Weird Setlist Omissions

1. The Rolling Stones didn't play "Satisfaction" (or any of their pre-1968 hits) for the bulk of the 1970s.

2. Wouldn't it be awesome to have witnessed The Who performing "I Can See For Miles" in the late '60s or early '70s... their biggest ever hit in America and the quintessence of the band's live sound? Well according to thewholive.net the song was performed a couple of times in 1967 and not again until 1979, by which time Keith Moon was gone.

3. The Beatles could have played some of their songs from Revolver on their final tour of August 1966. But they didn't. Not a one.

What else? Let's leave aside songs that are too complicated to play live or those that are obviously studio-based creations.

There are moments of prickly brilliance: Cobain's sandpaper howl cutting through the Aragon's canyonlike echo in the tense, explosive chorus of "Heart–Shaped Box"; a short, stunning "Sliver" with torrid power strumming by guest touring guitarist Pat Smear (ex-Germs). But there is no "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and when the house lights go up, so does a loud chorus of boos.

I saw Ben Folds Five in, oh, must've been 1998 - at the height of popularity for their biggest/only "hit" at the time, "Brick" - and they not only didn't play it, but when the encore ended and the house lights came up, an electronic/dance version of the song came on over the speakers. Folds was at center stage, big smile on his face, waving goodnight.

I always liked those dudes.

when i saw urge overkill last year at the troubadour, they didn't play "sister havana."

Zep only did "When The Levee Breaks" live a few times before shelving it because the arrangement was too complex or something.

Sisters of Mercy did let out a few times 'temple of love' when it was big. The singer actually made fun of the audience by playing a few chords and stop.
not really weird, just comprehensible.

Bands that do this when their "hit" isn't some overplayed radio staple or are of an indie level popularity- what's the deal? Is it some kind of rebellion to them that they think they put their less involved fans "in their place" and that their hardcore fans will be so impressed?

Bands that do this when their "hit" isn't some overplayed radio staple or are of an indie level popularity- what's the deal?

complex yet bullshit psychological process imo. I get it - if you have a minor "hit" (where "hit" = "song that people who wouldn't otherwise have given a shit about your work liked well enough to come to your show") there's a feeling like, ok, I can feel that it's different in the room now, lots of people just waiting for the one tune and not really even trying to see if the other stuff is good (you know this because when you play the hit there's a sudden rush to the front). And you think, fuckin' A, that is totally not our best song, not even close, c'mon, you came out to the music show so listen to the music maybe and see what it's about instead of talking at the bar 'til you hear the one you already know? but as I say I think this is bullshit, the person who paid to get in to hear the hit/s isn't any less of a music lover than the deep-catalogue person and if you care about your craft you can satisfy both of these people, you just have to bring your A-game and quit being a dick.

Having said that there are dudes who will perch themselves at the lip of a 700-capacity club stage and say the name of the song they want to hear after literally every song you play, and at lulls in your banter, same two words over and over, not yelling, just punctuating any space with the name or chorus of the song they already know you're not gonna play until the end of the show, and that can really make you start to hate the song, because you can see the pained looks on the faces of the nearby audience members whose nights are being ruined by this dude & there's nothing you can do about it.

lol wow guess who has to go to work this week, lol

Saw Doom on Sunday and the singer called out some dude who was shouting out for Police Bastard constantly and told him he'd come down and punch him in the face if he asked for it again. They played the song anyway, of course.

Yeah, Easy already got to it, but I saw Nirvana on the In Utero tour in 1993 and they did not play "Smells Like Teen Spirit." It was, in fact, the only Nevermind single that they didn't play.

s/Easy/Eazy

, because you can see the pained looks on the faces of the nearby audience members whose nights are being ruined by this dude & there's nothing you can do about it.

Not only do they ruin the night for other audience members, but I have heard aerosmith bootlegs rendered nearly unlistenable by such dudes, ruining the night for all future generations.

indie rock really is a cesspool of human trash, no fooling

lol aero forgot his capo when i saw them and couldn't play that song

a cunning ploy perhaps?

