What's Up With The Setlist??? Options

[Hoodstock]

I absolutely love Live, but the setlist has to change . I just checked what they played on June 10th this year with Collective Soul. It's almost the exact same setlist as last year . It was:

1) Mystery
2) All Over You
3) Selling The Drama
4) The River
5) Mirror Song
6) They Stood Up For Love
7) Voodoo Lady
8) Wings
9) Shit Towne
10) I Walk The Line [Johnny Cash]
11) Iris
12) The Dolphin's Cry
13) Heaven

ENCORE
14) Sofia
15) Lakini's Juice
16) I Alone
17) Lightning Crashes
18) Operation Spirit
19) Dance With You

The statement from one of the people at the concert was that Collective Soul was great since they were playing songs that everyone knew, and that when Live went on a stretch of what seemed like 8 songs that people weren't familiar with the place started to clear out . I'm sorry, but Voodoo Lady, Wings, Sofia, Iris, Mirror Song, and I Walk The Line have to go. As a diehard Live fan, I don't even care for these songs. I can see why people who don't follow every step of the band's career walk out. In addition, Dance With You is good, but they've been closing with that forever and a concert should end on something upbeat anyway. That's more of a middle of the show song so people can get up to get a beer. I'll be really disappointed if they come to Michigan with that setlist, especially since I didn't care for it last year.

Live, if you are looking, PLEASE MIX IT UP !!!!!

This post has been edited by Hoodstock: Jun 15 2007, 7:44 pm

[Pokey]

I don't know where people get off thinking they HAVE to play x amount of big hits .. maybe if they're playing a festival where there are a lot of casual fans but if it's a concert they are putting on then people are coming to see them and they should recognise that we don't just all sit here at home and listen to their CDs and skip tracks that wern't radio songs.

I love when an artist just goes out and plays the song THEY want to play .. it always feels more intimate that way. So what if a casual fan is there and doesn't know Heropsychodreamer or TBD or Face and Ghost .. they can fucking listen to it and it'll probably blow them off their feet with how awesome it is. Why cater to the lowest common demoninator? Reward the fans that are true fans and loyal, not the ones that just come to hear the big hits. I mean sure they gotta include a couple .. but why not a night with LC, LJ, I Alone, Dolphins and maybe Heaven ... they don't need STD, RTTW, TSUFL, All over you ... yeah include them all on the tour but rotate them, some nights only do 2 of those ones and that free's up another 2-3 songs that dig deeper into their deep list of songs.

This post has been edited by Pokey: Jun 21 2007, 9:07 am

[SJN1279]

Even as a hardcore fan, I still love when Live plays their hits. It brings the entire crowd into the show and the overall energy is amazing. Without their hits, the shows would lack energy.

Selling the Drama is still played in concert, just not every night.

[Pokey]

Even as a hardcore fan, I still love when Live plays their hits. It brings the entire crowd into the show and the overall energy is amazing. Without their hits, the shows would lack energy.

(Ok im very bored and waiting for my new Ween EP to download so,)

Hence why I said maybe 4-5 a night, its all thats needed unless it's a festival. You can't tell me a rocker like Heropsychodreamer isn't gonna get the crowd riled up, any dickhead who doesn't get into it because "they don't know the song" doesn't deserve to be there, or breed for that matter, it's just ignorance.
But why now be content with that for the rest of their career? I don't understand how people can just .. not care, don't you have any feelings like "ok I've seen these songs in concert enough, I'd really kill for a REAL setlist shakeup" .. as awesome of a time I had the last time Live were here, a lot due to the people that were there I really doubt I'm gonna see them next time they come out if it's just gonna be the Awake tracklisting plus some new songs, I don't really know any other bands I follow as much as Live that are so lazy with their setlists.


Morrissey is a perfect example, there are people that still hang shit on him for his setlists but to me I couldn't ask for more. A band like Pearl Jam or Ween that seem to change their lists almost every night is extremely rare and I don't really think anyone expects that.

But I'm gonna go with Morrissey as an example.
The average setlist for him is probably 20 songs. His tours are usually split into two parts with maybe 2 weeks break in between. The first half's setlist looks very different from the second. He has a few staples in there, generally almost an entire new album will be played over the course of a tour, Live don't seem to even touch half of their own new material, whats the point in releasing an album like SFMB if you leave so much unplayed .. anyways.

