Jon's change in voice since the 2000s
 

Inspired by this thread (http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/bo...he-90s-t49756/) and this post in particular (http://www.drycounty.com/jovitalk/bo...st1003302.html), I thought I'd make this thread.

Not overly familiar with this era of live shows - so I need some help. From going off discussions here and some Youtube gigs I have seen - it seems that Jon started off the 2000s sounding alright, then he blows his voice in 2003, sounds bad throughout the HAND Tour, and kinda gets it back for the Lost Highway Tour.

From what I've seen in 2010 - Jon seemed to sound pretty decent throughout the tour, 2011 was more spotty but still passable, and then after that he declines to what's on those 2015 Asian shows (ouch).

Love to hear thoughts!

That's about right, I guess. Though I didn't thought he sounded that bad on the HAND tour, at least in Europe.

Though not as great as 2001 or before, 2008 saw a return to form for Jon. 2010 was also great, as far as I remember, 2011 too, though he started to struggle more with the really high notes. 2013 was still passable (everything in Europe), and the latter part of 2013 and 2014 was embarassing.

In 2015 it got a little better in a way that he didn't constantly sing out of tune or tempo anymore, but it's obvious he lost quite a bit of his higher register :-(

Between 2008-2011 he was fine. He totally fooled me that's for sure, when I became a fan back in 2011 I remember watching live shows on YT such as MSG 2008, Bucharest 2011, O2 2010, Hyde Park 2011 etc. and I really couldn't tell the difference between the studio version of the songs and the live ones.

That changed pretty quickly as I slowly moved away from watching live shows for a few weeks/months and then when I came back to watching recent live shows I was like WHAT THE F@@K?! Is this the same person?

We all know that his voice went donwhill very fast in 2002-2003 and he sounded like crap compared to 2000 2001 and unfortunately he has never fully recovered ever since.

One thing is for sure. His voice is getting deeper and deeper as he ages, you can clearly tell comparing an interview with him from 1990 with one from 2011 for example. It's pretty obvious that his speaking voice has gotten deeper which makes me think that this also affected his range so he tries to compensate by singing through his nose a lot.

Another thing that I notice is that Jon's tone has gotten extremely thin when compared with even 5-6 years ago. Even in the late 00s (Lost Highway tour) and to an extent through to the Circle Tour - his lower/mid range still had a good tone.


I mean here - it's not 1993 or anything, but he still sounds listenable singing this song (and not all powerless and feeble sounding).


The first verse (with the lower vox) sounds OK (although noticeably thinner), but the second verse ("Baby I want youuuuuu") has a really thin and feeble tone.

Is that from damage? Not working on his voice? There's hardly any resonance in that 2015 clip.

2003 was terrible. Dave sang better :p

Huh? It's a bit nasal, but definitely not terrible. He's nailing chorus with ease (while jumping around in the process). Perhaps it would fit the "...change since the 90s" thread, but for this one, it is the 'before' video. As for 'after' - look at the comment above you.

Still better than the late 2013 and2015 versions.
This song is incredibly hard to sing especially in the original key

Terrible? Give me them vocals any day.

2003 may have been the worst year for Jon up to that point - but he still sounds so much better than nowadays.

I'll take any 2003 performance over performances from the last few years any day of the week.

2003 was weaksauce for Jon vocally for me. My first show was 2003 in February in arenas. Richie was auto pilot and Jon was an energetic maniac. The summer tour had Richie firing on all cylinders and Jon falling apart vocally. But shit, I'd still take Jon weak in voice but energetic as all hell, at least then there's some energy.