"sorry guys, can't play Cryin' tonight, i left Bobo at the hotel"

I saw Richard Thompson a couple of weeks ago, and the dude occasionally humored requests, which is remarkable, because not only does his catalog go deep, plus covers and fan in-jokes, he's got a lot of words to remember, weird tunings, etc. . He did his George Formby cover off the top of his head!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uny1K5jnkYo

RT sometimes does all-request shows.

Another point: almost every arena act uses a teleprompter, but no club acts. What's up with that? Lot easier to take requests when you have a teleprompter. Of course, when you're Prince's band or E Street Band or whatever, and Boss calls out one of 300 possibilities, you still have to hustle your brain.

When Pink Floyd regrouped in the mid/late 80's, they played Echoes for the first dozen shows of the Momentary Lapse tour, then ditched it in favour of Shine On. I'm curious if they had problems with the arrangement particularly the whooshy, seagull guitar breakdown section. I read a great quote from Gilmour once -referring to members of his touring band- stating that young musicians these days 'just don't know how to disintegrate'

”These session guys and their robotic proficiency...”

Another point: almost every arena act uses a teleprompter, but no club acts. What's up with that?

if I told you what I make for a half day's work the answer would be pretty obvious!

also I wonder if anyone's doing the 'take a request from the audience for a cover we haven't played in years, then have the prompter guy look up the lyrics and get them onscreen in a few minutes' thing that Springsteen's doing. that seems like more of a backup than anything else to me -- if you know the song's melody well enough to play it confidently in front of thousands, you probably know most of the words, the prompter's just there in case you blank out on the second verse.

if anyone ELSE is doing it, i mean.

I saw an episode of That Metal Show with Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart where they admitted they've done shows without playing "Magic Man" because it was a song Ann got burned out on early on.

i don't think feist plays 1,2,3,4 anymore

I was going to say that Magnetic Fields never play "100,000 Fireflies," but per setlist.fm they actually did play it a lot on their 2010 tour, so I guess they've gotten over themselves in this respect

http://www.setlist.fm/setlists/the-magnetic-fields-53d69be1.html

it's kinda surprising that this thread has gotten this far without any mention of Radiohead's "Creep," so i'll just get that out of the way.

I saw Radiohead last night. They didn't play anything off their 1st 2 records and only 2 songs off OK Computer. It was kind of a boring show tbh, but then I'm not really a fan (the ticket was free and I'd never been to a stadium gig before and I did like Radiohead when I was a teenager, so I thought yeah what the hell).

I guess I could make this post more succinct by just posting "Radiohead sucks"

I saw Radiohead once, at Coachella in the early 2000s, & I'm pretty sure they played "Creep" then.

maybe 2003 or 2004? maybe that was a one off though, I dunno

p sure they played it at Victoria Park 4/5 years ago.

When did they "stop" playing it? Last time I saw them was in 1995 and they played it then.

i think their refusal to play "Creep" at all was a pretty short-lived thing in the '90s? they played it when i saw them in '98 and i was actually surprised because i'd heard they didn't like playing it. i guess they made their peace with it but now that they've established that they don't have to play it every night, they leave it out when they feel like it.

When Pink Floyd regrouped in the mid/late 80's, they played Echoes for the first dozen shows of the Momentary Lapse tour, then ditched it in favour of Shine On. I'm curious if they had problems with the arrangement particularly the whooshy, seagull guitar breakdown section. I read a great quote from Gilmour once -referring to members of his touring band- stating that young musicians these days 'just don't know how to disintegrate'

― Pat Ast vs Jean Arp (MaresNest), Tuesday, October 9, 2012 10:01 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol. I just read that quote somewhere this morning.

Re:Springsteen I remember reading a newspaper review of his show here on the first E-Street reunion tour, and the critic happily pointed out how all of the set was--bar some new songs, covers and "Darlington County"--material from the '70s. Some people who'd attended the show subsequently wrote letters that got published expressing their disappointment that they didn't get to hear their favorite songs. The critic responded in print that perhaps they just went to the wrong tour date, pointing out that at the next stop (which was like in New Orleans or Dallas) Springsteen did an all '80s plus "Born To Run", "Rosalita", covers & the new songs set.