Examples were given of Live's setlist in June 2006 and June 2007 I think, this is the setlist for Mozza when I saw him in Dublin April 2006:

First Of The Gang To Die
Still Ill
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
Reader Meet Author
Let Me Kiss You
My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
Girlfriend In A Coma
I Will See You In Far-off Places
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
Life Is A Pigsty
In the Future When All's Well
Trouble Loves Me
How Soon Is Now?
Suedehead
Irish Blood, English Heart
A Song From Under The Floor Boards
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
At Last I Am Born
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

And in Hollywood June 2007:

The Queen Is Dead
The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Ganglord
The National Front Disco
Let Me Kiss You
All You Need Is Me
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Irish Blood, English Heart
Disappointed
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Everyday Is Like Sunday
In The Future When All's Well
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Panic
Girlfriend In A Coma
First Of The Gang To Die
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
You Have Killed Me
That's How People Grow Up
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Now you can see the ones which stayed which are fine, but look at the amount of changes, that's 13 songs in Hollywood which weren't played a year earlier, not to mention the Dublin set list included 5 songs which hadn't been played in a least 5+ years, 2 of which over 15years, a heap of new songs and 2 songs which he's never played before that tour (which wern't new) and the crowd was HOT.

Fast forward to Hollywood, 2 songs not played in 20 years, 7 songs which haven't been played in at least 7+ years, 2 brand new songs not even on an official release and from all reports and footedge from the show once again the crowd were hot.

I don't understand why Live can't do this .. he's maintained big crowd pleasers in both list and made so many changes in the space of a year ... granted he has 24yrs of songs to choose from, but it's not like Live have only released 2 albums either.

There is no reason why a 2006 setlist can't look like this:

1) Mystery
2) All Over You
3) Selling The Drama
4) The River
5) Mirror Song
6) They Stood Up For Love
7) Voodoo Lady
8) Wings
9) Shit Towne
10) I Walk The Line [Johnny Cash]
11) Iris
12) The Dolphin's Cry
13) Heaven

ENCORE
14) Sofia
15) Lakini's Juice
16) I Alone
17) Lightning Crashes
18) Operation Spirit
19) Dance With You

and 2007 look like this:

1) Where fishes go
2) Waterboy
3) The Distance
4) The River
5) Face and Ghost
6) Turn my Head
7) I Alone
8) Wings
9) All I need
10) Feel the quiet river rage
11) Iris
12) The Dolphin's Cry
13) Heaven

ENCORE
14) Night of Nights
15) TBD
16) Heropsychodreamer
17) Lightning Crashes
18) Lakini's Juice
19) Gas Hed Goes West

So case in point, Live are lazy with their setlists

Now the EP has finished so im taking that to bed to listen to because I gotta be up bright and early tomorrow morning to go into the city to meet Mike Fucking Patton!

[FishOutaWater]

I don't think that Live would sell 3,000 tickets to a sell-out show on a week night in the U.S. unless a certain percentage of those tickets are bought by the casual fan who bought Throwing Copper and maybe doesn't own any other Live album, and wants to pay $30 to here Lightening Crashes and I Alone and all of the other hits in person. The casual fan who bought Throwing Copper wouldn't be attracted to a Live show if they didn't play all of the hits and most of the concert was filled with songs they never heard of. And if those casual fans don't buy tickets, then Live doesn't sell out 3,000 tickets on a week night in a bar in Sayerville NJ. And if they don't sell those tickets, then they can't ask for $50,000 to $75,000 to play a show. And if they can't ask $50,000 to $75,000 to play a show, then it isn't worth them going on the road to play shows and you won't get any (or as many) Live concerts to see.

Would they sell 1,500 tickets if they played a concert filled with nothing but Sparkle and Feel The Quiet River Rage and Like I Do? Sure, and it would be a great crowd of hard core fans. But the tour and our ability to see a regular does of shows is based on economics and supply and demand.

Not only that, but like Nick said, I love seeing the hits. I never get tired of any of them. It has become my concert ritual to enjoy the ride as we go from the spiritually moving They Sttod Up For Love to the mind crushing Lakini's Juice to the lighters in the air Lightening Crashes. It's a great ride.