Length/Quality of Songs - for the older fans Options

[disciple_de_+LIVE+]

Hey all - newcomer to the board. Been a Live fan since Mental Jewelry - heard Waterboy on a mix tape and went out and bought MJ and TC that same day.............

Just reading through a lot of threads here, I can tell a lot of older live fans have the same issues with their new material as I do. Obviously bands evolve and they lose the desperation/angst/intensity in their albums. I see that happening with almost every band I like.

But with Live (and maybe I am too critical because they are my favorite band) I feel like they have been just writing songs to fill an album. I recently read an interview in which Ed said something like he would prefer to just release music as singles or EPs rather than full length albums. I think that V, Birds of Pray, and Black Mountain all features songs that were created as fillers for the album. I have a couple reasons to think this:

1.) There are numerous songs on those albums that they have never played in concert. If you were proud of these songs, wouldn't you get them in the mix at least once to see how they are received?

2.) a lot of these songs are between 3 - 4 minutes in length. Seems that they are sticking to a certain formula and just chunking out songs. Whatever happened to the 6 and 7 min epic songs that really defined their early career? PoD, WD, Ghost, GHMO. I would love to hear a 10 min studio song where they jam out with tons of verses and solos and general craziness. Anyone who has seen the band knows how hard they rock and these short songs on the end of their new albums don't do that any justice

Here are the songs I consider filler on those albums:

V - Flow, The Ride, OK

BoP - Rivertown, Out To Dry, Bring the People Together

Black Mountain - Home, All I Need, You Are Not Alone

Obviously some of you will like these songs I mentioned, and to each his/her own. But for me those songs are listenable but seem like B-sides more than anything else. Anybody out there feel the same?

I hate for my first post to be so critical, but I think its good discussion material...

[Pokey]

Yeah I tend to agree with this ... I never really considered Flow or Rivertown filler though as I like them for whatever reason, Flow because I guess they went out of their way to have a guest vocalist sing on it, you wouldn't bother otherwise .. I dunno.

But yeah I totally agree when it comes to playing songs in concert makes them seem like filler. I'm certainly not the biggest fan of the new material, but if Live were at least playing more than half the new albums at gigs it would make them seem more credible. So many bands when releasing a new album will play the entire album at gigs supporting that album (11-13 songs) and the rest of the set is filled with crowd favorites and rarities. Or at least play each song from the album at some point during the tour.

If you've only just released a new album, you have an entire tour with many dates to play everything from it at some stage, why not do it unless you honestly don't believe in the material?

[SJN1279]

So many bands when releasing a new album will play the entire album at gigs supporting that album (11-13 songs) and the rest of the set is filled with crowd favorites and rarities.

When a band does this, it generally puts the majority of the audience to sleep. I'm glad refrains from that practice.