Jump to content

Recommended Posts

One's not enough anywhere (although I do find myself with the lols when Jobby talks about driving to Germany for a chance at last minute tickets and I realized they're likely as close to Germany as I am to Chicago, which is only two states away.)

 

It's just bonkers that they're doing a ton of fan favorite songs for a tiny handful of fans and using it as an excuse to not play ONE of those songs at their actual gigs that more fans have a prayer of going to.

The thought process behind this is more than a bit crazy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I say both because the US is huge and one isn't enough, and LA is the next logical place because its home.

 

Tbf they’ve only ever tended to skim the surface when it comes to touring the US anyway so I’m not sure that’s something they’d take into account, and like Serpent says, the difference between one and two gigs when they’re like 1k capacity is pretty miniscule for just about any country’s fanbase.

 

Not impossible though, I remember they really enjoyed the Mayan and Webster Hall shows so that could encourage them to do 2, I’d just be surprised.

 

One's not enough anywhere (although I do find myself with the lols when Jobby talks about driving to Germany for a chance at last minute tickets and I realized they're likely as close to Germany as I am to Chicago, which is only two states away.)

 

Yeah, it sounds worse than it is :chuckle: haven’t checked the prices but I’m sure I could find something reeeasonably cheap, doubt I’d do it without finding out if other people have had success w/ it first though

 

It's just bonkers that they're doing a ton of fan favorite songs for a tiny handful of fans and using it as an excuse to not play ONE of those songs at their actual gigs that more fans have a prayer of going to.

The thought process behind this is more than a bit crazy.

 

T’is a bit confusing to drive that separation between casual fans and hardcore fans even wider when you want as active an audience as possible like Muse. Makes you worry somewhat for their tours going forward - like, at what point do only a small minority of hardcore fans bother with big gigs at all if they’re told the songs they want are pretty much exclusive to these club/theatre shows? I know some peeps took that step a while ago and the crowd atmosphere’s already taken a hit from it over the years.

 

Wonder if it’s the first step towards doing that more regular big gig/little gig format on main tours. It’ll probs only be big city stops and way more diluted (maybe picking ~4 of a top 5) but I guess it’d at least bring some form of it to more people.

Edited by Jobby
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Transport definitely makes it more difficult outside Europe but anywhere, the demand is so great for these kinds of concerts. Even now for the Drones era there's been like... 3 in mainland Europe, 2 in the US which have also been the only ones outside Europe (maybe we'll throw Zepp in there), and the rest were in the UK (I think one in Ireland?).

 

One in Australia would be like having 2 in the US. The rest of the American continent nations don't have anything. If Chicago is bad if you're in Florida it's even worse if you're in Chile. There was going to be that one in South America in 2014 that was canceled because Matt's voice was fucked and there was never a makeup.

 

There's not nearly enough of these shows, but they go on a world tour for a reason. It gives the fans a chance to see the band within reasonable proximity in a capacity that can hopefully fit everyone. It's baffling their attitude is moving towards using the world tour as a promotional tour and using these small sporadic shows as the real fan pleasers. They were really onto something back in 2013. Even a bit in the recent concerts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And just mix it up and make it interesting too. In the US shows when they put Take A Bow in the middle of the "boring" section it completely changed the flow of the concert to something more energetic. They've become so afraid to loosen up at anything larger than a ~1k venue.

 

And the more they do what they do at the big concerts the more the audience they pick up will be the kind that don't move. They'll be making their own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'm one of the 2 fans of RHCP on this forum but I think that most bands should structure their sets like them (there's really only one Pearl Jam so that's asking too much). Radiohead rotates as much as RHCP but sometimes their shows are full of hits and sometimes they don't have any so it's not balanced (still MILES better than Muse)

 

In spoiler there're last 2 setlists. They played 30 different songs in 2 shows, they "somehow" managed to play some new songs, hits, some 35 years old stuff, covers of Iggy Pop and Stevie Wonder and different fan favorites. Setlists are totally different but both have the same "weight" and you can never see those arguments like we have regularly here about which city/country got fleeced :LOL:

 

Muse kinda did that during Drones festival tour in 2015 but they stopped completely during the regular tour and I really think that shouldn't be a thing for a high level musicians like them

 

 

Intro Jam

Can't Stop

Snow ((Hey Oh))

Otherside

Dark Necessities

Menina mulher da pele preta (Jorge Ben Jor cover) (Josh solo)

