just too many "new" songs. If new is new to them, why keep the same non hits around? Why not switch it up? I was a big supporter of We Got it Goin on and got why it was played. It's Jons chance to interact with the back half of the arena but 4 or 5 tours in it can be replaced with any song with a similar typo or style.

The idea that they're not switching it up for lack of rehearsal, no. No no no no no. If they're taking the time to rehearse and choosing those songs then that's on them, not on time. Having Shanks join meant a fresh slate and Jon could pick any set of songs. Half the band still knows them and Phil is a professional. Jon just kept the same group of songs from previous tours plus the hits. He had the chance to make some swapping then, when it was rehearsal time. I don't think what he's doing is "safe" at all. He's so against becoming a nostalgia band but he's slowly losing the diehards that would have come back tour after tour and that just leaves the casual fans who want the hits.

This, I 100% agree with!!! My point is to why he's currently not switching songs out each night like he used to... If you look back to older tours, they would swap out 6 to 7 songs a night and play them in any random order... Runaway could be the third song one night and then the encore the next night (Wembley '95)... I'm just justifying why they have basically been the same.

Now I do agree that Jon could have and should have replaced some of the basic tracks with some minor hits or fan favorites... Memory, Loves The Only Rule, etc...

(Speaking of losing die-hards, where is everyone? Rolo? OldJoy? Supersonic?)

Anyway, If you breakdown a basic set-list for example, you are left with 3 songs that could be replaced... Lost Highway, Born To Follow, & Whole Lot Of Leavin... But one can argue that those are Jon's songs....

NEW SONGS: - I'm okay with
This House Is Not For Sale
Knockout
Rollercoaster
We Don't Run
God Bless This Mess
Scars On This Guitar
The Devil's In The Temple

HITS: I'm okay with
You Give Love A Bad Name
Who Says You Can't Go Home
It's My Life
Lay Your Hands On Me
Born To Be My Baby
Have A Nice Day
Bad Medicine
Keep The Faith
Always
Blood On Blood
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Livin' On A Prayer

CROWD PLEASERS: I'm okay with
We Got It Going On
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - As long as an interlude is included

NON HITS:
Lost Highway
Whole Lot Of Leavin
We Weren't Born To Follow

If they can pull out and play Johnny B Goode on a whim with no notice due to chuck Berry, then there's no excuse for bon Jovi the band to be able to play a bon Jovi song.

They underplay so many singles. If they've had video out, pre lost highway, they've been rotated on music channels so casuals know them. Plus they are rare enough to serve the die hards.

Songs like:
Everyday
Say it isn't so
Misunderstood
Thank you for loving me
All about loving you
Welcome to wherever you are
Hey God
These days
Something for the pain
This ain't a love song
Lie to me
Never say goodbye
Blaze of glory
Make a memory

Yeah you can strike some off that he can't sing, but they've all had videos and exposure and would shake it up for diehards and casuals alike.

We got it going on has been in rotation for 10 years now ffs. That's what 4 or 5 tour cycles. It wouldn't be bad if it had been retired for a few tours but it hasn't.

Good idea, going by the videos. Well yeah, some, we can strike off at once (like These Days, Hey God, and This Ain't A Love Song), some are just a turd (like Welcome To Wherevery You Are and Say It Isn't So), but how about Everyday? That's fairly easy to sing. And Make A Memory as a second ballad, though I'd say Never Say Goodbye would please the diehards more, don't know if the/today's casuals even know about it...

And Blaze Of Glory should make a return, too, of course. It's one of the hits, albeit only Jon's...

If we're slashing I'd go even further. Blood on Blood was never a hit and was played the last few tours VERY often. It's a fan favourite but the same fan favourite tour after tour means that it's the perfect song to replace with something. You could conceivably cut all three non hits, those two crowd pleasers...the hits you listed need to be there minus blood on blood. The rest are good to go or be switched out more often.

All true... interesting what you said about Blood on Blood because I was thinking the same thing about how to categorize it...

Someday I'll Be Saturday night wasn't a hit either but became one amongst fans because it was on crossroads... Blood On Blood is on the Greatest Hits now and so well know because its on New Jersey...

