SHOULD BANDS STOP PLAYING THEIR ALBUMS LIVE IN THEIR ENTIRETY?
How are we feeling about this current trend of bands playing entire albums live? I remember when Slayer first did it with Reign in Blood, it seemed pretty awesome; a year or two later Metallica did it with Master of Puppets, and even though it was a pretty obvious attempt to sell fans on the idea that ‘Tallica could still rock, I’d be lying if I said that Vince and I didn’t love every minute when we saw them do it at Download in 2006. But since then it seems like every band in the fucking world has done it or is about to do it (hell, Slayer are about to do it for the second time). So this a really awesome idea that we should all embrace, or metal’s answer to 3D movies – a soon-to-be-forgotten gimmick meant only to bolster flagging ticket sales?
Former Metal Edge editor-in-chief and current MSN blogger wrote an interesting editorial this week in which he weighs in, asserting that it needs to stop. And he makes some valid points:
I don’t want to pay exorbitant ticket prices (and ticket prices have gotten fucking exorbitant) to see a band I like play an album I own in its entirety. A good set list is an art form in itself. Bands have to go through their catalog, decide how many new songs they can play without losing the crowd’s interest, then figure out a sequence that will get fans headbanging, maybe allow for a short rest break mid-set, then get them amped up again for a big finale and a wild, explosive encore. It requires real thought, and a knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses as a band, as songwriters, and as performers. Simply choosing to play a whole album removes the necessity for thought. It also takes a burden off the audience. Fans don’t need to worry about hearing a song they might not already know, or wait in suspense to see what the musicians will offer next. They can listen to the CD on the car ride to the gig, then compare what they just heard with what they hear from the stage. It’s lazy, thoughtless, and frankly insulting. It reduces the band to a jukebox, no less than if they’d taken the stage and said “We’re gonna play nothing but requests tonight. We haven’t planned a set—just tell us what you want to hear.” There’s no art to it.
I agree with Freeman that there’s an art to creating a perfect setlist, although I think he’s taking it too far to shoot down the “all request” idea – I’ve seen some bands do that, and I gotta say, it was a lot of fun. Still, Freeman may be right; it may be time for this trend to die.
Read the rest of Freeman’s thoughts on the subject here, then weigh in with your own opinion below.
-AR
