I looked for a thread on this, and couldn't find one other that a few that were dedicated to just one specific artist. I'm wondering what everyone thinks of this trend; bands that will play a classic album from their library in it's entirety. On one hand, I like that it will lead to some obscure songs being played. Many times, my favorite song by a band will not be the "hits" from the record, and the chances of ever hearing it live are slim to none. But on the other hand, it takes out all the spontaneity of a live performance. Nothing worse than knowing the exact set list before you walk in the door.

The first time I saw this was two years ago when X played their first two albums in order. Loved the idea at first, as those are simply classic albums. But then when I KNEW I wasn't gonna hear anything from Under the Big Black Sun or some of their experiments with country, it was ultimately a rather dull show. Saw them later that year, at a more typical show, and it was a million times better.

Next up is Adam Ant this weekend, who will be playing Kings of the Wild Frontier. Hopefully he'll add some other Ants songs, as well as some of his better solo material. But I'm keeping my hopes up, as Kings is easily the best Ants album and I'm looking forward to seeing him perform some of the stranger songs on that record.

I tend to agree re: taking the spontaneity out of the act.

I'd add that there aren't that many albums that flow from beginning to end even from my favorite acts (those with all surviving members). I'd think that some shorter albums might make for a good set of a long concert (Eagles: Desperado) except most of the principal players from that album are retired or dead. Same with The Band (eponymous album), Who's Next, etc. I'm sure that Fleetwood Mac fans might go for Fleetwood Mac/Rumours being played back-to-back. Springsteen did that recently with early album (River? Darkness?)...I wouldn't mind hearing him do Nebraska solo in its entirety.

Most artists that we like to see live (R. Thompson, G. Welch) have a lot of strong tunes we like that are a mix of old & new (and covers); rather see that than an entire album.

One album I could support being performed in its entirety is Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. That one flows nicely with some variety and isn't overwhelmed by big hits vs. deep cuts.

I saw Steely Dan a few years ago at the Beacon theater in NYC, they played the Royal Scam, it was great, then they played the hits after they finished the record.

great show.

Maiden did A Matter of Life and Death start to finish, I really liked the album and it flowed well. Though in general I am not a big fan of playing albums ... there just are not that many out there that deserve it

I like it when they are concept albums like The Wall, or Operation:Mindcrime where there is a show built around it. In Queensryche's case they played other stuff after the album part. And on another tour they did Mindcrime I & II.

I saw QR do Mindcrime in its entirety back in '91.

Also saw Rush do the full "Moving Pictures" album on the Time Machine tour in '10.

I think those are the only two I've seen live.

The Cure took this to the extreme with their Trilogy concert(s?). They performed Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers in their entirety.

I drove 200 miles just to see Brand New perform the entirety of The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. They played a few songs from their other albums first, then dove into that album, start to finish.

It was worth the drive.

years back saw Devo 'are we not men?'. last month saw Lemuria play 'get better'

Dream Theater did a half dozen shows years ago where they did their regular set and the encore was a full album from another artist. i.e. they did Master of Puppets beginning to end. I want to say they did a Rush album one night and a Maiden one another. I think they did 6 shows total like this with 6 different albums.

I saw Boston on the "Third Stage" tour in Detroit. After playing a couple hits, Scholz said "Now we're gonna play the new album."

I remember asking my friend if I misheard what was said... as they proceeded to play Third Stage in its sequential order.

I forgot about that. I know they did do Dark Side of the Moon.

Here's another vote for having seen Queensryche do Operation: Mindcrime and I also saw My Chemical Romance do The Black Parade.

Manic Street Preachers (one of my favorite bands) played my favorite album of theirs, The Holy Bible, for it's 20th anniversary in 2015.

They rarely come to the US, but they made it to the Fonda Theater (one of my favorite venues in LA), and it was a spectacular performance of a very difficult album, both musically and thematically.

I saw The Sounds in December and they played Dying To Say This To You (their second album) in its entirety for the 10th anniversary. In the Fall of 2014 I saw Offspring and they played Smash in its entirety for its 20th anniversary.

I think it's kind of cool when bands do this, because they also do a separate regular set in addition to the album one.

