Very spot on. These shows in 2010/11 were the reason we all kept hanging around here and watched the pbp's of all the concerts. Nowadays there's still talking about Sydney 2010, Lisbon, Mannheim or Udine 2011 and so on, because they were that something special that made BJ differ from many other bands.
These days I couldn't tell you one outstanding thing from the whole leg they did in the USA last year because it's all just the same.

Can't tell one outstanding thing? How about the fact that they're still on the road doing what they love and doing their best and still selling out???

On a serious note, the shows are crap and the reception from the diehard fanbase perfectly represents that.

Jon hasn't done a single creative thing to compensate for his vocal decline. You'd think he'd do stuff like time-machine intro for Runaway, cover breaks in Bad Medicine or Sleep, special breakdowns mid-songs (e.g. Saturday Night, Blood On Blood) special acoustic intros (e.g. Captain Crash acoustic intro or Can't Help Falling In Love) to some songs, or simply playing songs that are rarities, but relatively easy on the vocals. But he hasn't done any of that and these are the things he'd do when his voice was still decent. I'd Die For You was a nice first step, but it took him several shows to pull that out and then on the next show it was gone again.

If you decline in one area, but grow in another, you can talk about evolving. But this is just degeneration.

if decline is about Jons voice then ok,that is only thing you can call "unrecognizable",they play safe and songs that fits Jons voice,am I happy with that? No,but they still put great effort and fans get decent shows.They play great,sound great,Phil is full of energy. Surely they will play always,these days,hey god,dry county and others.Everyone wants something from the band-someone wants to be blown away,someone wants to hear some rare songs,someone wants to hear Jon sing like 2011 and someone just wants to see and hear band they love and after that say that they were good.

His voice has been worse before, but at least the energy is back and the frontman in him has resurfaced. Shows were way more boring when he used to butcher songs standing behind his mic stand.

I enjoy watching the current videos and I actually am looking forward to my shows because of the energy level on stage, in spite of whatever vocal challenges he may be having at the moment.

I've noticed that he sings better when he isn't behind the mic stand. Listen to this:


After the acoustic intro, when the song starts, he barely seems to get out " Tommy used to work on the docks" when he's gripping the mic. When he starts moving , he sounds way more decent on the " union's been on strike, he's down on his luck" part.

you are right,he needs to move as much as possible,leave the mic and go around the stage,stand behind the mic only when he must.

I wonder how Jon will sound if he moves around when singing Always. I think Jon might truly pass out if he did that.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. Talking about psychology, right? ;-) It's almost like he's waiting to fail so hard when gripping the mic stand, that he ultimately does, instead of just not thinking about it while he's moving around and just performing...

Well, I'm glad I saw the Lisbon gig back in 2011 (not the one 2013 without Richie). I'm lucky to have that as my last memory of the band live.