bands play better on night #1 - true or false?

Best night to see Rheostatics during the 10 day stand they do each year at The Horseshoe is the second Saturday. They save themselves early in the week for the second weekend. Though I liked the all ages Sunday matinee they did cause they played a heck of a lot of Harmalodia.

i would think the first night would be the one to get all the kinks out.

Yeah, I think the second night tends to produce the "go out with a bang" thing... I can think of several fugazi 2-night stands I've witnessed, and they always bust out the chestnuts and go crazy on the 2nd night. And of the 2 Radiohead shows at the Hollywood Bowl last month, the 2nd night was much better set-wise.

It depends on the band. I recently saw both Radiohead MSG shows, and they were way better on the first night. But then, a week before, it seemed pretty unanimous that the second REM NYC show was better than the first.

There's a lot of cases in which you have bands play a few nights in a row, and the last show will have some kind of special surprise (an unexpected oldie, a guest player, whatever).

Obviously, there's no science to this. Bands have good and bad nights, and just because a band is started a multi-night engagement, it doesn't necessarily mean they will be more 'fired up' - they may be tired from the previous gig, travelling, whatever.

Yeah, I figure a band might not necessarily be in top form right after getting off a long tour-bus ride, as opposed to after a day of maxing and relaxing in the city.

False. Shows have their ups and downs, although I tend to lean towards later shows being better. The band's already sick of their routine and need to vary things up, introduce new elements.

I would think that they would be more relaxed/bored and hence willing to stretch out or play different tunes on later nights.

An iron rule for death/black metal bands is that the later shows on the tour feature a hoarse, almost inaudible vocalist.

haha, siegbran OTM!

For a sec I thought you meant an actual singing horse.

ned, sadly, NOTM.

I'd so be into death/black metal if that was the case.

a singing horse would've been the only thing that couldve made lightning bolt better last night.

There should be such a black metal band with a singing horse and it can be named after that one horse that Caligula made a senator.

Years ago my old, Fall-loving flatmate talked me into going to see both nights of the Fall's mini-residency (if that's the right word) at Camden Dingwalls. He'd seen them play there a few months earlier, and reckoned it was the best Fall show (of dozens and dozens)he'd seen.

Piss-poorly, though, Mark E Smith had an even-by-his-standards mega ruckus with his bandmates the week prior to these shows, with the upshot that the whole band was either sacked or quit (with the exception of MES and his girlfriend who was on keyboards).

Still more piss-poorly, both shows still went ahead, and were the most shambolic and, to coin a phrase, piss-poor spectacles you've ever seen. The hastily-assembled and clearly totally unrehearsed band comprised a 'possibly' drunk MES, the aforementioned girlfriend and an worried and out-of-her-depth looking female drummer, improvising some pathetic squally noise over which MES occasionally shouted the odd known Fall lyric (including a bit of Hip Priest truly desecrated by the performance).

I suppose you could say that the quality of the gigs didn't actually fall over the two nights, as both performances were the joint most execrable I've ever seen. Still, once the first night's 'is-this-really-happening?' element of surprise was out of the way, the second night really was sheer torture!

I think there is truth in the notion that a band is more fired up on the first night - a lot of times, bands concentrate very well on the first show because they want to make sure they get through it OK, or maybe it's the first time they've performed something live. This doesn't always mean the first performance is the best one, but in my experience, the concentration level is at its highest when you're unsure what's going to happen.

Another vote for false. During godspeed you black emperor!'s (woo! 'old-skool' exclamation mark placings! expect admonishment from efrim in the mail...) 4 nights at the Scala at the end of 2000 the two best nights were the middle two. I think in their case the first night was weak because they figured they had other nights to make it better, and the last night because there had been some sort of row in the band (with a couple of them looking absolutely like they didn't want to be there).

Equally, the Shellac performance on Sunday, Weekend 1 of ATP2002 was the best one. I think it was Bob Weston wearing a Danielson hat that clinched it.

Ned, Incitatus briefly existed between '94 and '96 (:-)), after which they became Svartsyn. They only put out a demo, but I've not been able to find a tracklist, let alone credits for a horse vocalist... Maybe Siegbran has more information (this is all I could find on a quick google-trip)

Thinking about it, I have seen one other band two nights in a row at the same venue, namely the Beastie Boys at Brixton Academy in March 1995. They were my favourite band by miles back then, so both nights seemed to be the best thing ever, and the second night was my birthday too, which probably lead to a still more biased judgement!

Looking back I think the first night's performance was probably the better of the two, though, as they were way more energetic and the set list was somewhat better.

Willem I kiss thee.

I saw Ryan Adams on a thursday and friday a while back. Friday was definately better only because the Metro runs later on weekends, hence allowing him to get even more drunk and playing longer.