My rant about concert setlists

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I suppose the real question is would the average fan not go if they knew they or she was not singing a few of her hits. Let's hope we find out!

First off, your average concertgoer doesn't know jack**** about what the band is going to play before the band plays it. Sure, we're all online and checking The Ledge and know what the setlist is the day after the first show of the tour. But the people that you're so worried about disappointing: They see an ad in the paper that Fleetwood Mac is coming to town, think, "Hey, I like a few of their songs from the radio and from college," buy a couple tickets from themselves and their spouse, and then don't give Fleetwood Mac a second thought until the day of the show.

And even if there were a full-page ad in the paper saying, "STEVIE REFUSES TO PLAY LANDSLIDE ON THIS TOUR," a lot of people would still have no idea, because your average concertgoer doesn't pay attention. They're just going out for a fun evening, as David said.

Springsteen's current tour: Everywhere this tour went on sale, there were articles in the newspapers about how this was a solo acoustic tour, not a full E Street band tour, and Bruce wasn't going to be playing many of the hits. And yet, in Grand Rapids, there was this couple next to me talking about how they had know idea when they bought their tickets, they thought this was going to be a big rock show, is he going to play "Born To Run?"

So your average joe don't know and don't really care. And even if he did know, I doubt the presence or absence of two or three songs would be a deal-breaker on whether he bought a ticket. "Oh gee, she's gonna do Sara and Rhiannon and Silver Springs, but not Dreams or Gypsy? The hell with that, I'm not going." No way.