Only one I've seen was the 1977 Animals Tour of Pink Floyd. Although they played the entire Animals album the sequence wasn't exactly the same as the album. They also played the entire Wish You Were Here album in sequence.

I think seeing Back in Black played in it's entirely would fucking rock. Could care less about spontaneity. The first Van Halen album also.

Seeing bands early in their career, when their catalog is limited, gives a chance to hear every song from the first albums, just not in sequence.
Saw Foreigner in 1978. Every song from first album plus Double Vision and Hot Blooded.
Saw Boston in 1979. Every song from first album was played.
Saw Aerosmith open for Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1974. Get Your Wings album was just released. I was not familiar with them at the time and wonder what stuff they may have played that has never been played since that I couldn't appreciate at the time.

Oh yeah, back in '95, or '96, I saw The Who do all of Qudrophenia, with special guests Billy Idol as "the punk" and Gary Glitter (before he was arrested for being a sicko pedophile) as the Godfather.
Entwistle was still alive, Zach Starky (Ringo Star's son) was on drums, who's been the 2nd best drummer the Who have had, with Townsend's brother on electric (who's a better player than Pete), and Pete on acoustic, who's a really good rhythm player. Daltry was in top from back then. It was pretty epic, with a great A/V show as well and we had great floor seats at Honda Center (where Mighty Ducks play).

Obviously it's ok with concept albums; I'd never complain if The Who played Tommy or Quadrophenia sequentially and in their entirety. I'll have a better opinion of this after the Adam Ant show tonight. The X show I mentioned earlier, once they'd played Los Angeles and Wild Gift, there was not much time for anything else. I'm not expecting a "Thank you goodnight!" as soon as Adam finishes playing The Human Beings, 45 minutes into the set tonight.

I saw Echo and the Bunnymen do Crocodiles and Heaven up Here in full in 2011--sounded great. And I saw Peter Hook and the Light perform New Order's Low Life and Brotherhood in 2014, which was another fun show.

So yeah, I guess I am a fan of these. With most of my favorite albums, I've always listened to them from beginning to end many times, and of course the song order of the albums was usually part of the whole artistic intent of the band--so it's neat to have that experience recreated live.

I would expect that the OP was not thinking of bands with only one or two album releases playing a whole album. That is almost a given at that point. Probably should have at least five or more out before it become a big deal to only focus on one album during a show.

As somebody that also saw Mindcrime I agree with the idea that it makes sense for "concept albums" to be done as a whole. But not a fan of it otherwise. Most albums just don't flow as well as a huge set, and even some classics have a couple lesser songs.

What would probably go over just as well, if not even better than whole album trend, is to do a set of songs never played live or even just a set made up of songs from a prior period that haven't been played live on at least a few prior tours.

So many 20+ year bands could easily do this rather than doing the whole album thing. So many classics off older albums haven't been played in years in favor of the same standards that are there on every tour. And as much as I love Rush, and their 40 Anniversary tour, it could have been so much better if every song after the latest album (they worked backwards) was one that hadn't been played live in years. They mixed it up a little, but many of the tired standards were still included.

I agree about concept albums - I would love to see King Diamond perform "Them" straight through (Conspiracy as an encore?) but artists with large discographies, i think I'd prefer a variety.

Seems ok with a band like X that I've seen a lot of times, but if it's someone I'm only going to see once, I'd rather see a mix.

I did see The Breeders do Last Splash, but they at least played a few other songs at the end. Still would've rather had a regular show since I've only seen them once.

I was lucky enough to see Prince live 5 times. I would have paid pretty much any ticket price to see him do Sign O' the Times in it's entirety.

Wow, wish I could have been at that one. I love that album start to finish.

It was pretty awesome. Brad's voice was still in top form. And given it was only their third album, most of the classics off the other two albums got played as well.

Saw Genesis (w/ Peter Gabriel) perform The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety, then follow up with several songs from Nursery Cryme & Foxtrot (Watcher of the Skies, Supper's Ready, etc.). I would expect to see something like that sequentially and it was a damn fine performance complete with costumes. It was one of the best concerts I've ever had the priviledge of attending and I've seen Pink Floyd twice (Wish You Were Here and Animals).