Concert review: It’s true — Bon Jovi’s voice is nowhere near perfect. Does it matter?
It’s almost become a bit of a cliche to complain about Jon Bon Jovi’s live singing voice.
Actually, let me rephrase that: It is a cliche.
Critics and more cynically-minded fans of Bon Jovi have been making much ado about the unsteadiness of his vocal instrument for years, maybe even decades now; and (say, whaddya know?) in the past week, reviews out of the first three cities on “The 2022 Tour” have expressed varying degrees of shock about how bad he sounds.
So I apologize in advance for what’s probably going to end up being a deep dive into the issue of Mr. Bon Jovi’s voice based on the experience I had at the fourth concert on the new tour, which came to Spectrum Center on Friday night.
But, two things you should consider before you commence with trolling me via Twitter and email, and/or before rolling your eyes at the prospect of hearing a viewpoint you expect you’ve already heard.
1) I really do like Jon Bon Jovi.
He’s warm and engaging to speak with on the phone. He’s written (with former bandmate Richie Sambora and Midas-touch songwriter Desmond Child) multiple rock anthems that decades later I still have no problem listening to on repeat.
He famously and adorably spent part of the pandemic, while sidelined from touring, washing dishes five days a week at the non-profit community restaurant in New Jersey run by his charitable foundation. Instead of bolstering his band’s tours with big-name support acts, he routinely gives unknown artists the opportunity to open (The Voxies Band here). He’s shown solid support for Ukraine’s resistance efforts.
Those, of course, aren’t reasons to give him a pass if I’m trying to fairly and honestly evaluate his vocals at concerts, but I say all of that to hopefully help indicate that I don’t exactly take any pleasure in writing what’s to come.
2) I think it is worth being thoughtful about the product being delivered and how it’s being received, because in spite of the mountain of evidence that his live voice is no match for his studio recordings, he still — at age 60 (!) — is packing large arenas full of fans.
Anyway, I won’t belabor the point, but a few quick examples of the issues from Friday night’s show:
Throughout the band’s rendition of 2004 promo single “The Radio Saved My Life Tonight,” it felt like he was searching for the right note and only finding it 60 to 70% of the time. During every chorus of megahit “You Give Love a Bad Name,” he seemed to unintentionally be singing a little behind the beat, and on top of that, there wasn’t much punch to his vocals — yet he inexplicably seemed somewhat out of breath in spots. On another big anthem — “It’s My Life,” my personal-favorite Bon Jovi single — he once again was quite clearly veering into and out of key.
And those were just three out of the first five songs.
Now, we could debate all day about whether Jon would be willing to admit that his live voice is problematic, and about where the six other members of Bon Jovi stand on this subject.
But from the looks of it, the backing vocalists — including guitarists Phil X and John Shanks, percussionist Everett Bradley, keyboardist David Bryan and bassist Hugh McDonald — did much of the heavy lifting during the choruses of songs like “Lost Highway,” “Have a Nice Day” and “Bad Medicine.”
(FWIW: McDonald sometimes joined in, sometimes didn’t, and unless I missed something, drummer Tico Torres provided no vocals at all during this show. Oh, and I say from the looks of it because there was at least one time when I suspected a pre-recorded backing track was being used, most notably during “Livin’ On a Prayer”: In every instance of “aaahhhhhh-AHH! LIIIII-vin’ on a prayyyERR,” Jon pulled his mouth away from the mic and stopped moving his lips, and although his bandmates kept singing, it sounded a lot like Jon’s vocals from the original recording.)
At other moments, I had this sneaking suspicion that the sound mix was being intentionally made muddy, or that it was intentionally being manipulated to drown Jon out some.
I blame the conspiracy theorist in me.
Whatever the case may be, I couldn’t help but think of the most memorable words from the most prominent track on Bon Jovi’s “2020” album (a song he included during the first two shows of the tour but not in Charlotte):
...When you can’t do what you do
You do what you can...
So, what can Jon Bon Jovi do, even if he can’t replicate his studio recordings with his voice?
He can get 15,000 people to stand on command, and get them to clap with their hands above their heads, or to join in on mass sing-alongs, and he can do it while looking like he’s having the time of his life.
Just after 8:30 p.m., JBJ strode onto the stage, first with his arms outstretched and his chest puffed out a la Russell Crowe from ”Gladiator” (”Are you not entertained??”). Then he pumped his right fist wildly in the air and flashed one of the biggest, pearliest-whitest grins I’ve seen in awhile as the band played the opening strains of “2020’s” “Limitless.”
Minutes later, as Phil X ripped through the guitar solo on the back end of the song, Jon picked up his mic stand, straddled his stance so his feet were more than shoulder-width apart, thrust the mic end to a foot or two from X’s axe, and used his free hand to again pump his fist. Here, instead of a smile, his lips were pursued into a duck face.
