I had no idea that they had played shows this long during I&E. Weird.
Also: I get playing a shorter set during an arena tour when they play a million dates and need to preserve some energy/voice. But this is a stadium tour with 2/3 dates a week. Another 10 minutes wouldn't kill them.
Yeah this is what especially surprises me about the short sets this tour. They've just done a far more grueling arena schedule, with shows that were some of the longest of their career. Now they're doing their shortest shows in over a decade on a tour with a more leisurely schedule. Weird.
Yeah, I get that 15 vs 20 songs is significant. But people here are talking about 21 vs 20 or whatever, or maybe it's just Axver with all the statistical stuff.
21 vs 25 is a pretty significant difference though. And it's annoying because they started off playing 22 - or 23 in Seattle - but from LA 2 they've dropped down to 21 songs. If they'd just started with 21 songs I don't think people would be as annoyed. There would still be discontent that the shows are too short, but cutting songs from the set without any replacement is the real kicker.
I went and looked this up.
U2 2011 show - 25 songs
U2 2017 show - 21 songs
Lykke Li - 15 songs
Kurt Vile - 12 songs
Grimes - 12.5 songs (they played the title track from Art Angels over the loud speaker during some interpretative dance shit)
This doesn't surprise me. I wouldn't expect much longer from them. If I'm seeing a band in a club or theatre and they've got at least a couple of albums, I expect about a 75-90 minute long setlist, unless they're the kind of band who make a point of a longer show and have just one or no opener. The usual schedule for a show in Australia with an international headliner is doors 8pm, first band 8:30pm, second 9:30pm, headliner 10:30-midnight (adjust appropriately for curfews; that's a standard Melbourne weeknight).
It's when you get to arena or stadium level that you're really ripping off people by not going past the two hour mark. Muse, for example, often play unjustifiably short setlists.
I love what Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr) does at his solo shows: a pre-planned set of about ten songs, then requests until he gets tired/the audience drops off/curfew hits. Once saw him get really drunk and do over thirty songs, with ridiculous stories in between.
To me it's interesting when concerts are judged by length, I mean we rarely judge movies or books that way.
There are definitely legitimate complaints to be made of this tour's setlists, but how many songs just seems to be ridiculous.
Well yeah, because a book or a movie is a complete, extended work while a concert is a compilation of pieces from a band's career. No shit it'll be judged differently.