Sick Love

Nevermind

Californication

Aeroplane

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Hump De Bump

The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie

Pea (Flea solo)

Higher Ground

Under the Bridge

By the Way

 

Goodbye Angels

Give It Away

 

Intro Jam

Can't Stop

Dani California

Scar Tissue

Dark Necessities

Strip My Mind

I Wanna Be Your Dog

Right on Time

Go Robot

Californication

Don't Forget Me

If

Hump De Bump

Suck My Kiss

Soul to Squeeze

By the Way

 

Lover, You Should've Come Over (Josh solo)

Goodbye Angels

Give It Away

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah im the other fan :LOL:

 

RHCP are leagues ahead of anyone else when it comes to setlists, I saw them in 2016 and they played 10 different songs for night #2. I don't follow Pearl Jam but i heard they do the same.

 

Went to 2 Muse shows knowing exactly what i was going to get and it took some of the fun tbh, even though i must say jumping around with drunk brits during Psycho was definitely the best moment i had at a gig. The charm of festivals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed my last gig, but I also got TaB and B&H, there was a stretch of Hysteria/BH/PiB/SS that was stellar, and it was at fucking Red Rocks.

And still, for a lot of the second half of the set, I was enjoying the scenery more than I was paying attention to the gig. I was a little worried that I'd overhyped the venue too much throughout my life, but it was amazing. And even then, we only went to the gig because we happened to be taking vacation there at that time, and only had to leave one day early to get there.

 

I certainly don't regret going (especially because it was part of a week long vacation that was also amazing and I didn't go just for a gig,) but I also got really lucky with the set... and it still wasn't THAT crazy.

And I can honestly say I don't feel like it would be worth going out of my way to see the band any longer, since they're certainly not going to come to my city.

 

And that just feels kind of sad, honestly. Hearing them say that gigs aren't for their actual fans who listen to their music and not just the radio, that just seems like, yeah, that's not something you really hear bands say a lot. Not a normal attitude.

 

And one or two gigs, a couple thousand fans in massive areas aren't going to make up for that. It's insane to think that that's enough for their fans, as if a fraction of them would ever have an opportunity to go to one of them.

Edited by SerpentSatellite
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A gig can be predictable and still amazing, and unpredictable but meh. Variety or rotation only starts to become a factor if you’re actively following a band to multiple dates imo and, even then, a lack of it should feel cancelled out if the performance is captivating enough. A lot of the Abso Tour is pretty much a testament to that (though Muse have never really been ones to massively rotate anyway).

 

I think what leads people to feel like that’s a big issue is a combo of:

 

- Lack of balance in individual sets and consistency over a whole tour

- Sometimes distracting productions that can stop you from getting drawn into the performance and disconnect the audience from the band

- The band’s tendencies towards more ‘scripted’ and by-the-numbers performances because of said heavy production

- Simple over-exposure, since just about every gig gets filmed or even live streamed nowadays

Edited by Jobby
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of bands play almost the same sets everywhere with one or two variations. People bring up acts like Radiohead that do a ton of mixing up but in my own experiences at least they're a real exception.

 

If the show is predictable because it's what you know they played the night before that's kinda on you. I do think we put too much blame on Muse for it.

 

Now they really should stop rehearsing their jams because those will sound rehearsed even if it's your first time hearing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I accepted that Muse won’t rotate their set that much a few years ago, and they’re not alone in that. But the fact that they’re doing sets with less songs than they did back when hey had three albums is ridiculous. But now that Matt has admitted that his voice is the reason, maybe it’s time to...oh I dunno...do some cardio?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I rarely see a band enough times to make "rotating" setlists a concern of mine. And the one I have seen a ton in a short period of time does little rotating, but puts enough sincerity and spontaneity in the performance that I haven't gotten bored of it.

That's also sorely lacking with Muse, unfortunately, and it's gotten a lot worse over the years.

Red Rocks was a good gig, but the performances didn't hold a candle to the T2L tour, imo.

 

There's also the unfortunate fact that I've found Muse's singles rather offputting for the most part, since they're a band with enough diversity that they're not representative of their body of work, or even the album they're on. At least the singles the US gets, and they keep in their sets. The ones I do like, like DI, get removed during their own album cycle...

 

There's only so many times I can see Starlight, Uprising, Madness, SMBH, etc considering I never cared for them in the first place, and the band like Tjet said, is cutting down their set lists in addition to removing anything that could be considered old or a "deep cut" so you're kind of just left with the chaff. Especially in the US.

