Obscure Songs on the Circle Tour?
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
After 25 years of crafting rock anthems and stadium hits, Bon Jovi could fill a two-hour show with nothing but the obvious choices. But Jon Bon Jovi tells Spinner when the group hits the road this February in support of their new album, 'The Circle,' things might be different this time.
"I had a conversation just the other night with a reporter who came to a television broadcast and her thinking was maybe [play] some more of the obscure tracks, maybe some more of these album tracks you either play when you're in Europe or you don't play that often," he says. " I said, 'Gee, aren't I supposed to satisfy the needs and not be the selfish artist who wants to play these album tracks because you paid to hear me sing all the ones you hear on the radio, the hits?' And she's saying, 'No, you guys have also been around so long that most people in this audience have in fact seen you a bunch of times. So feel free -- believe me they know how 'Bad Name,' 'Prayer' and 'Wanted' go. You don't have to do them all the time every day.'"
That conversation obviously resonated with the frontman. "Granted, we're always gonna want to do those ones, but what if we don't play 'Always' and that was a monster hit ballad? What if you don't feel like playing ballads that night, so you don't do any of them? I think we've earned the right to have that freedom," he says.
That freedom could stretch to 'The Circle.' "This new album, I feel like it could be a great opportunity to do the album in its entirety. We've done that before when we did 'Lost Highway.' Because of the Nashville influence, it allows for that," he says. "The [new songs] were just made to be played in a stadium venue."
Guitarist Richie Sambora says whatever rarities his frontman wants to bust out, the band will be ready. "Jon's the quarterback, he's gonna call the set list and there are gonna be audibles and that happens all the time," Sambora says. "A lot of times we'll be sitting in the dressing room and Jon will say, 'Hey, let's just pick this song up, play 'These Days' or 'Keep the Faith' or something like that that we haven't played in 10 years.' Then we'll learn it on the spot, and take it on the stage that evening and play it. It's really gonna depend on the feeling of where we're at and what's going on."
source
2 comments:
This reminds me of Jon mumbling "...I get it ... no more Bad Name ..." during the Q&A at the AmEx show.
Only time will tell ...
For every person in the crowd who has seen Bon Jovi a bunch of times, there are those who are seeing them for the first time and want to hear Prayer and Bad Name and Bed of Roses.
I am less concerned about the playing of those songs and more concerned about Jon's insistence that American audiences only know the chorus and international audiences know the verses.
But that is because what he sees in Europe are the diehard fans up front due to GA - in the US the fans are all over the arena/stadium. If the fans were in the front, he would see that we Americans DO know the verses (and even remember them better than he does sometimes ROFL.)
I agree with you Jen too, and really it's different with US audiences, as only the people that pay TOP dollar are up the front, not neccessarily the biggest fans, more because they can.. so his experience is definitely going to be different.
I really hope he throws in a few more of the rare ones, These Days and maybe a couple of Boxset ones here and there. But time will tell, I hope this time he does a lot of the new album, as he's clearly stated it was made for a stadium. SO freakin play it!
LOL
Post a Comment