Didn't R.E.M. phase "Stand" out pretty early? I know both "Shiny Happy People" and "Radio Song" were rarely if ever done live.

No one's mentioned Grateful Dead and "Saint Stephen" yet.

Garcia really didn't like the material on Aoxomoxoa very much. "China Cat Sunflower" was the longest lasting item in their sets, and even then it was part of a medley w/"I Know You Rider".

Springsteen played here like a dozen years ago, and how everyone bitched and moaned the next day that he didn't play "Dancing In the Dark", "Born in the USA" or "Hungry Heart".

Motehrfucker played "Mary, Queen of Arkansas" for the first time live since 1972 and the fans were mad because they didn't get to have their Courtney Cox moment. I tell you, i smdh quite vigorously.

I was kinda shocked that Metallica had never played "Escape" until they played Ride the Lightning in its entirety a few months ago. This site says they've still never played "Frayed Ends of Sanity" live.

Also weird: Shriekback circa 1986, they opened with "Nemesis," prompting everyone audience to look at each other with an expression that said "gah, they're not even warmed up yet". But then they closed with it too.

I saw Cheap Trick in 2000 (? thereabouts) when they did a three night stand in Mpls and played the first three albums in a row. I went the second night and they played all of "In Color" but during the encore did not play "Surrender", evn though they did it the night before. I mean I was fine with it and I think so was the crowd cuz Aerosmith came out & both bands did "Train Kept A-Rollin" which was pretty sweet.

But still, probably one of the very Cheap Trick shows where they did not play "Surrender"

The last time I saw AC/DC they opened with "You Shook Me All Night Long." It was the ultimate "suck it" moment from a band with more than enough songs to go around.

The Flaming Lips make such a point of playing "She Don't Use Jelly" at every show that even its inclusion and reasons for inclusion - "this is a big hit, and some people habe never seen us before! - have become more annoying than the song itself.

I would've thought that most current Radiohead fans don't even like 'Creep', right?

I think they play Creep when they visit more far-flung locations, I think it was popping up in a few of the South American shows.

AC/DC Concertgoer: "You Shook Me All Night Long"? I'd like to suck on some of that!

when I saw Radiohead in 2003 they did both 'Creep' and 'The Bends', tho Thom seemed to make a joke of both of them. Why bother eh why bother. I do kinda wonder who would be paying to see a Radiohead headline show in the last ten years and be disappointed that they don't get 'Creep'.

(Equally I wonder how much of a usual Flaming Lips crowd nowadays would really think of 'She Don't Use Jelly' as their hit.)

i'm always impressed when long-running bands don't have one song that's an every-single-show given. Sonic Youth obviously aren't a 'singles' band like the Stones or something where crowd-pleasing is a super overt agenda, but even among the dozen or so '80s songs they've played the most over years, some of them have just been abandoned entirely during for one or two tour-heavy years at a time.

"Another point: almost every arena act uses a teleprompter, but no club acts. What's up with that?"

It's one more thing you got to carry around. I'm sure the bassist or guitarist in Tortoise got to shake their heads some nights at having to haul around 2 drum kits and 2 Marimbas/vibes sets.

Foster the People, who had a huge hit last year with "Pumped Up Kicks" but skipped it altogether on Saturday, also managed to make the most of their brief time onstage, revamping their synthetic pop tunes with remarkable practicality.

That can't be right. 99% of their audience would only be there for that song, surely?!

remarkable practicality! lol

But 99% of their audience probably had the song on their phone already. If I was the Foster The People dude, I'd get them to shut up and all play it simultaneously off the phones parking lot experiment/Zaireeka-style.

