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Do you look at the setlist before your show?


Lost In Xanadu
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I have to say over the past few years I have a bad habit of doing it. I think this time I'm going to try to avoid the spoilers, just go and be surprised. Like back in the day, when you had no idea what a band would play, and BOOM, your fave tune shows up. I don't know, I kinda miss that.
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I look ahead of time. Between my laptop and cell phone, I spend a decent amount of time online everyday and it's just too hard to not look the setlists up for any band i'm seeing. When you have a site like setlist fm that's dedicated to collecting setlists of bands from all genres, it's hard to avoid looking when the answer to what you want to know is just seconds away. It also helps me to refamiliarise myself with certain songs if the band decides to play something that I might not have listened to in a while or don't know that well.
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I did not look until the Time Machine Tour and then the CA tour.

 

This year I am not looking. Absolutely not looking.

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Nope. Want to be surprised going into the show. There's nothing better (to me) than hearing a song that you weren't expecting them to play!!
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CA Tour I looked and knew what to expect.

I will look the day after Tulsa show. I hope I am shocked with joy at what I see.

 

Looking at the setlist let's one plan for Beer/ Pee breaks before/ after intermission.

Perfect Beer/Pee Break songs:

New World Man

Anything from VT,CA,TFE,RTB

Plan accordingly.

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I'm a complete spoiler whore. I'll be looking as soon as opening night finishes.

 

:haz:

 

You should follow the night of. I did that for CA and found it be very exciting. Like I was there. Have your library or you tube open and play the songs in between the revealing of each song.

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I usually try to avoid the setlists because I want to be surprised. But it can be difficult if your show is months into the tour because you have to avoid the forum and other websites. It wouldn't be so difficult if people had the sense not to post spoilers in their thread title. (Idiots!) Luckily on this tour I'll only have to wait a little over two weeks.
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I'm going May 8th the first night of the tour. Is the set list leaked somewhere before hand?

 

The earliest I found it for CA was the day of - someone posted a setlist sheet from backstage at the venue. Otherwise it was very tight-lipped. If you want to resist temptation then I wouldn't spend a lot if time on TRF the day of.

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I generally look up all the setlists before I go to a concert, for a few reasons:

 

1. I want to make sure that I am going to enough shows to get to see all the songs they perform. On a second leg, I may choose one venue over another based on the setlist.

2. I want to listen to the tracks they are going to play that I don't know as well. I'm not a huge fan of the synth era, and so for the last tour I wanted to make sure I really knew Middletown Dreams and Territories and the other songs that don't usually make my Rush playlists so that I could enjoy them more live. I have more fun when I can sing along, air guitar along, or dance around to songs I know better.

3. For times when I'm seeing the band a second or third time, I may plan a beer or bio break. I saw S&A live 6 times, and it was good to know that I could just cut out in the second set after the first two songs and not worry about missing anything. Ditto for Territories or Middletown Dreams, after I got to see them at least once at earlier shows, that is.

4. It tempers my expectations. I don't want to go through a whole concert praying they play something from the 70s only to be disappointed yet again.

 

Having said all that, I'd like to go to a show blind just for the excitement of it. But I would have to do it early in the tour, and they never play by me in the early part of a tour.

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During the break I took from Rush, in the second half of the '90s and the 2000s, I was going to see lots of improvisational bands that don't play the same set list twice. And the whole notion of an A and a B set list, where the variation is only a couple of songs, is kind of foreign to me.

 

I don't care if Rush doesn't vary the set list much at all, over the course of a tour. I'm happy with whatever they want to do.

 

But to my earlier point- I saw the Black Crowes more than four dozen times, over a 17-year period, and I never saw the same set list twice. There were some times, around 1996-'97, when you could go to three consecutive shows, maybe 55 songs in all, and there would only be a handful of songs that you saw performed twice, let alone three times.

 

Different environments, though; just a different experience altogether.

 

I'm in, for as long as Rush wants to keep on giving it to us. And whether I see the set lists ahead of time or not, I'll dig it all the same.

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I can't believe you people, reading the setlist as it happens is nothing compared to hearing a song start that you were in no way expecting, and there should be no beer breaks for Rush, especially if this is the last big tour. SOAK IT IN. I avoid spoilers at all costs, because when I first saw them on the Time Machine tour, on the second leg, I knew the setlist (because they were not playing near me for the first leg), and it took away a lot of the excitement, knowing exactly what would be played next. It was not until my next show in Winnipeg that I was completely surprised and had my mind blown by the mass of Power Windows songs. It feels so good.

 

I can understand if you have a long wait, its tough to resist spoilers, but most of you should be able to buck up, and wait, its totally worth it.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am going to the third show this tour, so my views may be a bit biased since I don't have a long wait once the list is revealed. I think I can avoid the internet for 4 days.

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I don't usually seek them out, but I doubt I'll be able to resist looking at it this time. The main reason I would want to find out what they are is in case it's some songs I rarely listen to, and so the time before my date I'd bone up on them...so to speak. :D
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I'm seeing them twice this tour, St Paul and Chicago. I won't look at the setlist before St Paul, but will do so before Chicago. :facepalm:

Prior to CA, I'd always looked at the setlist....but decided not to look for CA. It was a blast not knowing the setlist. But knowing the setlist never ruined the experience for me.

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I can't believe you people, reading the setlist as it happens is nothing compared to hearing a song start that you were in no way expecting.

 

Of course it's never the same and can't even come close. However, it was an exciting experience shared with others. I can't be in Tulsa and it's 50/50 at best I'll get to the Newark show (3 kids in college, etc.) so I will take that opening night experience because it may be as close as I get.

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never, and i've been known to tell people discussing the setlist around me before/during the show to knock it off. with a band like Rush, the setlist is the main element of surprise - why would i want to know that beforehand? I already know I'm going regardless of what they're playing.

 

i never look at my Xmas presents before Xmas either.

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Nope. Want to be surprised going into the show. There's nothing better (to me) than hearing a song that you weren't expecting them to play!!

 

I remember hearing Digital Man, Entre Nous, Mission and Circumstances at my first Snakes show....it was such a huge thrill. I wish I would have not peaked for CA.

 

So this tour no peaking!!!

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I can't believe you people, reading the setlist as it happens is nothing compared to hearing a song start that you were in no way expecting, and there should be no beer breaks for Rush, especially if this is the last big tour. SOAK IT IN. I avoid spoilers at all costs, because when I first saw them on the Time Machine tour, on the second leg, I knew the setlist (because they were not playing near me for the first leg), and it took away a lot of the excitement, knowing exactly what would be played next. It was not until my next show in Winnipeg that I was completely surprised and had my mind blown by the mass of Power Windows songs. It feels so good.

 

I can understand if you have a long wait, its tough to resist spoilers, but most of you should be able to buck up, and wait, its totally worth it.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am going to the third show this tour, so my views may be a bit biased since I don't have a long wait once the list is revealed. I think I can avoid the internet for 4 days.

 

If I hadn't looked at the setlist before the CA tour, it's possible that I could have killed someone. Also, if you have the choice of two venues, you'd be crazy not to check setlists. I get the excitement factor, and I do miss it, but it's more important for me to maximize enjoyment, not maximize surprise.

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