Concert Setlists

[Alex Smiley]

I've seen a great deal of talk about the setlists bands use at concerts, and I've been meaning to ask:

What's so important about the setlist?

Discussion is much appreciated, and you're welcome to give examples of really good ones, not so good ones, and Higher Power-awful ones.

[Rob]

To be honest in my opinion a good band with a lot of classics like Manic Street Preachers or Radiohead would have a good setlist with their old-classics, a few of their older songs that never received much recognition and a few of their best hits from all albums mixed with some of the stuff off the album they're touring for. It's got to be something where you can connect the old music to the new stuff, in my opinion.

So for example with Radiohead I'd like to hear stuff off of Pablo Honey which has kinda been forgotten in recent years because of their more successful albums OK Computer and the Bends. Pretty much all of their 03 Glasto performance was off those two albums, so a good set-list would've been their "forgotten" tunes mixed in with their big hits.

I'm blabbering, I'll try and make more sense tomorrow

[Tim-Æ]

Good topic.

To me, a concert setlist should do its best to make every fan in attendance a little happy. Ultimately its up to the band of course to pick the music, but they want to have a set list that will remember. A setlist in my opinion should contain the following:

1. Top Hits/Popular songs - These are the ones that everyone knows. That way, just the casual concert goer can appreciate it and feel like they got their moneys worth.
2. Die hard fan favorites - The songs that only the most die hard fan of said band would enjoy, usually a large crowd pleaser and something very memorable.
3. Diversity - On recent tours, bands will limit what they play to strictly new material. A good mix is necessary I think. If you have a new album out, in a two hour time frame, 65% of the setlist should be new material, the rest be old material off of varying albums.
4. Balance - It must be balanced. A good mix of up beat songs, and slow songs, but always start with a massive crowd pleaser, or an aggressive song to kick start things.

Some excellent examples -

1. Tool - 2002 - They opened with Sober, one of their most popular songs, then went into The Grudge, a die hard fan favorite, and eventually played mainstream rock hits like Schism, Stinkfist, and Aenema. They also played die hard fan favorites like Disposiiton/Reflection/Triad (a 23 minute opus), then finished the evening with "Lateralus" an in between fan favorite/top hit (it received a little bit of airplay).

2. Cake - 2005 - Opening with "Comfort Eagle" was brilliant, then filling the spaces in between top hits with older material, then busting out big hits like The Distance, and smaller hits like Sheep Go to Heaven. Crowd pleasing setlist, for just about everyone in attendance.

3. STP - 2008 - One of the few exceptions to the rules above, STP played nothing but crowd pleasers. On the other hand, the band hadn't  been active in years, so for a reunion tour, this was expected. Everyone sang along, and no one left disappointed.

4. Radiohead - 2008 - Diverse setlist, material off of every album except Pablo Honey, and a mix of crowd pleasers and some surprises (like Bangers & Mash, a b-side to In Rainbows).

Bad Setlists

1. Tool - 2007-2009 - Any and every Tool fan saw them tour in 2006 and 2007, and everyone noticed how monotonous the playlist was, repeating everything they had previously done. Once i saw them at Lolla in 2009, I could rehearse the setlist before the songs even played, because of how predictable it was.

2. Korn - 2002 - Every single rock charting hit. Nothing special, nothing unique. It was like a Best of Korn album, which in truth would be pretty short.

3. Pinback - 2009 - An unbalanced setlist, with primarily slow songs at the beginning that didn't suck anyone into the concert. Die hard fan favorites, but casual listeners bailed.

4. Animal Collective - 2009 - Throwing out their setlist, they improvised most of it, with weird noises, and cheated all of the fans in attendance. For an intimate show, this would have been great, but for a festival, it came off as cocky and inconsiderate.

[Drama Queen]

This may be off-topic somewhat, but it reminds me of a pet-peeve. When bands try to distance themselves from songs that they are now "embarrassed" about for some reason or another. Like Blur announcing they would never play "Country House" ever again. Why the fuck did they bother writing and releasing and collecting huge profits and fame from it in the first place then?


Before the "Somewhere in Time" Tour of their pre 90s classics Iron Maiden did a tour (Matter of Life and Death) where they played their new album in it's entirety from start to finish, then finished up with five classics. Needless to say, despite it being an excellent album, this not greeted with a lot of enthusiasm. See Timbo's points for Diversity and count this as an example of what NOT to do for that point!

At the same time, I can see how people get tired of being pigeon holed, and I am sure artists must feel the same. For example if I meet old family of friends every other year and all the keep doing is asking me to tell the same old stories of our shared memories and not showing much interest in how I'm doing no, I would be kind of pissed off. Albeit, if they were paying hundreds of dollars to hear those old stories I would either suck it up or stop seeing them.

[TheOuotcastLegendTheWolf]

As much as a varied set-list is a crowd pleaser, you need to understand that if a band has a new album out, regardless of if it's a good album or the worst ever, you are going to hear a huge chunk of it.

And I think that Radiohead said something similar about "Creep".  if memory serves, they don't even like the song, so they try to distance themselves from it. I do remember seeing something about it (Prob on one of those VH1 shows) about how one time they heard "Creep" on the radio and didn't realize it was THEIR F*CKING SONG!

My criteria for a set list is simple:

1)Don't weigh too heavy off of stuff that hasn't been put out yet (if you are releasng an album AFTER the show takes place). If you are an established act, it should be easy to put on a kick ass show, play a couple of songs that no one kn ows, and send the fans home happy.

2) Play songs that you ENJOY playing. This isn't really a "setlist" thing, more like a band thing. If you don't play songs you like, you aren't going to enjoy yourself. If you play songs that you enjoy, you'll be less likely to burn out from them.

3) Open strong, end stronger. I'll use Nine Inch Nails for the good and the bad on this. Saw NIN on the "Fragile" tour, and they opened with "Terrible Lie" abrupt start+familiar song=great start to the show. The "Encore" part of the set was "Head Like A Hole" "Starf*cker's Inc." "Closer" and the song that many fan's claim in NIN's best "Hurt" Great ending, and it brought the house down. As for when i saw NIN this Summer, the set was short so that Perry Farrell could stroke his ego, so that hurt things a little, and opening with "March of The Pigs" was smart,  but NOT playing songs like "Closer" "Terrible Lie" "Wish" and other crowd pleasers is not smart. Going from a piano ballad into "Head Like A Hole" seemed wrong, and confusing, and throw in the fact that "Hurt" came on next, and let's just say that I wasn't the only one confused.

4) If you have a long history, don't neglect ANYTHING regardless of if you think it sucks. The fan's dont want your oppinions, they want to hear the great music that got them to buy the ticket! I'm not saying that you have to play songs that you hate to make the fans happy or am i? I just confused myself) what I mean is that you shouldn't skip over albums. You never know how the fans might react.

And BTW-I saw APC with NIN that first time, and THEY SUCKED! My Buddy said it best: "It's like sleeping with your GF's twin sister....It's just not the same!" toss in the fact that I am NOT A TOOL FAN and you can see why I didn't like APC!