Bands Touring Old Albums: thumbs down

Roger Waters did it once before at least, in Berlin after the wall fell.

have pink floyd really not played lots of songs from the wall live lots of times?

I really wouldnt expect you to

bands touring and playing an album in its entirety in order even when its new out isnt a normal thing and so the fact that they havent done so before doesnt make it any the less cynical if they do it 10, 20, 30 years later

what I'm saying is its the new way for bands to squeeze out a bit of cash from the nostalgia circuit without having to go through the trouble of splitting up and making shit solo records for a few years.
but its still just nostalgia and nostalgia creates precisely no interesting new music, and should be discouraged.

I've only ever seen this once. Springsteen closing out giants stadium last year, I saw the last two shows, when he did born to run one night, and then born in the usa the last night. Both were bookended by boatloads of other songs though. I thought it was...okay. Bit weird to have this strange shift in the middle of the show like 'hey, we're doing *this* now.' and then right back to the regular stuff. (Also weird to hear thunder road and born to run in the middle of the set.)

Wake me when Noel decides to tour standing on the shoulder of giants. Put yer money where yer mouth is, indeed.

still that I assume is him just doing something different that may or not have worked rather that selling an entire tour on the basis of nostalgia for an old album, like say the pixies breathing a bit of life into their reunion by doing the doolittle tour last years INSTEAD OF MAKING A NEW ALBUM AND TOURING THAT! did he even announce it?

"did he even announce it?"

Yeah, he did, about 2 weeks before the show. And there was a big kerfuffle with the Boss nerds about it, too. Partially because a lot of people felt it was a money grab (since tickets weren't selling great) and partly because he was doing different albums over different nights. He ended doing this over the entire tour last year, and eventually did all of his old e street band albums. Pretty cool, but still...

well. thats what it is promoters have I suppose cottoned on that theres money to be milked from this
but no new music comes from it.

incidentally, cheapest tickets for Roger Waters doing a set of pink floyd songs is £66.50, which will be the awful ones in the top tier, so £83.50 for a reasonable seat.
want to see flaming lips play the soft bulletin? £43.50
(seeing them on tour when it came out they were supporting mercury rev and it was probably a tenner)
there are festivals cheaper than that. theres a lot of money to be milked from this variant of nostalgia

I'm with Mr David on this, but then part of me thinks, i would give my left bollock to hear BRMC play 'Howl' from start to finish, but then that's just because i associate that tour with them being at their peak.

On the bill with Flaming Lips is Dinosaur Jr and Deerhoof, I paid £30 to see The Flaming Lips at the Troxy last year, I paid £23 to see Dinosaur Jr at Shepherds Bush last year and i paid £15 to see Deerhoof at the Scala last year, so thats close to £70, £43.50 for 3 bands who I have seen on many occasions and would generally pay to see whenever they come here is fine with me, so what if they're all playing one album, its just a bit of fun, good luck to them, they're not exactly raking it in selling records anymore and its not as if all 3 of those bands aren't creative anyway and won't be recording new albums, same with other bands I've seen do this, I saw Sonic Youth do Daydream Nation in full 2 nights in a row, last time I saw them they played all but one song from their new album and hardly any old stuff.

All this 'its stifling creativity' is bollocks, and so what if they are using it as a cash cow, what is wrong with earning some money, especially bands like the Flaming Lips who obviously put a shit load of effort and money into their live shows and I bet they don't make as much money as a regular four piece touring band, it's one night in a year or maybe two or three where they're playing a one off gig of an album in full and people pay to go and see it and they enjoy it, so what? I doubt the month Sonic Youth spent doing a handful of Daydream Nation shows really stifled their creativity and in fact I bet some of the revenue they probably earned from that tour went into funding some of their latest album in some way.

Chrissie made a similar post a month or so back as you David. I can totally see where you are coming from & I agree with certain points raised but on the whole I think I disagree.

Kev has beat me to the Flaming Lips defending, that gig is not being billed specifically as a Lips gig, its more of a ATP presents with 3 bands with the Lips topping the bill. As for Waters 'Wall' tour, I can't ever defend somebody charging that much but of course it's gonna be much more expensive than a usual Waters tour, the amount of money put into something like putting a show like that on must be pretty ridiculous, it's more than just a gig, it's a show.
The Jesus & Mary Chain played Brixton Academy a ton of times throughout their career, they returned to play just a single night there which actually wasn't sold out despite being a friday night & having support from Evan Dando & The Horrors. Which did surprise me soon as how big and successful MBV's tour was, though even you was excited & payed for nostalgia on that occasion knowing they would only be playing the old material & almost all of Loveless.

Those are just a few points I wanted to make but most of all my stance on it is I'm really fucking glad I've had the opportunity to see bands do this kinda shows. Whenever I see the Flaming Lips it's usually 3/4 from their latest album then the exact SAME hits every single time, I'll finally see a flaming lips show that is totally different to any other time I'll see them. I'd much rather see a band like The Charlatans do some friendly which I wasn't old enough to be into when it was released then see them perform a few new tracks then north country boy and one to another for the 2000th time, it's just something different

I can't argue that bands should rather look forward than backwards but bands reforming have let me see some bands I never thought I'd have the chance to see (pixies, j&mc, MBV, Vaselines, Pavement & so on) & they've all been great & gave nostalgic sets which I'd of never of had the chance to witness had they not put the shows on.

It is definitely the IN thing to play old albums in full & I hate to say things like this because it feels so wrong when talking about music but it's a business, it puts bums on seats & it's giving the consumers what they want right now. I & most other people on this board probably won't be buying the next Oasis album when they reform but when they announce they are doing Definitely Maybe + B-sides I an assure you most people will be in a panic to get the tickets.

David, would you not grab a ticket for The Smiths performing The Queen Is Dead at the manc Apollo?

We could of done (or could do) a For * against argument on the blog about this topic, david & chrissie vs kev & me.

OH AND IM SEEING THE PHONICS DO WORD GETS AROUND LIVE, SUCK IT UP LOSERS

haha, also didn't we pay £85 to see Neil Young? I went both nights too, and fell asleep!

I do get the point David is making, I just don't really care, why is it so horrible for bands to make money? The fans want it, its not like they're ripping them off, they get what they want, the band makes some cash, everyone is happy, its not like these bands are doing mamoth U2 style 2 year tours of particular albums is it, they're usually a handful of gigs, fans are willing to pay, everyones a winner.

Pixies doing Doolittle and Public Enemy doing Nation of Millions, both at Brixton, are two of best atmospheres a gigs I've ever felt at a gig, especially Public Enemy, that crowd was amazing and I felt sick as a dog that day.

NEVER. well thats an easy question to answer like that since it wouldnt happen, but if that gig was happening hypothetically its already fairly clear how it'd come about, first off the smiths would reform and do their tour, then all the festivals, then do this every summer for a few years ago till interest waned a bit, then BOOM here we go, The Queen Is Dead tour.

I would however pay up to £100 to see The National Front Disco Tour

Yea the ATP Lips thing is a bit of a one off. Last week at the NY ATP, the Friday was pretty much dedicated to older bands doing complete records.

I once saw Placebo doing Meds in its entirety before it was released. Now, that was boring.

Isn't it an ATP thing in general, wasn't it a concept of theirs to start with, I've been to a few of these gigs, most of the handful of these things I've seen have been part of the ATP series that they do

I dont know if they created it but they've definitely embraced it. Literally the Friday thats what the entire day consisted of, bands doing full records.

The first time I ever really remember it was maybe 5 years ago, it was an ATP thing, The Stooges did Fun House in full one night and Dinosaur Jr did You're Living All Over Me another night