 

I guess my point isn't that they need to rotate songs during the same tour, but that if they're playing basically the same set album cycle after album cycle, there's no amount of window dressing that's going to class that up for me.

That said, they played a lot of new stuff on the Drones tour, and I wish I got to see that with a better stage set up, because the low energy 360 deal was a vibe killer.

 

And that playing these special "for the real fans" gigs, and then doing so few of them with tickets that are impossible to get ahold of, seems to just make me more angry with the whole thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A gig can be predictable and still amazing, and unpredictable but meh. Variety or rotation only starts to become a factor if you’re actively following a band to multiple dates imo and, even then, a lack of it should feel cancelled out if the performance is captivating enough. A lot of the Abso Tour is pretty much a testament to that (though Muse have never really been ones to massively rotate anyway).

 

I think what leads people to feel like that’s a big issue is a combo of:

 

- Lack of balance in individual sets and consistency over a whole tour

- Sometimes distracting productions that can stop you from getting drawn into the performance and disconnect the audience from the band

- The band’s tendencies towards more ‘scripted’ and by-the-numbers performances because of said heavy production

- Simple over-exposure, since just about every gig gets filmed or even live streamed nowadays

 

Nah man, im telling you not having a clue what the next song is going to be adds a lot of fun to the show, that's one of the reasons i saw RHCP 3 times and would even consider travelling to see them, something i wouldn't do with Muse right now... even though im one of those people who think they get far too much shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nah man, im telling you not having a clue what the next song is going to be adds a lot of fun to the show, that's one of the reasons i saw RHCP 3 times and would even consider travelling to see them, something i wouldn't do with Muse right now... even though im one of those people who think they get far too much shit.

 

I think variety across a whole tour is a good thing, as long as you keep it consistent and don’t reserve it for certain places/randomly go mad then go back to playing a standard set the next day. It’s nice to see a band embrace their discography and it’s a bonus for any fans travelling to multiple gigs. I just think it’s below a fair few things in the ‘what makes a good gig’ checklist and don’t think it’s a pressing issue for Muse at allll. Like I said before, they’ve never really been a band to rotate much but they used to be considered one of, if not the best live band around for years.

 

Bump up the performances to a more consistent level, cut down on playback, keep the productions slightly less alienating/restrictive and strike the right balance between pop/rock and casual/hardcore songs and I don’t think many people would be moaning about variety tbh (well, we’ll always moan about something but, y’know, reasonably speaking).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think variety across a whole tour is a good thing, as long as you keep it consistent and don’t reserve it for certain places/randomly go mad then go back to playing a standard set the next day. It’s nice to see a band embrace their discography and it’s a bonus for any fans travelling to multiple gigs. I just think it’s below a fair few things in the ‘what makes a good gig’ checklist and don’t think it’s a pressing issue for Muse at allll. Like I said before, they’ve never really been a band to rotate much but they used to be considered one of, if not the best live band around for years.

 

Bump up the performances to a more consistent level, cut down on playback, keep the productions slightly less alienating/restrictive and strike the right balance between pop/rock and casual/hardcore songs and I don’t think many people would be moaning about variety tbh (well, we’ll always moan about something but, y’know, reasonably speaking).

 

I second that. Does anyone think they'll be a tour as big as unsustainable again?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think a band should ever tailor their setlists to fans who travel to see multiple shows. They're a vast minority of attendees, and really don't deserve anything special; having more money and free time doesn't make you a better fan than someone else.

 

I always thought it was pretty hilarious that most of the people bitching at how "entitled" fans are for wanting one damn rarity at their gig were typically the same fans that went to dozens of gigs a tour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My thing with Muse’s rotation is that the arena sets for The Resistance and early Drones gigs just weren’t very good and then on The Resistance tour you’d get gigs with MK Ultra instead of Unintended and Cave for Feeling Good, those two changes dramatically change the vibe of the show. It’s about balance as well as designing a tour leg setlist to not be super predictable from the start

Edited by Mozza
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Apparently Dom confirmed Showbiz for the Pa'l Norte gig tonight.

Let's see if they'll fulfill their promise, but of course we probably won't see any other surprises regarding the setlist.

 

Honestly never thought they’d bring Showbiz back this much, that’ll be it’s 6th play in 17 gigs (6 in 10 outside the US). Feels weird.

 

I really hope it continues! :love:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...