BobO'Link

The answer's to the OP question is: All of them. Every one.

Sometimes a song's just not that good. Sometimes it can't be played in concert and sound good. Sometimes band members change and the new one(s) just can't perform certain songs well enough. Sometimes it due to a catalog of material that's just too large to include everything "good" or even all the songs fans want to hear in a normal length concert. Sometimes you just get royally burnt out playing that same song over and over and over and over and over... Many artists have songs that they, themselves, just can't stand and never did like. Songs that once held a special meaning no longer do and can be emotionally painful to play so they're just not played again.

Concerts have always been about making money as sales of records rarely make one "rich." So, acts play as many of the "catalog" titles as they can and play material from any new album to promote it and hopefully generate sales which leads to more people attending concerts which makes the real money for a band. Acts that started out playing "everything" did so simply because that's all they had. As more albums got made they had to begin weeding out material to keep a show to a manageable length.

Jason

For the big bands playing large venues, the setlist is always a balancing act. They have to play certain fan favorites, they want to play stuff people will enjoy, and they don't want to alienate people who have seen them several times with repetitive shows. Not to mention they want to play a show that makes sense artistically and will not be a drag to play every night.

There are always people there who are seeing the band for the first time, even for groups that tour endlessly, like KISS. And when you have a large fanbase, you're always going to disappoint someone by not playing their favorite. I've never seen Queen, and I know they won't play my favorite Queen song (39).

Iron Maiden seem to alternate between tours that feature new material and "greatest hits" tours, such as the 2019 Legacy of the Beast tour. As someone who missed the classic 80's shows like the World Slavery Tour and Somewhere on Tour, this was heaven on earth for me.

Bottom line, even if it's not the setlist you desire, enjoy your favorite bands while you can. Over the last ten years I've made it a point to see a lot of stuff. You never know what the future holds.

PerryD

I was a big Tori Amos fan in the 90s. I saw her live in the late 90s and I think I only recognized half the songs. She's one of those artists that I guess plays to her hardcore fans mixing up entire setlists each night and playing obscure songs from albums or b-sides even. It just seemed strange to see her and not hear Crucify or Cornflake Girl, etc.

Overkill is my favorite metal band, and I've seen them countless times. They play 80% the same setlist every tour every year, and even with a new album, they only play 2 songs from it in support. I got to talk to Bobby Blitz on the Megacruise, and I told him with 2 major tours per album cycle, the first tour should focus heavy on the new album (like 6 new songs), then the second tour should focus on anniversary albums, like this year could have been Feel the Fire 35 year and play 6 songs from that album. He didn't respond positively to my idea, I think they feel like they have a formula/system that works for them, gets them 1000 people per show per city, etc.

PhantomStranger

Every band ignores certain songs and entire albums from their live sets, even popular hits. Bands do it all the time for various reasons. Some for personal reasons, others because they simply don't like the music.

rw2516

Would be great if we had live albums from every tour of a band. Songs from latest album that never get played again. Early shows that consist of just the first couple albums. Another thing bands used to do, very long expanded versions in concert that would be shortened later on to include more songs as catalog grew.
One band that shakes things up is Blue Oyster Cult. Never know what they're going to play. Still have never heard my three favorite BOC songs live though, Wings Wetted Down, Baby Ice Dog and Teen Archer.

mndtrp

Agreed. It'd be nice if bands would do at least one live album each tour. Steven Wilson often has a DVD from his most recent tour, Metallica has a release for each show it performs, STS9 does the same. Whenever I see show that has a release, I buy it. I often try to pick up a tour release even if it's for a show I didn't go to.

SmackDaddy

This reminds me of the only BOC show I got to attend. This was the late 90's and they were playing a club for free. Their setlist consisted of mostly "B" material from their late 80's period as well as some tracks that were supposed to be from an upcoming album (which I think was Heaven Forbid). We left because the music was really not all that great, and we heard the only classic stuff they played came during the encore and it was Godzilla and Burning for you.

beavis69

Metallica releasing each show digitally (or I think you can even have a cd made) is one of the cooler pieces of merch you could get. I know its not feasible for every band to do, especially some smaller bands, but if they could find a way to make it cost effective to record that is a great revenue stream. I never pick up any merch outside of a tshirt or maybe the bands album if I don't have it, but I would def pick up the live recording of the show I attended.

rw2516

Cleaning up a sound board recording for commercial cd release must be either very expensive, very time consuming, or both. There's a wealth of these recordings in the hands of the artists. Some release them as are, bootleg quality, others have been cleaned up and sound great. You can still tell they're not recorded using mobile multi-track equipment but still it can be done with a final result that is great quality.
There's a lot of stuff that was recorded for possible release but has never seen the light of day. Complete sets of all artists for California Jam 2 for example. Bands recording several complete shows for a live album and then piecing the album together from different shows.
Grateful Dead did it right. Buying their own mobile recording unit and recording every show they did in multi track stereo.

d2cheer

Yeah agree here.

