2010: The Circle Tour: 1 month into it

31 days have passed since Bon Jovi hit the road to promote their latest record: "The Circle" and if the first couple of shows were filled with surprises, somehow they also lacked a stable structure.

After a double kick off in Hawaii and Seatle, the band kept trying to balance the set list with old and new tunes, moving the songs around to see where they worked better. Some shows were filled with surprises, while others were very predictable. Next I'll try to analyse the new tour in terms of song selection:

1) Songs that were played, but eventually were lost along the way. One of the best things the band had done in the first couple of shows was to bring back songs from their first records. However those songs didn't last long in the set list, and soon were again put to rest. There were other tracks that were played once or twice, like 'Hey God', 'Brokenpromisedland' or 'Never say Goodbye', also not being able to stood the test of time. Wheather if the band thought they didn't work properly or simply because they wanted to played them only once, no one knows.

2) Songs that usually were regulars and are not anymore. 'Capt. Crash', 'Faith', 'Sleep', 'Have a Nice Day', 'Runaway', 'Blaze' and 'Raise your hands' were all very popular at almost every tour, and if it is true that the first 3 that were mentioned were not always played in America, the truth is none of them is a regular right now. However, we have to take into account that all of them except the latter 2 have all been played at some point, making me believe the band kept them as audibles to throw in whenever they need an easy song to play.

3) Regulars that were kept: "Bad Name", "Born to be my Baby", "Bad Medicine", "We gotta goin' on", "Lost Highway", "It's my Life", "Who Says you can't go home", "Wanted" and "Prayer" were all kept from the "Lost Highway" Tour. If there is no doubt they need to keep their biggest hits, some of these songs don't actually need to be played at every single show. The only reason I believe they are played is to mantain the stability and structure of the set list.

4) New regulars. This is where the band usually didn't perform very well in the past, but now are surprisingly bringing some old gemns. Or else let's see: 'Something for the Pain' acoustic; 'Homebound Train' performed by Richie; 'I'll be There for you' sang by Jon and "Blood on Blood", that was only played at certain shows, were all at pretty much at every show.

5) New songs: The band was able to improve most of the studio versions and give a new life to the new songs. 'Love's the only Rule', the main set closer, and 'Thorn in my side' with an extra 2 guitar solo appended are the best examples. The band usually plays 6 songs from the new record: "Follow", "Beautiful", "Superman", "Work", "Rule" (all of them regulars) and an extra song that can either be "Thorn", "Bullet", "Happy Now" or "Brokenpromisedland". Still there are 3 songs that have not been played yet: "Live before you die", "Fast Cars", "Learn to Love" - all of them ballads.

6) Ballads vs Rockers. This time the band chose to play 4 ballads on every show: 'Beautifull' and 'Superman' are mandatory, whereas 'Hallelujah' interchanges with "(You wanna) Make a Memory", and "There for you" with "Bed of Roses". They usually played only 2, 3 ballads at most. It's true that it's a way to pace down shows a bit and allow them to rest, but it's also true that those songs can kill the party atmosphere and strech too much the slow moments.

7) Covers: Bon Jovi have always been well known for being excelent musicians, specially when it comes to play cover songs. This time around they are playing the same cover from last tour "Hallellujah", and eventhough it's a very good version, they should try something fresh.

8) Juke Box Songs: With 'Sleep' put to rest, the band didn't gave up on their Juke box songs and made "Medicine" the host to their new meddleys. In this area Bobby Bandiera may have his chance to shine, since he is an excelent musician that is used to play covers in bars. The band kept the tradition of the last tour and is now bringing fresh songs to the juke box. As for now they already perfomed Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You" (Doctor, Doctor), the Door's "Roadhouse Blues", "Born to be Wild" from Steppenwolf and Rod Stewart's "Hot Legs".

Now apart from the song selection there are also 2 very important issues when analysing a show, which are: the quality of the performance, and the length of the show. And both these variables are on Bon Jovi's side, since the band have been delivering killer performances and extending more and more their shows. Specially if we take into account they are playing arenas in North America, where historically they play very regular sets that clock around 2 hours.

Having into account the band has only been for one month on the road, and believing they'll stay for another 14, it's fair to say they are doing a good job, not only trying to improve their performences, as their ability to surprise the fans.

Let's see what the remainder of March and April bring, since in May they'll have a couple of weeks break to prepate the opening of the new Meadowlands stadium, 3 nights that are almost sold out and that will provide the first real test to the band, since they'll have to adapt a show that works really well in arenas to an oversized stadium.