I’m from the UK too and by following the tour can pretty much predict what will be played based on the show before. Which shows did you go to which made them so different to the rest of the tour?

See above. I didn't say they were so different to the rest but I've seen Never Say Goodbye on the Bounce tour, DB singing In These Arms and Diamond Ring on the Lost Highway tour to list a few examples. Those three are not tour regulars by any stretch. Just to clarify I mean with Dave signing In These Arms [emoji106]

Sent from my ELE-L09 using Tapatalk

Yeah fair! I'm disagreeing strictly from a North America standpoint, that's all I've been talking about. It's been cookie cutter as long as I've been a fan.

Aloha !

Jon doesn't write the set hours before they go on stage. It's a myth the band likes to keep up. The truth is, the set is written a day in advance, the band then goes over possible changes during the soundcheck and it's all set and done a day before the show. If the band plays 2 or 3 nights in a row in the same venue the 3 setlists are planned the day before the first show. The band goes over them during the soundcheck and then nothing gets changed anymore. These "documented" things are all nonsense.

Bon Jovi fans define a rare song as something that doesn't get played every night. Technically they're right. Meanwhile, how rare is the stuff you've heard really if you know well ahead that if Jon's up for it you'll most likely get These Days? I just looked it up and London has always been getting either These Days or Always (or both) since the year they were introduced. Meanwhile, for other places they're rare songs. How rare is it really then? How much of it is mixing up? Because he couldn't be arsed to play it in a town he doesn't care for?

To get back to your point of other artists not mixing it up per show; I've seen Clapton play in Japan a few years ago. Eric Clapton played the same set 5 nights in a row. But of that set 1 song had not been played live since 1986. That song had been rehearsed especially for those 5 nights at the Budokan. It'd be the equivalent of Bon Jovi bringing Silent Night back from the dead and playing it every single night in the U.K. only to retire it for another song for the rest of the tour, something Clapton did back in 2019. During that same show he re-introduced a song that had not been played live in well over a decade. It'd be the same like Bon Jovi putting a song like Love's The Only Rule back in the set and playing it every night.

I was really fortunate enough to see Bon Jovi many, many times on the 2010 and 2011 tour. I saw the band play 3 nights in a row at the New Meadowlands stadium. Good shows, but really, one of the setlist changes went from playing Lost Highway to Just Older. A positive change but if I'd have had the choice I'd much rather would've had Just Older three nights in a row simply because it hadn't been played as often as Lost Highway.

Of all the mixing up Jon's done since 2008 how many setlist changes were actually great other than "Oh yay something different!" At that same show at the New Meadowlands a setlist change was In These Arms in, Whole Lot Of Leavin' out. How exactly does that make set better? Or more interesting? Both have been so overplayed the last few years that it's been time to retire both of them for a long time and replace them with something permanent that hasn't been played to death.

By the end of the 2011 tour all I could think was "It's gotta be boring to play that many songs over and over and over again tour after tour after tour". Not the hits, I get that. But Raise Your Hands, Capt. Crash, Sat. Night, In These Arms, Born To Be My Baby, Runaway, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead... The list of songs not needed in the set but just there to fill it up is just so long. The band have been doing the same show for well over 2 decades and everyone in the bad has grown tired of it, there's a reason they're all just going through the motions. So to get back to your point; how many other bands, the ones that don't change up the set every night, have been doing the same show for 20 years?

Imagine Bon Jovi playing the same set every night on a tour. But 1/3 of the set has not been played last tour and on top of that there's 2 songs that haven't been played in 2 decades. What would you rather have, really? How much of the changes in the set matter when none of it is catered towards you?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Again Seb, I've seen enough variety from Bon Jovi to be satisfied. I'll repeat one more time that I'm not expecting some random Slippery outtake. Maybe you expect too much..

Sent from my ELE-L09 using Tapatalk

Pearl Jam are known to change their sets but they do play some utter crap at times

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Jon also changed the order of songs (not sure if he still does this or not), which is a rather simple way of tricking people into thinking they heard more different songs than they actually did over a series of shows. I took a look back over the 9 shows I have seen (in the UK, one in Buenos Aires over 20 years) and I was amazed how similar the setlists have been.

I discount songs from the current album as rarities. I mean if I saw them play Bounce on the Bounce tour, technically I got a rarity, but I don't see it that way. I also don't count These Days as one, it is played too often and is in Jon's backup setlist that fools people into thinking they have been treated to a rare song.

Aside from that selection of current album songs, the number of rarities I have seen is quite low.

And regarding above, I don't see why an album track from Slippery would be any different from an album track from Lost Highway other than Jon cannot or will not do it. Same with Hey God over These Days, for example. Do crowds in the U.S. really have a better time listening to Lost Highway than they would I Believe?

