If There was a Radical Setlist Change

[cooperrocks]

I am just throwing this question out for discussion while we have some downtime before next year. I posted here because I feel this is more a general question than a setlist question but if it needs to be moved I completely understand.

When Alice started the recent tour with the screens, in an interview he stated there were like 14 songs you have to do every show or the fans will rebel. Honestly, and Alice and his staff certainly know more than I do about touring but I have to respectfully disagree. I would contend that yes you have to do Eighteen, School's Out and Poison and probably a few songs off of Welcome To My Nightmare but there are some popular songs you could drop for a tour and some deep cuts and new songs that would maintain the fan base and maybe even bring out a few fans who stopped going to the shows because they were weary of the setlists. I know for me and I will always love Alice shows no matter what but my favorite things in recent years are the deep tracks you rarely hear live. Snakebite was the highlight for me this year and I loved opening with Lock Me Up, but wish it was the entire song.

Anyway, I throw this out. If Alice were to do a massively different tour with a lot of deep tracks (say 10 deep cuts and 10 well-known songs), would that entice you more to go to a show, would you have the same interest, or would it lessen your desire to go?

[mestreech]

The last two shows I didn't attended because of the lack of new/other songs but if he is doing your suggestion I would sure go again.

[Saint&Sinner]

i dont think alice needs to play as many of the same songs as he thinks he does, but i think alice has shook up the setlist a fair amount over the last few years. Just look at the setlist from theatre of death to raise the dead to nightmare castle tour.
The main issue with alice is he conflates songs with stage craft. So he thinks the guillotine must be with i love the dead, the straight jacket with ballad of Dwight fry , the giant Frankenstein monster on feed my Frankenstein etc.
I had rubbish tickets on this tour so i had a good view of the crowd. The crowd only got excited/sang along for 3 songs. Schools out, Poison and 18 with limited enthusiasm for feed my Frankenstein, No more mr nice guy, He's back and oddly hey stoopid. everything else got little to no reaction.
I will always dearly love it when alice shakes up the setlist. I will go see him regardless, because even though i have heard a good half the songs 30+ times live, i always end up having an absolute blast (much to the annoyance of everyone around me hahaha)

[lordcatfish]

At this point, with Alice close to 77 years old, I'd go regardless of setlist, but a show with a load of deep cuts would be more enticing (although he's done a fair job of throwing those in since I've been a fan). The lack of new songs is probably the more glaring issue (and I've seen many people mention this over the years).

Like many, I think Alice greatly overstates the amount of songs he 'has to play'. For me

Absolutely must play
I'm Eighteen
School's Out
No More Mr Nice Guy
Something from Welcome to My Nightmare
Poison

Probably has to play
Under My Wheels
Billion Dollar Babies
Feed My Frankenstein

So that's only 8 songs. Let's say he did a setlist of 18 songs (as per Olympia live album), that's 10 setlist slots left. 5 new songs, 3 for deep cuts, 2 for other fan favourites. I think an allocation like that could work.

[Rod]

I think the only four songs that would cause upset if excluded are School's Out, Poison, No More Mr Nice Guy and Eighteen...I think on the other better known songs, as long as there is a good mix of them then dropping one or two would be fine for most casual fans.

[Saint&Sinner]

So that's only 8 songs. Let's say he did a setlist of 18 songs (as per Olympia live album), that's 10 setlist slots left. 5 new songs, 3 for deep cuts, 2 for other fan favourites. I think an allocation like that could work.

thats as good a break down as any. Tbh i think the last few years he has done a great job of changing the setlist - we know he has no faith in any of his new albums, which is a shame. But i have enjoyed greatly the last few gigs he has been doing. this is a far cry from the frankly horrendous "Raise the dead" setlist *shudders* that was just all shades of bad.

[VinceRaven]

The thing I don't understand is why they never dabble with playing little snippets of songs that would thrill the hardcore fans but not hang around long enough to bore those that are there for the hits. Something in the way of how a small part of Vicious Rumours was occasionally slotted into School's Out on the Special Forces tour. Being a big fan of Vicious Rumours, I was desperate to hear more, but a little bit was better than nothing. Look at how happy people are to hear even just a section of Lock Me Up.

It doesn't take much imagination to think of how that could be done intermittently in any of Alice's set lists. A piece of Sex, Death and Money could be played before Billion Dollar Babies, the chorus of I Love America could be played before or as part of Lost In America or Elected, and so on. That's the first two examples that sprung to mind without thinking about it for more than a few seconds. His back catalogue is now so huge that it really wouldn't be difficult to think of fitting combinations.

