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Jack Fear: ...unless you're the type who shouts out requests when you go to a live show, assuming in your arrogance that you can devise a better set list than the band can. If that's the case, there's no hope for you.
Though I understand and respect what Jack is getting at, particularly in the context of the Godspeed You Black Emperor thread, but I think it should be said that there are a LOT of bands out there who aren't very good with coming up with a good setlist for themselves. That's no excuse for the audience to be rude, of course. There's just so many bands that, to me, seem to have no idea how to play a set for their audience which gives the audience what they paid for along with a decent chunk of time set aside for challenging that audience and/or letting the band induldge themselves. It's a balance, and I think most everyone can do it if they think about it.
I'm a setlist freak. I have been for a very long time now. I obsess about running orders of records and concerts in a way that I think some might find eccentric at best, and sort of unhealthy at worst. I'm interested in how a lot of different types of musical acts put together sets, all the different methods and habits that different folks have. I find it utterly fascinating, and I've made a habit of following different websites that show updated night-by-night setlists of bands, a lot of whom I'm only marginally interested in musically, just because I love seeing the changes made in real time, day to day.
As someone who writes music himself, but does not perform, I think a lot about what I'd want to do myself, under both ideal or impaired conditions. I think about this a lot. I've already stated my ideal - to balance pleasing the crowd and pleasing myself - but I know that I'd want to experiment with every permutation I could think of, just for the fun of it. Improvised sets, rigorous moment-by-moment sets which do not vary night to night, sets in which songs rotate night to night, multiples sets with breaks a la bar bands and jam bands, anything.
Anyway...enough about my obsessive compulsive behavior. What do you think about setlists? Do you care much about them? Do you have any philosophies about them? If you are or have been a performer, what have you tried? What's worked, what's failed? What bands do you think are good with coming up with good sets, which bands are terrible? Should a performer try to satisfy the audience as much as possible, or should it be about the performer's whims? Is the very concept of planning out a set anathema to you? |
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