I saw the Decemberists in New York a while back. Great show and I came away thinking they coulda played Mariners Revenge … and Sons and Daughters … and This is Why We Fight … in fact without too much thinking I came up with a whole set list I would have gladly listened to.
Looking through their set lists they’ve been touring the great new album As It Ever Was playing a fair bit of it live including Joan In The Garden as the ‘new’ Mariners.
Is there any other band that plays from such an extensive canon that pays off seeing them again and again?
It must take some rehearsing!
https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/the-decemberists-73d6aea5.html
Good when a band has this possibility, rather than performing the codified greatest hits again. There are a number of acts I’ve stopped going to see, as there is no real change to the set. You want to see a band and think as you walk home, “that was great, quite enough, and they didn’t even play xxx, either”. Fans who have fantasy sets 4 hours long then complain if they don’t get them …. I realise it’s a balance, as a lot of time there is tumbleweed when “here’s one from the new album” emanates from the stage, which only works if the new track is actually any good. My observation also only applies for those acts with a long “imperial period”.
Wilco often do 3 or 4 night stands in the same city with zero repeats. In the summer I saw 2 Wilco shows and 1 “Jeff Tweedy and friends” show at their Solid Sound festival, 79 unique songs no repeats!
First night was “deep cuts”
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/wilco/2024/mass-moca-north-adams-ma-3ab39d3.html
Jonathan Richman always mixed it up when I’ve seen him play live. I’d often come out of his shows thinking that he played none of my favourites. Often he’d have rewritten old songs and play them in their new form. The two most regular tunes were Give Paris one more chance and I was dancing in a lesbian bar. His back catalogue is massive of course.
Van der Graaf Generator.
Famously unpredictable when playing live, just as likely to play something from their next unreleased album as from the one that they are touring. Luckily, they have a devoted following who expect this kinda thing – and “here’s one from the new album” is never met with the now traditional tumbleweed. On one of the more recent tours, they played “A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers” in its entirety for the first time, arranged for the trio – alongside songs from the new album. I believe it was GK Chesterton* who once said “Van der Graaf are unpredictable – how far back will they go? How far forward?”
(*It wasn’t.)
*On reflection, I think it was Geoff Barton – he used to interview Hammill and the band – and often reviewed the albums and gigs, usually in a very positive way.
Our more venerable correspondents will recall that, in the mid 1970s, Sounds was the paper which you bought for a bit of prog coverage (they were always very supportive of VdGG). This was in the period just before they repositioned themselves in the market; with NWOBHM, Oi! and the rise of Gary Bushell.
When I saw Prince he rattled through many of his hits in a medley style so it was a bit like Jive Bunny apart from the fact it was Prince, who was a superb entertainer. At the time I saw him, his presence was such that it almost didn’t matter what he played – the show was bigger than more of an experience than him playing mere songs off a set list.
I only saw Prince once in 2002. Same sort of thing. He kind of phoned it in. Disappointing, naturally with moments of greatness
I saw a literal Todd Rundgren “jive bunny” encore of “I saw the light/ can we still be friends/ Hello, it’s me”. He was doing an “EDM” set, and desperately trying to rebrand. it had some moments. But, as they say, its ages, too. The encore was the worst. I am not a fan of phoned-in electronic dance music, and particularly when it eviscerates sublime melodies.
Stiff Little Fingers do mix it up a bit each tour. 5 or 6 core songs and then a mix of rarely played live recently stuff. Dropping and adding through the tour.
John Otway though … released a live album called The Set Remains The Same, and it usually does (maybe a couple of swapsies, but not always)
Van M and Neil Y still seem to mix things up from night to night.
BS and the ESB used to do so, too, but have cut back on retooling sets in recent years
Has that always been a thing – calling Bruce’s band the ESB in Ireland? Quite amusing..
I was hoping he’d rename them The Meters
Bruce did 99 different songs on tour in 2024. Not bad. He mixed it up more than in 2023.
https://www.setlist.fm/stats/bruce-springsteen-2bd6dcce.html?tour=43dcab83
According to guitarist/keyboardist Mike Keneally, for Frank Zappa’s final tour in ’88 the band rehearsed and learned 124 different pieces. And played nearly all of them at various times.
They had 6 months of rehearsals before the tour and on the road each soundcheck doubled as a rehearsal.
Bassist Scott Thunes was appointed concert master and conducted the rehearsals, with Frank generally making an appearance later in proceedings each day. A sizeable section of the band* came to hate Thunes and eventually, during the European section of the tour, there was a mutiny. They demanded that Thunes be replaced as they no longer wished to work with him.
Zappa responded by cancelling the remainder of the tour and sacking everybody, vowing never to tour with a band again.
* Drummer Chad Wackerman, percussionist Ed Mann and all five of the brass and reed players.
But the gigs were excellent. A very good setlist, and no show the same. The last, in Brighton, was the best of the 8 shows I saw him do from 78 to 88, and all had their charms.
Less so since his motorcycle accident which affected his memory, but Marc Almond used to have massive set variation from gig to gig, and his audience would actively welcome new songs and super deep cuts like 12”-only B-sides… when he played a residency at Wilton’s Music Hall, he even wrote 5-6 songs especially for the run which he never recorded in the studio, making them unique to those attending (at least until the DVD release!)
Richard Thompson, certainly in his acoustic shows, has a lot of variety. Usually audience members seem to compete for shouting for the most obscure suggestion.
Saw him twice in the space of a week when his 2019 acoustic tour came to Ireland. Was v pissed off when rather than mix up the set, he only changed one song
Same on his last UK solo (plus a few numbers with Zara) tour. There was very little variation. He did open with I Misunderstood, which I had sent a message via the box office to request, but I ready knew that was one of two alternating numbers he had started the earlier shows with.
Edit – He did open with I Misunderstood [at the show I saw in Brighton]
The National – did two consecutive nights in London last year and didn’t repeat a single song.
(I’ve dropped off the Decemberists in recent years, maybe a decade – glad to hear the latest record was a good un)
As mentioned in my review a couple of weeks ago, Thom Yorke has been touring Australia/NZ/Singapore/Japan and at the time I saw him in Singapore, he had played 45 different tracks across 8 concerts, with a 22 song setlist each night (according to setlist.fm)
Which is fine if there are setlist.fm eager beavers in the audience. Pity the poor reviewers who have to second guess anything they are uncertain of, especially if it different songs every night. I accept this is a niche concern, but it can be sometimes challenging.
On their current tour Vampire Weekend are doing five or six audience request covers for each encore. According to setlist.fm they have played more than 200 songs at the 52 shows so far, the majority only played once. On any given night you might get Dylan’s Jokerman, Rod Stewart’s Young Turks, Billy Joel’s Scenes From An Italian Restaurant or, I presume, anything you ask for.