How to improve setlists
 

A common complaint about this current jovi tour is that the setlists don't change enough. Weve probably had less than 40 songs played in a tour with approx 23 songs per set. Anyway, I think we would all appreciate some changes. My point is; which changes are realistic? Obviously we would all love STBI, BOR, Dry County, and songs like that, but at this point, it's unrealistic. I think that if they slipped in a few acoustic renditions per night it would spice things up and give fans a treat. Look at this for example:
https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=...?v=-KDr6MAiVyo
Hardly a vocally impressive performance, but certainly enjoyable. I think Jon could still pull that off. Then again, do acoustic songs work in a stadium? Well, if it is a big hit , they keep a similar melody (so it can be sung along to) and the crowd is willing to accept it, then I think it will work.What do yoiu think? Any realistic suggestions on how to spice upnthe live shows?

There's two arguments to be made:

Show to Show and Tour to Tour. If you see the band in state X and then again five states over, your complaints aren't as easy to fix. Tour to tour it's inexcusable to keep playing the same non hits. If he wants to spice it up he could rotate them in and on, replace them with other album cuts. Keep it different enough that people will want to come out. I'm sitting this tour out, which could realistically be the last one, because I've heard all these songs 20 times when Jon was able to sing them better. Richie's gone, the setlist is stale, the ticket prices are what they are.

If it were a show where just the new album was played I would be all over that but because it's still We got it Going on, Lost Highway, Whole lot of leaving, Sleep when I'm dead...meh. I'd love to see them one last time but as a die hard I am the minority and I get that. Something that separates the show between tours is such a must.

Realistic? More post-2000 material. It's unrealistic at this point to even think he'll dust off some rare 80s or 90s songs.

Bounce, Hook Me Up, One Wild Night, Say It Isn't So, Everyday, Love's The Only Rule, Next 100 Years, etc...some of those haven't been played in years so it would be an easy surprise in the set.

Even without playing different songs Jon can still spice up the sets by changing the order.

For example, here is a list of songs that they have shown they're happy to play on this tour, with nothing but the order changed (and a couple less THINFS songs, I think 7 in one show is a bit excessive).

1. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
2. Born To Be My Baby
3. Blood On Blood
4. Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars
5. Roller Coaster
6. This House Is Not For Sale
7. Who Says You Can't Go Home
8. We Got It Goin' On
10. It's My Life
11. Knockout
12. Lost Highway
13. Have a Nice Day
14. God Bless This Mess
15. Lay Your Hands On Me
16. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
17. You Give Love A Bad Name
18. Bad Medicine
19. Keep the Faith

20. We Don't Run
21. Wanted Dead or Alive
22. Livin' On A Prayer
23. Always


It's certainly not perfect, but even just shuffling the songs would be an improvement. Even if they're playing the exact same stuff the show would still be somewhat unpredictable.


Ideally of course they would be swapping some songs out, and it shouldn't be that hard for them to do. BTW I've seen another user posting a very similar idea here so note that the following is definitely not my idea:

Basically they should just put all of the songs into categories, then pick from each.

THE CONSTANTS (The songs that get played at every show, no matter what)

You Give Love A Bad Name
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' On A Prayer
Bad Medicine
It's My Life
Who Says You Can't Go Home

- That totals to 6 songs.

THE HITS (Including some songs that weren't necessarily chart-toppers, but are so popular amongst fans that they are basically hits.)

Runaway
Lay Your Hands On Me
Born To Be My Baby
Blood On Blood
I'll Be There For You
Blaze Of Glory
Keep The Faith
In These Arms
Bed Of Roses
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Always
Have A Nice Day

THE SINGLES (Non-hits but important songs nonetheless)

Everyday
Lost Highway
We Weren't Born to Follow
Because We Can

THIS HOUSE IS NOT FOR SALE

(every song from the album)

JON's FAVOURITES

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
We Got It Goin' On
Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars
Whole Lot Of Leavin'

THE RARITIES

(Literally ANYTHING else)



From there the process is simple. All 6 of the CONSTANTS, plus 6 of the HITS, plus 2 of the SINGLES, plus 5 of the THINFS songs, plus 2 of JON's FAVOURITES, plus 2 RARITIES = a 23 song set.

If Jon used that template we could have some seriously awesome and varied sets.

Sorry for the huge post but there's just so many ways that the sets could be improved.

Most people go to one show a tour at most. It's really irrelevant if the set list is the same or similar. Many artists play the exact same set every night. If you're not there, what does it really matter? I've never quite understood the obsession over this. People have been complaining about shows they didn't even attend forever.

Fair point of course, but now that the band is selling recordings of the show, it seems like a fair request for some variety.

I agree, the people that go from show to show are so few that tailoring the setlist to them would be silly. Pre-social media it wouldn't matter as much.

The problem is you can go to a show and know exactly what songs are going to be played and in what order. There's no surprise because it's like reading the set list before the band hits the stage.

nah, it isn't, here in Brazil we don't get a Jovi show like the US, it's not easy to go to another country like in Europe. They can play Old McDonald Had A Farm and every single person on the venue here would sing their hearts out. Knowing the setlist, at least in my experience, just makes everything more fun

I don't care about the setlist not changing, if I went to 10 gigs and heard the same songs 10 times, that would make me pissed but I'm not, so, I'm cool. The good thing is that he plays it more safe on the US to pull out the big guns here in Rio next september :p

I highly doubt that :p

Only way to improve the setlist is to add "Cadilac man " ;)

I can see These Days or maybe something else, These Days was huuuuuuuge here, so....

Not sure I'd want to hear that with Jon's vocals being what they are...

Unfortunately the sets won't get too much better considering that Jon can't sing anymore.

You say that but he's improved heaps over this tour. Just compare Miami to Columbus and you'll see he's far better now than he was.

I am hoping that Madison Square Garden is even better - because the reviews there tend to matter.

Chicago would seem to be the best chance for something special in the encore since LA (Inglewood). At least Always, maybe Dry County or In These Arms. And if history holds, the 2nd night encores in Toronto and NYC will be really good.


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We didn't get much the last time in 2013 except for Dry County and I felt like a spoiled brat because we usually got some pretty rare stuff. We did get Thank you for loving me on the first leg but nothing the second.

I know I've done more than my fair share of complaining about the sets, but I realise even with the static sets there are some great things too.

THINFS is a great show opener - gets the crowd pumped and it's a sneaky way of putting more new songs in the set without dragging down the mood.

Keep the Faith is a fantastic main set closer. I genuinely hope that KTF sits in this slot for every show of the tour.

Blood On Blood / Saturday Night have made appearances, not as often as I'd like ( I absolutely think that Blood On Blood is a brilliant encore opener and they should play it a bit more often) but they're still there.

Lay Your Hands On Me / Have A Nice Day have been played at every show so far which is great to see. Particularly happy to see LYHOM sticking around this long.

Jon hasn't been abusing Captain Crash & Raise Your Hands, only played Crash once and RYH a couple of times so far. Those are great songs that have been really overplayed so it's nice to see them getting played a bit less, but still fairly frequently.

We have actually had a rare song in the mix (I Got The Girl was played once out of the blue).

Of course we would all love to have things changing up a bit, but the setlist that we're stuck with is actually pretty good.