[lordcatfish]

The thing I don't understand is why they never dabble with playing little snippets of songs that would thrill the hardcore fans but not hang around long enough to bore those that are there for the hits. Something in the way of how a small part of Vicious Rumours was occasionally slotted into School's Out on the Special Forces tour. Being a big fan of Vicious Rumours, I was desperate to hear more, but a little bit was better than nothing. Look at how happy people are to hear even just a section of Lock Me Up.

It doesn't take much imagination to think of how that could be done intermittently in any of Alice's set lists. A piece of Sex, Death and Money could be played before Billion Dollar Babies, the chorus of I Love America could be played before or as part of Lost In America or Elected, and so on. That's the first two examples that sprung to mind without thinking about it for more than a few seconds. His back catalogue is now so huge that it really wouldn't be difficult to think of fitting combinations.

I think they could do some cool stuff with the band / solo parts of the show. I'd love a band jam on something like the mid section / outro of Fresh Blood, the outro of Wish You Were Here, the entirety of Grande Finale etc. Or maybe a medley of parts.

[forglasgowonly]

Just give the Schools Out album the credit it deserves. Imagine if he did a show featuring the full album. I know he reintroduced My Stars a couple of years ago, but by the time the tour hit the UK it was a double header with The Cult, and it got dropped. Honestly, I have never understood why the rest of that album has been abandoned live (basically since the mid 70's). Gutter Cat, Public Animal, My Stars, Looney Tune, Blue Turk.
love em all (to death)

[lordcatfish]

My Stars was played at the UK shows in 2019.

And Public Animal #9 was done in the not too distant past as well (2016 I think?)

Prior to that, I think it's back to 2004 or so for another cut from School's Out (Gutter Cat).

[del]

But i have enjoyed greatly the last few gigs he has been doing. this is a far cry from the frankly horrendous "Raise the dead" setlist *shudders* that was just all shades of bad.

You just talking about the covers in the setlist or the whole thing? I hated the covers but really enjoyed the rest.

[rodentdog]

I'm a fairly big Todd Rundgren fan and over the years he has usually pleased his core fans but pissed off the casual fans by doing tours where he did entire albums, albums he had'nt released yet, deep cut shows, and what he called unpredictable shows. He will at times do a hits tour which is what the casual fans want. Check out the reviews on Ticketmaster where he gets blown up for not playing the hits or just a few. But it's his show and he does what he wants
While I would be thrilled with a deep cut or full album show by Alice I imagine he would catch flack for not playing the hits or just a few/shortened versions

[Saint&Sinner]

You just talking about the covers in the setlist or the whole thing? I hated the covers but really enjoyed the rest

Yeah the covers, i agree the rest of it was decent (the highlight being He's back) but that covers section was just the absolute worst. Absolutely killed the entire vibe and the energy just completely fell out of the entire venue. sigh.
Thankfully he split the covers into the hollywood vampires so i can ignore them permanently

[Dazdot]

Just for fun, I'd like to see a concert where it was all album title songs running from PFY through to Road in age order.
Think this would satisfy (to a point) long term and newer fans.

[Babysquid]

Just for fun, I'd like to see a concert where it was all album title songs running from PFY through to Road in age order.
Think this would satisfy (to a point) long term and newer fans.

The only problem with that is that there’s quite a few albums without title tracks including the two you mentioned!

[Babysquid]

Of course if he just did those with title tracks it would be

Killer
School’s Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle of Love
Welcome to My Nightmare
Go to Hell ?
Lace and Whiskey
From the Inside
Dada
Trash
Hey Stoopid
Brutal Planet
Dragon Town
Dirty Diamonds
Paranormal

[Babysquid]

How about a rarities, b-sides and bonus gig?

Ride With Me
Nobody Likes Me
Slick Black Limousine
The Lady is a Tramp
Space Pirates
I’m Flash
Next
Because
No Tricks
All Strapped Up
For Britain Only
Identity Crisis
See Me in the Mirror
Hard Rock Summer
I Got a Line On You
It Rained All Night
Fire
Hands of Death
Is Anyone Home?
King Herod’s Song
Hey Bulldog
Keeping’ Hallowe'en Alive
Elenor Rigby

[Saint&Sinner]

Well we can skip the last 4 for a start hahaha

[Si]

Well we can skip the last 4 for a start hahaha

'Keeping’ Hallowe'en Alive' would be a fun encore at the right time of the year! I can imagine them having great fun doing that.

[kevinuk81]

Change the setlist and half the price of tickets, might just go again if that happened.

And take out the Pink Floyd bit in School's Out, cannot stand them.