Bands that refuse to play a song of theirs cos it's popular is a shitty thing to do.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, October 11, 2012 10:57 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If i was in that situation and i was really sick of the song, I'd just play it right off the bat at the start of the set and say "Ok, all you people who came for that one song can leave now"

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, October 11, 2012 10:57 AM

OTM and OTM. Just eat that one piece of broccoli first, then you can enjoy the rest of your meal.

the smashing pumpkins used to do that all the time in 93/94, they'd play Today and Disarm back to back real early on in the set.

Van Morrison rarely played any of his hits or well-known songs for decades, although from what I understand he's relented somewhat over the last decade. When I saw him, "Moondance" was the only hit he played, and he did virtually nothing from his classic early albums.

There was one tour by The Church where the intro music was an trip-hop/EDM cover of "Under The Milky Way." That was the only time you heard that song during the evening.

I imagine the Allman Bros. probably don't do "Ramblin' Man" anymore since Betts was fired.

Even though "Emotional Rescue" was a top 10 single in the US and UK for the Stones in 1980 they never played it live until 2013

If i was in that situation and i was really sick of the song, I'd just play it right off the bat at the start of the set and say "Ok, all you people who came for that one song can leave now"

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, October 11, 2012 10:57 AM

Iirc Hanson used to play “mmmbop” as the first aong of their set so that people who only came for that song would get their fill and leave. For one hit wonders you usually play your biggest hit at the end so that the audience stays half interested thru the whole thing but I think playing it first - if you’re annoyed at it - is really the best course.

I guess he is unknown in here but Danny Ocean in latinamerica is really popular for gen z.

His breakthrough hit was “me rehuso” and he is so sick off it that he just plays the backing track, takes out his phone and points the mic at the audience while he checks texts. Latinamericans being quite the cheerful audience shout sing and dance thru the whole thing and have fun either way but it’s such a douchey thing to do as an artist.

That's good, I was kind of interested in getting some Gen Z examples in this revive

i'm STILL sad - because i'm a baby - that when i saw chameleons in the late 90s/early 2000s? (i don't even remember what year but they didn't play a ton of shows over here i think? might have been 2001/2002) in philly they didn't do swamp thing. how could they do that to me? but every one of their songs is a banger anthem to me so it was okay in the end. they were amazing. and i heard from people who saw them elsewhere that they totally did it!

!!!omg i write this whole thing forgetting that they have the internet now!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1QG418Addw

2 years ago (edited)
0:00 Intro
0:23 Shades
5:54 A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days
11:38 Pleasure and Pain
16:53 Less Than Human
21:37 Anyone Alive?
27:24 Indiana
32:40 Dangerous Land
39:32 (Why Call it Anything? mention)
39:49 Intrigue in Tangiers
45:46 Tears
51:27 Soul in Isolation (Tape Glitched)
59:39 Perfume Garden
1:05:07 Caution
1:13:55 Second Skin
1:23:25 Don't Fall
1:27:29 Splitting in Two (Alternative TV cover)

(now i'm just hoping that you don't hear me really drunk yelling for swamp thing....ohnooooo...)

When I saw Todd Rundgren a few years ago he only played one song written prior to 2000 until the encore - and it was “Secret Society” (was that even a hit?). The encore was “Hello It’s Me” (in a nearly unrecognizable lounge version) and “Just One Victory” (which was awesome). Hard to decide if that was ballsy or kind of a dick move - the show was, somehow, in the same town I lived in, and was full of older folks who remembered him from back then. Here in Wisconsin he is most famous for “Bang on the Drum All Day” because that’s the song that plays when the Packers score a touchdown. Kinda figured he wouldn’t play it but still, would’ve been cool

Fwiw his set was still great, kinda disappointed to find the studio versions weren’t as good

i recall reading The La's would play There She Goes second in 2005

so the "packers" play a song about masturbation when one scores a "touchdown", you say?

I saw Nirvana in '93, and they kind of played Teen Spirit as the final encore — started with the riff, and everybody cheered, but then pretty quickly it turned into this total onstage meltdown with all the members of the Boredoms and Meat Puppets (the openers) ran onstage and everyone was playing different things really loud and it just descended into mayhem for 5 or 6 minutes and then they all kind of wandered offstage in no particular order. I think people were too baffled and bludgeoned to react positively or negatively.

