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Why so little variety when playing live?
18 replies
animalkingdom said on February 8, 2004 21:25:
Are there any David Bowie fans around here except for Mr Gessle himself?
I saw Bowie live some time ago and ever since my passion for him has gone deeper and deeper. Lately I’ve been very keen on checking out his setlists from the “A Reality Tour” which seems to have been a thrill for both the band and the audiences. THE SHOW IS DIFFERENT EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!
So now that I thought about it, why has Roxette been so very dull when it comes to setlists at their concerts? For instance, the “Room Service Tour” was pretty much the same from night to night...Sometimes you got “Real Sugar” or “Church Of Your Heart” in there, sometimes you didn’t...
Songs such as “The Look”, “Dressed For Success”, “Dangerous” and “Listen To Your Heart” have been played ever since 1988; “Joyride”, “Fading Like A Flower” and “The Big L.” have been included since the “Join The Joyride Tour”.
I mean that just to see Roxette play live someday again would be awesome but some refreshing numbers would guarantee a night to remember. And just for the record, Bowie’s shows have been quite hi-tech with video screens and special lighting to match each of the songs...He’s even had an 11-song encore within the total 35-song-long show in the States.
*still dreaming about hearing “So Far Away”, “Fingertips”, “I’m Sorry”, “I Call Your Name”, “I Remember You” and “Beautiful Things”... *
Burke said on February 8, 2004 22:34:
I can only agree, Juma. I think it’s actually a bit odd that Roxette tend to play the same songs over and over again. Really, most of the old successful singles have been played way too often.
joyrider said on February 8, 2004 23:02:
i often thought this too but on the other hand, wouldn’t you miss something if they didn’t play the look, joyride, sleeping in my car, it must have been love and listen to your heart? for instance in austria, the media called the room service tour THE GREATEST HITS TOUR ... i guess if there is a next album with some “killer songs” and successful chart positions they will play the whole new album and of course their very greatest hits but i don’t think we will hear so far away or fingertips live someday. doubtless i was very surprised about hotblooded live in 2001 ... it has been just amazing but why did they play this old track again? hopefully roxette will tour again - this is my first priority ...
animalkingdom said on February 9, 2004 09:49:
@ joyrider
I’m not saying they should cut off all the greatest hits - just some of them. If they play “Dangerous”, do they really have to play “Dressed For Success” too? Or “Fading Like A Flower” AND “Spending My Time”? I for one, love surprises and I must admit that the hits don’t work if you get all of them in a row...For instance, “Room Service Tour” had a part where “FLAF” was followed by “SMT” which was again followed by “Dangerous” and then came “SIMC”...
animalkingdom said on February 9, 2004 10:42:
@ joyrider (again)
By the way, they were thinking about playing “So Far Away” during the previous tour but I guess they rather played “Spending My Time” or “Listen To Your Heart” instead...Also Clarence Öfwerman tried to persuade Per & Marie to go ahead with “I Remember You”... :)
tevensso (moderator) said on February 9, 2004 11:06:
Per is of the slightly strange opinion that the fans (us) should get to hear the same songs at different concerts. Before återtåget he had plans to play a totally different setlist every night, but changed it to the VERY rigid setlist they finally played. I think his comment was something like “The fans pay to hear this and I don’t want to cheat them by playing different songs at another concert they can’t see.” Weird indeed... (In my opinion.)
Edu82 said on February 9, 2004 12:44:
They should change their setlist every night. Bruce Springsteen does it and every concert is different. I have seen him 3 times and 3 concerts were totally different!!! Roxette should do it but I think they are too lazy to do it.
flower said on February 9, 2004 12:58:
Change every night because of what?
So we can read endless discussions of which night was better and why. What songs they played where and Oh I’m so Sorry I didn’t go and watch five concerts.
It ’ll all end up like all complaints about new compilationalbums and Roxette trying to pull as much money out of our pockets as possible ’cause some of us will feel the need to attend every concert, afraid to miss something special.
No, just one setlist will do fine. (and when playing the same over and over again is much easier so they can concentrate on the audience instead of which song to play next)
animalkingdom said on February 9, 2004 16:48:
“some of us will feel the need to attend every concert, afraid to miss something special.”
Isn’t that just ridiculous? I think there are people who can’t miss one single show, already! This way these hc fans would get more for their money, too!
“No, just one setlist will do fine. (and when playing the same over and over again is much easier so they can concentrate on the audience instead of which song to play next)”
Hehe, I bet Roxette are rather tired in the middle of the tour for having the same show every friggin night, too! So why wouldn’t they change it?
And what’s there to concentrate on the audience? In which city they get the loudest cheers for the dreadful “The Big L.”? People who just go and see artists in their concerts would possibly like to see more in Roxette than just a band behind “The Look” and “It Must Have Been Love”. This time I think, the critics agree w/ me!
pelu said on February 9, 2004 17:27:
But schould the conserts be “designed” for the 200 hardcore fans, or the rest of the audience? most of the people are just attending one show. Last summer on the Mazarin tour there were 180 000 that watched it. maybe 50 persons that looked at all shows? I saw half of them, and Im pleased thet played the same songs every night.