Jon could create excellent setlists but he chooses not to because like I said before, he has terrible taste in his own music. He also continues to sell tickets, so maybe he thinks what he is doing is working.

I think Seb is bang on that the setlist hasn't had a good shake up in a LONG time. With what they're charging and the amount they're touring, there's a reason a lot of fans aren't coming back. Not even getting onto the topic of declined vocals and a fractured line-up, if you're going to do a new tour, say, every 2 and half/3 years, the very LEAST you can do is try and give a different sounding show. I'm also not asking for Silent Night and Without Love, I'm begging them to drop the songs that travel from tour to tour that weren't the bigger singles.

I am working to a strict deadline for a client, so I decided to spend an hour going through the setlists for the shows I have seen and list the songs and how many times they were played. Below is what I found:

Shows: Wembley 2000 Sat and Sun, Millennium Stadium 2001, Hyde Park 2003, Milton Keynes 2006 both nights, Twickenham first night 2008, Bristol 2008, Buenos Aires 2017.

9 shows and total songs and how many times they were played:

Living on a Prayer – 9
Bad Name – 9
Captain Crash – 8
Say it Isn’t So – 2
One Wild Night – 3
Born to be my Baby – 9
It’s My Life – 9
Runaway – 8
Bed of Roses – 3
I Got the Girl – 4
Saturday Night – 7
Wild in the Streets – 4
Just Older – 5
Lay Your Hands on Me – 5
I’ll Sleep – 9
Bad Medicine – 9
Two Story Town – 2
Blood on Blood – 5
Wanted – 9
Next 100 Years – 2
Keep the Faith – 9
These Days – 5
Thank You for Loving Me – 1
Raise Your Hands – 6
In These Arms – 7
Always – 3
Blaze of Glory – 3
Never Say Goodbye – 2
Bounce – 2
Everyday – 2
Undivided – 1
The Distance – 1
Misunderstood – 1
I’ll Be There for You – 6
Last Man Standing – 2
I’d Die for You – 1
Story of My Life – 2
Radio Saved My Life – 1
Have a Nice Day – 5
Who Says – 5
Bells of Freedom – 2
Complicated – 1
Living in Sin – 1
Lost Highway – 3
Whole Lot of Leaving – 2
Diamond Ring – 1
We Got it Goin On – 2
Dry County – 1
Summertime – 1
Lie to Me – 1
This House is Not for Sale – 1
Knockout – 1
We Weren’t Born to Follow – 1
We Don’t Run – 1
God Bless This Mess – 1

So, that’s 55 songs in total. I want to see what others here think of that. Do we think that’s a decent number of songs over 9 shows across two decades, although I missed a decade between 2007 and 2017?

It’s worth noting around 15 of those songs were played just to promote the album they were on. So, while they would be rare these days, at the time they were expected.

Of course, some of the songs played across all shows are obvious, such as Prayer, Bad Name, Wanted, Bad Medicine, It’s My Life, Sadly Who Says, and maybe Runaway. Others are more offensive, such as I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Saturday Night, Born to Be My Baby (songs I enjoy but still), Raise Your Hands, and ****ing Captain Crash. Also, many of the dead weight songs above have become regulars since, such as Lost Highway, We Got it Goin On.

I’ll Be There for You has been regular enough to expect it at a show and I seen These Days, In The Arms, and Lay Your Hands on Me plenty of times too.

Add some more that became regulars; Have A Nice Day, Born to Follow and another familiar ballad (Always, Bed of Roses), that’s 21 songs we can expect to get at most shows, give or take a few that may be swapped out for something else regularly played (like Blood on Blood). Really does show that not a lot of rarities are played.

So, looking at my list, how many rarities did I get, bearing in mind I was attending through a decade when Bon Jovi were arguably at their peak as a touring act? I am thinking around 5 proper rarities, maybe even less. Lie to Me is obvious, Never Say Goodbye maybe, Dry Country? Possibly. Living in Sin.

For me, it all comes down to those few songs Jon insists on playing regularly even though they don’t seem to be very popular, or could easily be swapped for something else. Captain Crash, Raise Your Hands, Born to Be May Baby, I’ll Sleep, Lost Highway, We Got it Goin On, could easily be swapped for five other songs. Jon ignores so much of his catalog

On a random note: yesterday I stumbled upon a pro shoot of Tokyo 2008, man what a concert. I'd go as far and say that's one of the last true glimpes of the band we all know and love. Definitely a must watch! And it has some different songs here and there, too (and the setlist order seems a whole lot different) ;-)