And for the next two-plus hours, he put on a good old-fashioned rock show.
There were multiple outfits, starting with a black leather jacket adorned with an American flag over a Carolina-blue tee and black jeans; followed by a switch to a red “New Jersey Vs. Everybody” T-shirt that became dappled with sweat; then, finally, a sleeveless V-neck top that showed, quite clearly, that he didn’t stop working out during the pandemic.
There wasn’t any smoke or pyro or confetti or balloon drops, and he didn’t wander into the audience like he did last time he was in Charlotte, in 2018 (thanks, COVID). But the massive network of lights and video screens proved rock-show worthy — most notably during the “Bad Medicine” finale, when it lit up above the stage to display five huge medical crosses and, alternately, silhouettes of women doing the kind of, um, gyrating that was popular in music videos produced by rock bands when Bon Jovi was in its prime.
Jon’s enthusiasm never ebbed, through all the jumping jacks and the jazz hands and the surfer’s crouches, the foot-stomping, the leaping, the bounding, the rump-wriggling.
The crowd’s enthusiasm, meanwhile, only ever seemed to deflate during the acoustic mini-set in the middle.
Many bolted for a beer or a bathroom break during “American Reckoning,” “We Don’t Run” and “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night,” but they didn’t miss much. The first two songs were not cringe-worthy vocally, just kind of underwhelming, and the latter was one of those in which the backing vocals by the rest of the band helped to smooth out the chorus.
All that said, in the final analysis, here are a few more observations/things to think about:
1. He’s not trying to not sing as well as he can.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he gets points just for trying. It just means that if you take into account the totality of his performance and the level of his commitment to that performance — ugh, what am I trying to say here? I guess it just goes back to the whole ...When you can’t do what you do / You do what you can... It doesn’t look to me like he’s phoning it in. He’s doing what he can.
2. Is “doing what he can” enough, though? In other words, are fans getting their money’s worth at Bon Jovi shows these days?
There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, you could say, “He shouldn’t be charging this much if he can’t sing. What an embarrassment.” On the other, you could say, “Why should I or anyone else put a damper on a night with a band I’ve always loved by focusing on the negative?” It would have been impossible to poll everyone in the arena at the Charlotte show to find out where they’d fall on this, but from my seat in Section 105, it looked like the vast majority was having a good time.
(2a. Basically, I think there might be a lot of people who are just like, “Who cares if he’s not pitch-perfect?”)
3. Or maybe others aren’t hearing what I’m hearing? It honestly can be hard to tell if he’s actually singing badly.
It sounds like he is, but then, like lot of rockers (think Axl Rose, or David Bowie, two men who JBJ who sometimes sounds like these days, live), Jon didn’t have the voice of an angel to begin with. And under all that rock music and all those backing vocals, things can get can be murky. That said, it’s probably much more likely that it’s those who think he sounds just fine who that are “hearing things”...
4. If you didn’t notice the typos in the previous paragraph — or any that might appear anywhere else in this story — you could be someone who’s more prone to not noticing flaws in a singing voice.
(Come on, just having a little fun. :)
5. And finally, sorry to drag Michael Bay into this, but...
In dedicating “It’s My Life” to “the people of Odessa, Ukraine — and for those who care so much about ’em” on Friday night, Jon Bon Jovi said: “A lot’s been going on in this wicked world last few years. But one of the things that’s goin’ on right now is this crazy, unprovoked war, half a world away. Yet the sad part of it is, you know, we’re all watching it on TV like it’s some Michael Bay movie. But it’s not. It’s real.”
The mention of the “Armageddon” and “Pearl Harbor” director’s name rattled around in my head for the rest of the show, and as I drove home.
Because in a broad sense, Bon Jovi’s concert reminded me of a Michael Bay movie.
That is, it was a big, loud spectacle with over-the-top performances, lots of action and eye candy — a generally fun ride, if you were able to turn off your brain a little. Oh, but if you liked it, stay away from the reviews.
They’ll only irritate you.
Bon Jovi’s setlist
1. “Limitless”
2. “The Radio Saved My Life Tonight”
3. “You Give Love a Bad Name”
4. “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
5. “It’s My Life”
6. “Just Older”
7. “Born to Be My Baby”
8. “This House Is Not for Sale”
9. “Let It Rain”
10. “Keep the Faith”
11. “American Reckoning”
12. “We Don’t Run”
13. “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night”
14. “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”
15. “Lost Highway”
16. “Beautiful Drug”
17. “Wanted Dead or Alive”
18. “Roller Coaster”
19. “Have a Nice Day”
20. “Livin’ on a Prayer”
Encore:
21. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”
22. “Bad Medicine”
This story was originally published April 9, 2022 at 12:02 PM.