I saw Radiohead open for R.E.M. on the Monster tour, the year The Bends came out, and at the end of the set Thom Yorke went into this whole spiel about how they hadn't been playing "Creep" on tour but Michael Stipe had persuaded him that it was important to respect the audience — "You do some songs for you, and some songs for them" — so they played it. But I guess that didn't last long. Of course, by the time of the OK Computer tour and thereafter, the crowds were probably much less impatient for Creep anyway.

Most recently, I saw Rickie Lee Jones earlier this year and she was great, but she didn't do "Chuck E.'s in Love." She did three other songs from her first album, but not that.

I have seen My Morning Jacket more than any other band. They've played "One Big Holiday" about half of the shows I've seen.

I guess that's not surprising. I've seen them three nights in a row and they've played completely different sets each night.

Lol about Rickie Lee Jones. I would be fuming if she didn't do "ChucK E.'s In Love"

I did wanna hear it, but the show was really good and she seemed to be having a good time, so it was hard to be mad.

I remember seeing the Specials in 2012 at the Olympics closing ceremony event in Finsbury Park (with Blur headlining and also New Order playing) and they didn't play Ghost Town. Skimming through setlists on setlist.fm I see that it was a staple encore song for normal concerts in and around 2012, but not always played at festivals - which is exactly where I would expect to hear a band's biggest hit.

the only thing that's weird to me is the idea that you're entitled to tell a musician what to do or how to do their job.

it's so "weird" that you didn't conform to my specific expectations

I guess it depends on the band, but it's always surprising that a band does not play a song or songs that it is especially known for.

Not "always," I guess.

I saw ST once and they omitted "Institutionalized". my friend insisted they played it but I'm pretty sure he was merging shows in his head

they don't even typically close w/ that one, it's usually towards middle of set.

I read Brooks and Dunn complaining about how the crowd got upset if they played any song that had not been a #1 hit.

The only time I saw Mclusky, they opened with "Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues." Talk about shooting your wad.

it's so "weird" that you didn't conform to my specific expectations

― budo jeru, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 11:32 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don’t think it’s weird at all when you’re referring to the song that brought you the majority of your audience. I mean imagine if you watched Jason Alexander give a two hour speech and he never brought up Seinfeld

Frankie Goes To Hollywood's recent reunion consisting of Welcome To The Pleasuredome and nothing else was a bit odd. Despite being a top 2 hit, it still would be like Oasis choosing Go Let It Out if they were in the same shoes. Some have speculated it felt like the most appropriate for an opening ceremony, but if a single song was the only option, beats me who would rather hear that than Relax...

The only time I saw Mclusky, they opened with "Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues." Talk about shooting your wad.

At Bonnaroo, the Killers opened with "Mr. Brightside." I was about 10 minutes late ambling over and got there in time to hear the end of "Somebody Told Me" — which they played third in the set — and then spent the rest of the time waiting for "Mr. Brightside" not realizing they'd already done it.

imagine if you watched Jason Alexander give a two hour speech and he never brought up Seinfeld

if jason alexander's two-hour speech was, say, a one-man show about his experience as a young actor performing in a stephen sondheim flop on broadway, then, no, i wouldn't expect him to bring up seinfeld. and if i was going to vienna or berlin to see beethoven touring behind his ninth symphony, i wouldn't expect him to throw in a snippet of his fifth for the casual fans in the cheap seats. why should it be any touring act's job to perform this song from 20 years ago or that one from 10 years ago? if they want to do it and it works in the set, great! if they don't want to, also great!

the only thing that's weird to me is the idea that you're entitled to tell a musician what to do or how to do their job.

otm

the only thing that's weird to me is the idea that you're entitled to tell a musician what to do or how to do their job.