Ferdan said on February 9, 2004 17:50:
If songs like Big L are played all over again it means there hasn’t been any growth at all....
I´m not saying musically, they have way better songs to play live... in fact, their set list is not fan oriented if it contains songs that have been played over a thousand times.
Anyway, I get bored with Dressed for success, big l, and maybe joyride live.
ATLTK said on February 9, 2004 18:24:
then tev: tell that to per that we dont want to hear same songs on every show
bandquitter said on February 10, 2004 16:06:
Jefferson, View from a hill, Fool, Half a woman half a shadow (what a perfect chorus!) are the tracks that are ment to be played live. And though ages passed since Room Service tour, I still feel so sorry not having heard these traxs live.
roxtexanet said on February 10, 2004 19:08:
As a fan, I wish they’d mix up the set-list from night to night, too (the Indigo girls play about half of their set-list at every show on a given tour, and choose from a huge ’pool’ of songs for the rest of them... it’s great, as a fan!). But I hadn’t even thought about the fact that there would be fans who would be pissed if other audiences got songs that weren’t played at their show and vice-versa. I think it’s almost certain that somebody would jump on the “they just want more of our money” bandwagon (of course they want more of your money - if they don’t make money for their label, they’ll be out of a record contract) if they changed the songs from night to night. But more importantly, I really think it has to do with the fact that - once again - not everything Roxette do is done with the fans in mind. They need to consider that the majority of people attending any one show are likely just casual fans who are going to be very disappointed if they play (what is to them) unknown songs instead of hits. I would love nothing more than to go to a Roxette concert and hear exclusively songs they’ve never played live before, but I can’t say I would enjoy that if I went to, say, a Cranberries concert or a Melissa Etheridge concert... I’m just casual fans of these artists, and if I’m at their show, and want to hear the songs I know and love. So, I can really see it from both sides, and I think Roxette do alright with presenting a sort of compromise... last time they played “Queen of Rain,” “Little Girl,” “Waiting for the Rain,” etc. for the fans, but it would have been nice if they had substituted different songs for these three each night... interesting discussion, anyway.
animalkingdom said on February 10, 2004 20:51:
“it would have been nice if they had substituted different songs for these three each night”
Exactly! Furthermore, it would’ve been nicer if they had done it to many more songs too!
“Casual fans” would get their hits - but NOT ALL of them (for god’s sake!) - and fans some fab surprises. Also, this way the concerts would be a true experience for all cuz if the setlist always remained the same there’s nothing really to look forward to since you know what’s gonna come next (you know, most of us just can’t stay away from sites like TDR...).
For example, I think it’s completely logic to cut off one from these “similar” songs:
Dressed For Success // Dangerous
It Must Have Been Love // Listen To Your Heart
Joyride // The Big L.
Fading Like A Flower // Spending My Time
Anyone // Milk And Toast And Honey (which sucked live, anyway)
Now, there would be plenty place for completely new songs (on CBBTour they played 8 from the current album; on RSTour just 3 or 4), and the forgotten songs. And they don’t necessarily have to be plain album tracks...There are singles they never performed (Vulnerable, June Afternoon, She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Salvation) and songs that have gained momentum though they were never officially released (I’m Sorry, I Don’t Want To Get Hurt).
roxtexanet said on February 10, 2004 21:26:
But I think you’re hitting on the difficulty Per and Marie face when putting together a setlist... you CAN’T cut “Joyride” on some shows, or skip “It Must Have Been Love”... as sick as we all are of hearing them live, they HAVE to be in the show. And there are a lot more like that, too. The problem is that they’ve got too many hits from early on in their career that the casual fan expects to hear at a Roxette show. Of course, we (the hardcore fans!) expect to hear the newer releases, and P&M probably enjoy playing the newer songs too, rather than playing IMHBL for the thousandth time. I think they should do more showcases, just for the fans, to play the lesser known favourites we want to hear, and save IMHBL, “The Look” and LTYH, etc. for the proper tours. Then everyone wins (if you can get to one of the cities lucky enough to get showcases, that is (-: ).
jetjet said on February 12, 2004 19:19:
We could try to have some influence by making our own setlist before the next tour (if there will be any). We can all make a list of our 10 do’s and 10 dont’s. At the end we can make 2 overall top 10s of it and send it to Per & Marie. Maybe they listen if we have a lot of votes..
HummingBird said on February 8, 2004 22:33:
I guess it’s a matter of personal taste (play things the way you get used to it or not)...what I’m usually disappointed about is the small-talk in between songs, I’d love just to hear them chatting away a bit, but it’s almost always the same... with other bands I usually realize how much more personal it gets when they talk to the audience...it’s probably difficult with big audiences though, I’ve seen too many club-size shows lately.