It might not have been a chart topping hit but it's still a hit amongst fans....

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The Greatest Hits from 2010 doesn't have the same reach 1994 Crossroad's did for a variety of reasons. It's one of their best songs but it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be played as a hit song. I'd be happy to go without it if something we haven't heard as much takes its place but that might just be me.

And New Jersey had a bigger reach then Crossroads (in the US)... I just think of all songs that need to go, Blood On Blood isn't one of them. It's up there with Never Say Goodbye which also wasn't a single..

Never Say Goodbye was very much a single. Charting at #28 on Billboard as a 4th single is not bad at all.

I thought that Never Say Goodbye was only a single in the UK? I remember on VH-1's Ultimate Albums Jon said that the record company wanted to release another track to radio, but the band deliberately "pulled the plug on what was the biggest album of the year".

Or could it have been that the song wasn't an official single, but made it into the Hot 100 Airplay charts anyway? I vaguely remember Edge of a Broken Heart doing the same...

Well, after double checking it didn't chart on Billboard, my bad. It did however chart on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks at #11.
It did chart pretty decent in the UK, must have mixed it up. It could have just gotten decent airplay and wasn't physically released a single in the US.

It was released as a radio single, but not a commercial single available for purchase.

Based on radio play... was never officially released

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I think I recall Jon saying the record company wanted to release Never Say Goodbye as a single and keep the tour going, but the band was spent.


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This! Edge got radio play too... I remember driving myself nuts trying to find it on Slippery (and other albums). I was 14, there was no internet, and I wasn't smart enough to call a record store... I had no idea it was on a Soundtrack until years later...

Anyway, Slippery 'Hits' were Bad Name, Prayer, and Wanted... NSG and Edge received radio airplay but were never 'Hits'... NSG became an underground hit because everyone and their mother had the album and knew the song... It was a high school prom song.

Blood on Blood kinda followed a similar fate in the fact that it was supposed to be a single... The band made a video for it and it was fan favorite for everyone and their mother who owned that album too...



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Blood on Blood is as much of a "hit" as Wild in the Streets. Both had video clips, but neither were released as singles. It's not a hit, and I would bet when it gets played live, only the diehards know it.

I look at the stagnant setlists in two ways...

1) There is no excuse. You can throw any idea out there, whether it be Jon's voice, pre-programming, new band members, Europe vs US (which is the worst argument ever)... but none are a good enough reason as to why the same boring songs are getting played. I'm not gonna create another wishful thinking setlist because it's been done to death and every body knows which songs can be rotated to suit Jon's current vocal predicament.

2) Are we just spoilt brats who have had it too good for too long? Believe it or not, Bruce is not the norm. Artists rarely change up the setlist from night to night. Guns N Roses played 37 different songs on their current tour (63 shows to date). ACDC played 28 different songs in 86 shows. Heck, even the untouchable Adele doesn't change her setlist. She just finished an 8-show stadium tour of Australia without changing one single song, even when 3 of the 5 cities had back-to-back shows. Jovi isn't even 20 shows into the tour and we already have 35 different songs played. Plus, you also have to remember that 99% of the crowd don't know that it's the same setlist as the previous show, and 90% of them wouldn't even care.

As a diehard, I am so disappointed in the setlists, but as a realist, I don't think it matters.

I do agree with the above. Don't get me wrong, people sometimes have the "Well the crowd isn't going to more than one show" retort and while true, that's a completely different argument. The setlist prevents people coming back from tour to tour. It's fun to sing your heart out to the hits but after awhile it feels stale. But the shows aren't aimed at us and I get that, and people have to get that if the ticket prices are going to be that high it doesn't become as worth it to go to as many shows as we used to.

And this sums up the whole $=!# and shabang. If there are 20,000 people in the venue, how many are realistically going to multiple shows? 500 would probably be a lofty estimate. Most people don't have time or money to travel for multiple shows, even if they would like to.

Great post Savvi...Wild In The Streets is a fair comparison but it didn't make the Greatest Hits nor was it ever intended to be a single... I have interviews of Jon stating such about Blood on Blood. However most people in the US would consider any song off Slippery and Jersey a hit... No, they are not a HIT single in the tradition senses but they are a big HIT amongst fans... and I guess that's where I was going...