― budo jeru, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 12:32 PM bookmarkflaglink

it's so "weird" that you didn't conform to my specific expectations

― budo jeru, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 12:32 PM bookmarkflaglink

is anybody actually doing that itt, though?

xxxpost That's why some bands do their hits songs twice in concert (Queen with "We Will Rock You", Neil Diamond with "America", etc.)

this isn't the "songs I'm angry didn't get played" thread, it's "weird omissions", aka "huh, I woulda thought they would ahve played xxx song!"

in this day and age I spoil the setlists for myself when I can so if it's a band where me wanting to go depends on what they play, I already know going in.

Not a weird omission as such, but I find it amusing that for the Cure's only live album/concert film recorded in the US they didn't play what was by far their biggest US hit.

I'm glad that I spent a lot of time at jam band shows, where the bands had no hits and would just surprise you with whatever-the-fuck out of their 100+ song repertoire every night. It inured me somewhat to the disappointment of not seeing bands play specific songs.

But I see the point. I saw Living Colour last month and was mildly disappointed that they didn't play Open Letter to a Landlord, which was one of their biggest singles. But they played a lot of cool stuff I didn't expect and the show ruled. But if they hadn't played Cult of Personality, their absolute biggest hit, it would have seemed pretty weird. I looked them up on setlist.fm after the show, and sure enough, night after night of Cult of Personality, while Open Letter is rotated in and out every few shows.

I can't spoil setlists for myself though. I did that once by accident a few years ago - went to check a band's setlists and realized that they played the same show at every stop of the tour. Went into the concert knowing what they were going to play and when, and that killed the momentum of the show for me.

xpost "Friday I'm in Love"?

Lovesong, No. 2 on the Hot 100

this isn't the "songs I'm angry didn't get played" thread, it's "weird omissions", aka "huh, I woulda thought they would ahve played xxx song!"

Exactly. It's just observations, not accusations or demands or anything. I certainly enjoyed that Specials gig and simply thought it strange afterwards that they didn't draw in the entire Finsbury Park crowd with their best known song.

oh, I see. I guess I assumed since FIIL has 3 times as many Spotify streams as Lovesong

if jason alexander's two-hour speech was, say, a one-man show about his experience as a young actor performing in a stephen sondheim flop on broadway, then, no, i wouldn't expect him to bring up seinfeld.

well sure but concerts generally aren't that it's "watch us play for 2 hours". like I don't think any of this applies if you're specifically seeing a band doing say one of those shows where they perform an album in full (though most bands will still do the big hits during those anyway).

I can't spoil setlists for myself though. I did that once by accident a few years ago - went to check a band's setlists and realized that they played the same show at every stop of the tour. Went into the concert knowing what they were going to play and when, and that killed the momentum of the show for me.

― peace, man, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 1:34 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea I nearly looked up the Sparks setlist before I saw them (and yes, it was the exact same every night on this tour) and I'm really glad I didn't. there were at least 5 tunes I never would've guessed on there and realizing they really were playing *that* song was so much fun

Another gray area is when an artist has a new band or goes solo and people come expecting to hear songs by the former band. Like I know Robert Plant didn't play Zeppelin songs live for a number of years but then added some to his set in the late 80s. And idiots were always yelling for Minor Threat songs at Fugazi songs.

I always found it interesting that Meat Puppets, even a decade into their career were still totally pleasing themselves by loading the setlist with goofy cover versions, instead of playing Backwater or Plateau.

Once I saw them open with a jaunty trundle through 'A White Sport Coat & a Pink Carnation' when they could have just launched into Sam and blown everyone away.

Keeping the SST theme, Black Flag and Hüsker Dü were well known for filling their setlists with new songs and works in progress, IIRC.

famously a big problem for Mike Doughty who says he found it triggering

tbf I kind of get it from the fans perspective - that Stewart Copeland/Adrian Belew supergroup from a few years back would play some old Police/King Crimson/Belew solo tunes but most of the set was from the studio album. which is fine, I mean I thought that album was pretty good and obviously what the band was formed to play, but also they were good enough to replicate it pretty much note-for-note. but hearing Copleand fill Bruford's shoes or Belew imitate Sting, or even Mark King doing a vocal that's a completely new take on a Police song, that shit was super cool