My favorite Band without a doubt is The Rolling Stones.

That being said my favorite musical artist is Neil Young.

I had the great pleasure to see Neil both nights in Denver last month and will get the opportunity to see two of his shows in New York Dec 15 & 16. The "core"setlists for the shows so far have been similar but he is plaing an assortment of rarely or never played songs (Try, Sultan, Kansas) that have really been cool. It is a great time to be a Neil fan. I wish The Stones would throw a few more bones to us hard core fans.

The ticket sales have been fan friendly with presale info being emailed and no fan club membership fee crap.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-04 22:36 by Rialb.

This is an example of how the Stones used to present a show that wasnt reliant' on warhorses, even if it featured plenty of them

Setlist from the opening night of the Voodoo Lounge tour, Washington DC 1.8.94

Not Fade Away/Undercover Of The Night/Tumbling Dice/Live With Me/
You Got Me Rocking/Rocks Off/Sparks Will Fly/Shattered/Satisfaction/
Beast Of Burden/Memory Motel/Out Of Tears/All Down The Line/Hot Stuff/
I Can’t Get Next To You/Band introduction/Brand New Car/Honky Tonk
Women/Before They Make Me Run/The Worst/Love Is Strong/Monkey Man/
I Go Wild/Start Me Up/It’s Only Rock’n Roll/Street Fighting Man/Brown
Sugar/Jumping Jack Flash)

just to summarise that :

27 songs
7 songs from their #1 album which had just been released 3 weeks earlier
1 unreleased cover which hadnt been played on tour before (Cant get next to you)
2 songs from their back catalogue which had NEVER been performed previously (Monkey Man, Memory Motel)
A big hit used to open the show - but a song that they hadnt played live for 28 years
'Live with me' back in the set for the first time in 21 years.
'Shattered' back in the set for the first time since 1982 (apart from the aborted one off performance in Philly in '89)
'Rocks Off'back in the show for the first time in 21 years (apart from one or two appearances in 1975)
First 'All down the line' since 1981
first performance of 'Hot Stuff' since the 1977 El Mocambo shows.
Relatively imaginative pacing ('satisfaction'
a third of the way into the show, 3 non warhorses in the final third)
First US performance of Street Fighting man since '78 (apart from, i think, a couple of early appearances in 1981)
theres about 7 songs there that we would now known as warhorses - a quarter of the show - and they were able to drop SFTD, YCAGWYW and Miss You

It admittedly was only their second tour since the early 80's, but (like the '78, 81 and 89 tours before it), content-wise, its basically a fresh show, choc-full of songs that they either hadnt played before or which hadnt been played in a very long time. They continued to keep it similarly fresh (if a little shorter) for the rest of that tour.

Admittedly, its unrealistic to expect a Stones show these days to feature 27 songs, but it certainly shows that they can pull off a setlist where the warhorses only make up 25% of the songs played and where they can dip into that marvellous catalogue of songs with great results.

That tour turned out to be the most successful of all time (its only inflated ticket prices which have seen subsequent tours like ABB outgross it) and yet it was done by a band who had been making records for 32 years, who were mostly in their 50's, but who were still keen to push themselves as a creative and evolving act.

Now, had we all had the internet back then and read that opening night setlist - would we have complained that there werent enough old songs and opted out of buying tickets? I dont think so.

Gazza Wrote: This is an example of how the Stones used to present a show that wasnt reliant' on warhorses, even if it featured plenty of them

Setlist from the opening night of the Voodoo Lounge tour, Washington DC 1.8.94

Not Fade Away / Undercover Of The Night / Tumbling Dice / Live With Me / You Got Me Rocking / Rocks Off/Sparks Will Fly / Shattered/Satisfaction / Beast Of Burden / Memory Motel/Out Of Tears / All Down The Line / Hot Stuff / Can’t Get Next To You / Band introduction / Brand New Car/Honky Tonk Women / Before They Make Me
Run/The Worst / Love Is Strong / Monkey Man / I Go Wild / Start Me Up / It’s
Only Rock’n Roll/Street Fighting Man/Brown Sugar / Jumping Jack Flash

... That tour turned out to be the most successful of all time (its only inflated ticket prices which have seen subsequent tours like ABB outgross it) and yet it was done by a band who had been making records for 32 years, who were mostly in their 50's, but who were still keen to push themselves as a creative and evolving act...


Yeah, but people only went because they thought it was the last tour ever, and Keith kept screwing up the intro to Honky Tonk Women... ;-)

Gazza:

I'm staying out of Neil discussions because I'm trying to avoid any setlist info before I start my run of shows in Connecticut and NYC.

I like the DC example, but as someone who loved the "Not Fade/Dice" one-two punch that kicked off the later shows, I'm shocked that "Undercover" was originally in that oh-so-important second slot. A brave, surprising choice, even if it was doomed.

Also important to remember that the critical re-evaluation of "Black & Blue" hadn't really started in '94 and that "Memory Motel" and especially "Hot Stuff" were such daring moves.

Just as "Steel Wheels" incorporated some (then) rare or relatively underplayed stuff from the 60's ("2000 Light Years," "Play With Fire," "Ruby Tuesday," "Gimme Shelter," "Midnight Rambler") the "Voodoo" show did the same with more 70's material ("Rocks Off," "All Down The Line," "Before They Make Me Run," etc.)

Funny to think that when "Steel Wheels" happened, "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" hadn't been performed since '75-'76. Maybe there's still time for "Out Of Control" to be properly enshrined as a warhorse...

I think it has been pointed out above, but I'll repeat: Neil Young goes out with different musicians and, more importantly, wildly different artistic visions for each and every tour. Love it or hate it (as many did, say, "Greendale") it's never boring and always adds a new dimension of mystery and intrigue to a stunning career. No matter the magnificence of many of the performances, does anyone feel that way about the "ABB" tour? What was added to the Stones' myth?

Without doubt one of the best concerts I've ever been to was Prince back in the mid 90s during his "slave" days. I don't know if anyone recalls but at the time he was refusing to play (m)any of his hits. Instead he played virtually all of the Gold album and a few of tracks from the 'Symbol' album and I was absolutely staggered that this guy had so much talent that he could play almost a whole show of material no one knew and still rock the place to the core.
By contrast when I saw David Bowie on the Outside tour he again was playing virtually nothing other than the Outside tracks and a few hits re-imagined so as to fit in the rest of the show's material and quite frankly it was a huge disappointment.
Both shows were at the same venue - Wembley Arena - so that is not a factor in this. What I do think made the difference is having your hopes dashed.
That is why I don't think The Stones would ever get away with playing a non-hit set list - they don't have the quality of material to back it up. Yes, their stuff is mostly brilliant but can you imagine a show without Satisfaction or JJF? I think I'd be hugely disappointed if they left out three quarters of their biggest hits.
What they could possibly get away with though is to do what Gary Numan (and a few others) has started to do and do classic album tours. On Numan's tour next year he is promising to play nothing but the tracks from his Replicas album (c. 1979) and it's related B-Sides. That interests the die hard fans greatly and the more casual fan who buy tickets to it should not have their hopes dashed because he's stated openly what his intentions are. I mean just imagine if The Stones toured with Let It Bleed or Exile On Main St! I think the tickets would sell out in nanoseconds!

sorry, Judas72 - but I just don't agree with you at all. If the Stones don't have the quality of material, no one has.


Belgrade-Bucharest-Budapest-Brno

They DO have the quality of material to do such a show - although I'm not suggesting that they do that. Just less of a reliance on so many of the same songs would be an improvement. Easy enough task to replace many of them with other equally well known songs in any case.