Once an intro like Raise Your Hands, Wild In The Streets, and Blood On Blood kicks in, the US crowd goes crazy...

It's like when Guns is playing something off of Chinese Democracy and then kicks into Night Train or Mr. Brownstone... They are hits!!!

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Yes, I do think we are spoiled. We got so used to Jon changing and shaking up the sets that it has become the norm for this band. I would be OK with them playing the same set for the whole tour HOWEVER:

1. Don't play the same fillers every tour. And don't keep songs like Working Men in the set and leave a song like One Wild Night out.

2. Don't go on interviews saying that you change the sets every night and that you have 75 songs rehearsed.

If that was true Homebound Train wouldn't have gotten such a lull of a response and dropped. Wild is the Wind wouldn't be more of a rarity. My point is more if they want an 80's sounding song to evoke that reaction a different one could be swapped in. In the grand scheme I'll take Blood on Blood over a LOT of songs. A LOT. But it's not one that needs to be played and isn't a hit single.

I wish Jon had the balls back then to keep those songs in the set despite the crowd reaction. Just like he's doing now with the new songs.

This is part and parcel with every tour since 2000. A LOT of new songs that may go down by one or two as the tour goes on and he sticks with it. I respect him for that for sure. But if you don't change the album cuts and lesser known singles the tours blend right together. Opening The Circle tour like he did was almost too ballsy and there was no hope in hell it was going to last.

https://youtu.be/aJmRiE5Maz0
RYH

LOL, who's that guy coming up the stairs to the stage from 1:26 to 1:36 and looking at his clock? The manager of the arena? ;-)

I have no problem with artists that keep the same set for a whole tour. I think the difference is that GNR, AC/DC and Adele (as far as I'm aware) never come out before a tour and say they've rehearsed X number of songs and will change the set list every night.

That and a lot of the "fillers" have been played constantly on the last 4 or 5 tours. In isolation, the setlists are ok. Although if you asked a casual or die hard to list the best/most popular 15 BJ songs and added 6 new ones on top, neither would list a good 4 or 5 of the songs that are played.

It would be better to take songs like Lost Highway, Whole Lot Of Leavin & We Got It Going On every night for example, if they had been played on the LH tour then not again since. But they've never left the set - whereas better songs like These Days, Dry County, Blaze, Runaway have.

Plus the expectation always has been that Bon Jovi change things up - it's been a calling card of their live shows. It's only a few changes that are needed though - and I'm glad the THINFS songs are staying at least. I don't even think Jon not being able to sing certain songs is that good of an excuse given that he can't sing Prayer, Always or Bad Medicine but still sings them.

Johnny B. Goode filmed from the nosebleeds behind the stage. I'm actually suprised at how unbelievably good and clear the sound on this video is!

Indeed. Here's one with similar sound but from the front right:

I thought he sounded really good in that cover... i wonder if its due to the freedom of singing a cover... when he sings his songs he seems stressed and trying too hard...

True......

No it's not. The reason he sounded OK during JBG, it's because he sang in a very low key. He sounds just as "good" when he sings WWBTF, LH, Reunion or a couple of songs like that. If he sang JBG in original key, it would be the usual post-2013 level of butchery.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising Jon for lowering the key; I'm simply saying that it does not make any sense to imply that "Jon sounds better on covers" when it's something that's so easy vocally as that JBG performance.

The thing is that Jon DOES sound better when doing covers. He seems to often forget to sing in a nasally way and give the song as much justice as he can. This goes with almost every cover. From bad case of loving you to shout to start me up - he changes the technique in how he sings. I feel like it might be a pride thing - making a cover sound good is important to Jon.

I absolutely agree. For whatever reason, he seems to always sound much better on covers than on his own songs. I always felt like it's because he wanted to do justice to those songs and honor them. Part of me also thinks it's because he hasn't developed a million bad habits/tricks to get through those songs like he has his own catalogue.

I agree that he tends to sound better on covers, but I'm not sure the reason. Remember the iHeart radio concert a couple years ago? He didn't sound good, then they played Shout, and it was the highlight of their set.


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