Paff

I don't know if this is apropos to the conversation, but I remember leaving a Toy Dolls show in the late 90s, and hearing a fan lament "I guess they don't play their old stuff, like Dougy Giro anymore". I chuckled, because one thing I'd noticed at the show was they extensively covered their debut album, playing at least half the songs on it. Granted, they did not play the song that the lamenting fan mentioned, but that was one of the few they didn't. In other words, damn near everyone has a song they want to hear from a band, and unless the concert is like 5 hours long or it's the very first tour, there's gotta be something they don't play.

cultshock

Nice one. But you can count me in as a big Frosties fan that actually likes Cold Lake (and have since I bought it back in 1988) along with the rest of their discography, as shockingly different as it is from the rest.

I'll go with another kind of obscure one: Norwegian "experimental electronica" band Ulver, who have strayed soooo far from their early black metal style albums that they never play that stuff live anymore, to the chagrin of long time fans.

Daytripper

First band that came to mind was Heart. They have all but completely erased their 80's catalog from live performances. Which oddly were their biggest albums and hits. I know they did this because they felt they sold out during that time. And became corporate and MTV puppets. The only two songs I've heard them play live from that decade 2000 and beyond have been "Alone" (which is still a great fucking song) and "These Dreams" (which I was never a fan of). Ignoring this decade is kind of a big fuck you to the fans who supported them and loved that music. I did see them once in the 80's and they did a fine job blending in their 70's stuff too. Would love to hear them do "Who Will You Run To" (a favorite of mine), "Never", "There's the Girl", "Nothin' at All", "If Looks Could Kill" and "What About Love?" again. All great pop rock IMO.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I didn't think "Cold Lake" was that bad. It wasn't like they turned into Britny Fox or something. All in all, I'd say that was album was "okay" or "meh," 2 1/2 stars out of five, or, on a grading scale, a C.

[email protected]

Good call. I really like the 'Private Audition' and 'Passionworks' albums. "City's Burning" and "The Situation" are still great rockers, and my band even covers "How Can I Refuse". But you'll never hear them in concert, which is a shame.

cultshock

Yeah, agreed, if I'm feeling generous, I might give it a 3 out of five even but that's it (it's hard to compete with classics like Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion). Thinking back, when the album came out, I was a fan of both thrash metal and glam metal (contrary to popular opinion, no one was using the term "hair metal" in the 80's, we called it glam metal) so to me this album was an interesting mix of both worlds, so maybe that's why I was more accepting of it than die hard thrash fans.

I just wish that Tom Warrior would change his mind about reissuing it and not completely disown it. I have the original vinyl, but I would love to see it get the deluxe treatment that the other Celtic Frost/Hellhammer albums have received.

cdollaz

They do more of that stuff now, at least from what I can gather from their live releases over the last few years.

In particular Viva Hysteria and the recent Vegas set are very good and really show a different (and better to me) side of the band as the guitars are much heavier and prominent than their studio work. I am not really a fan of their studio work as I pretty much can't stand how the production neuters the heaviness that they prove they are capable of when listening to the live shows.

Decker

Great news for Fogerty at last!

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kd5

I saw them perform Hysteria (Cleveland, OH), presumably during the tour (I was not entirely in my right mind back then but I do remember that performance very well), they performed the entire Hysteria album, then came back for several encores playing many of their biggest songs from Pyromania and High 'n' Dry. I thought it was a spectacular show. Sorry to hear about your experience with them...

ViewAskewbian

I know I'm a minority, but I'd love to hear Springsteen bust out more of the OTHER BAND material. I love those two albums.

cdollaz

He played it a few months back when I saw him, so he has moved away from his stance on this one.

Decker

Yeah, since I posted that, I saw him again, at MSG for the first time, and he played it. I was really excited and recorded him doing the whole number on my phone.

Nesbit

Yes and it’s my favorite album of theirs.

bralph

printerati

The "Saying Something" album resulted in The Folksmen disbanding, so it's no surprise that they completely ignored it during their handful of reunion shows.