Official "we don't want a tired old setlist in NYC"

[seventieslord]

How do I put this without sounding.... negative.... or pessimistic?

I am so stoked that I get to see The Wildhearts live for the first, second, and possibly last times ever in just 7 weeks. But in the back of my mind I can't help but feel like it will be a rip-off of a setlist.

Don't get me wrong, anything they play will be welcomed with open arms. But I have been trained to have high standards for this band. Something tells me when they come over to the USA for just a few shows they are going to do the "best bang for our buck" setlist. The thinking probably is that they need to play their "A-list" material for the casual fans and curious onlookers. We'll hear suckerpunch, headfuck, I wanna go, shitsville, everlone, vanilla radio, stormy, nita nitro, caprice, LYTID, Geordie, 29X, etc.

Not that this would be bad. But is it ideal? I want some curveballs, god dammit! It doesn't even matter what songs they use. The more popular, lesser played tracks such as Inglorious, Schizophonic, Turning American, Anthem, He's a Whore, Zomboid, etc. would be great to hear. Or It could be the relatively obscure abhoria, why you lie, something weird, naivety play, moodswings, news of the world, or Mindslide. Any B-side would do the trick, and anything off the new album would be very welcome too. Covers can be completely random, so they are great.

All I'm saying is, I want this to be a night I will remember for the rest of my life. And I like surprises. I won't be surprised to hear the songs in the first list. You never know if this will get read by the band at some point, but here goes:

We are not casual fans. We are not curious onlookers. Every Wildhearts song is A-list material. We would highly appreciate a setlist that is significantly different than you have ever played before in our first and possibly only chance to see you perform live. Make it the best night of our lives and we will in turn be your best crowd ever. Oh, and most of us will be at both shows so it would be mighty kind of you to change at least a few songs up.... and play five encores. We're not asking much

Who's with me?

[Damian]

Unless a band has a fan club and then puts on a special fan club show, I think it's highly presumptive of any band to not play some 'hits' in the set. Not everyone at every gig is a hardcore fan.

Judging by what they choose in their setlists, I think they know this. I'm only likely to see them once every now and then and there's nothing quite like jumping like a nutter to "Caffeine Bomb" and "Suckerpunch". If they throw in a few curveballs, great.

[Ross]

Cor, well I'd love to hear Geordie live in a full band situation, because it's something they do very rarely.

[seventieslord]

Hey, if it is 1/2 or 2/3 of that top list, and the rest curveballs, that would be good enough for me. I just don't want the setlist to be made up of nothing but the usual suspects.

[daphe.ltd]

I have to second the request for a not-the-usual-hits set list. I've seen the band 7 times in the US (plus 2 NYC sonic circus shows.) With the exception of the one Darkness opening slot, the shows I attended have been populated by a large majority of long-time fans who not only knew the words to every song, but owned most every record. This band has a hard-core cult following here. They should not be concerned about playing a good number of songs from the latest record and/or some of the more obscure older material.

-daphe

[Arabiandisco]

I have to second the request for a not-the-usual-hits set list. I've seen the band 7 times in the US (plus 2 NYC sonic circus shows.) With the exception of the one Darkness opening slot, the shows I attended have been populated by a large majority of long-time fans who not only knew the words to every song, but owned most every record. This band has a hard-core cult following here. They should not be concerned about playing a good number of songs from the latest record and/or some of the more obscure older material.

-daphe

Surely the point of the tour is not for long term fans, but to try to get new fans interested?

If the gigs are populated entirely by the kind of people who have imported "Anthem: the single tracks" then it will be a bit of a failure.

Clearly as someone with a fairly extensive collection of WH tracks, I would love to hear songs like Genius Penis and Do Anything live, but not at the expense of 29x, Headfuck & suckerpunch.

But I'm not seeing them until December, so what does my opinion matter?

[nig1012]

How do I put this without sounding.... negative.... or pessimistic?

I am so stoked that I get to see The Wildhearts live for the first, second, and possibly last times ever in just 7 weeks. But in the back of my mind I can't help but feel like it will be a rip-off of a setlist.

Don't get me wrong, anything they play will be welcomed with open arms. But I have been trained to have high standards for this band. Something tells me when they come over to the USA for just a few shows they are going to do the "best bang for our buck" setlist. The thinking probably is that they need to play their "A-list" material for the casual fans and curious onlookers. We'll hear suckerpunch, headfuck, I wanna go, shitsville, everlone, vanilla radio, stormy, nita nitro, caprice, LYTID, Geordie, 29X, etc.

Not that this would be bad. But is it ideal? I want some curveballs, god dammit! It doesn't even matter what songs they use. The more popular, lesser played tracks such as Inglorious, Schizophonic, Turning American, Anthem, He's a Whore, Zomboid, etc. would be great to hear. Or It could be the relatively obscure abhoria, why you lie, something weird, naivety play, moodswings, news of the world, or Mindslide. Any B-side would do the trick, and anything off the new album would be very welcome too. Covers can be completely random, so they are great.

All I'm saying is, I want this to be a night I will remember for the rest of my life. And I like surprises. I won't be surprised to hear the songs in the first list. You never know if this will get read by the band at some point, but here goes:

We are not casual fans. We are not curious onlookers. Every Wildhearts song is A-list material. We would highly appreciate a setlist that is significantly different than you have ever played before in our first and possibly only chance to see you perform live. Make it the best night of our lives and we will in turn be your best crowd ever. Oh, and most of us will be at both shows so it would be mighty kind of you to change at least a few songs up.... and play five encores. We're not asking much

Who's with me?

go to ginger's myspace page and e mail him this letter he's a reasonable dude he may even accomodate (is that how you spell it) you

[seventieslord]

I have to second the request for a not-the-usual-hits set list. I've seen the band 7 times in the US (plus 2 NYC sonic circus shows.) With the exception of the one Darkness opening slot, the shows I attended have been populated by a large majority of long-time fans who not only knew the words to every song, but owned most every record. This band has a hard-core cult following here. They should not be concerned about playing a good number of songs from the latest record and/or some of the more obscure older material.

-daphe

Surely the point of the tour is not for long term fans, but to try to get new fans interested?

If the gigs are populated entirely by the kind of people who have imported "Anthem: the single tracks" then it will be a bit of a failure.

Clearly as someone with a fairly extensive collection of WH tracks, I would love to hear songs like Genius Penis and Do Anything live, but not at the expense of 29x, Headfuck & suckerpunch.

But I'm not seeing them until December, so what does my opinion matter?

I have to agree with daphe above you.

The fact that we are all hard core fans is not a failure. Quite the opposite. No one else cares and despite our best efforts it will probably always be that way. Who's going to these gigs based on a poster they saw and decided to check out this middle-aged british band they've never heard of?

It also sounds like the assumption is being made that suckerpunch, headfuck, caffeine bomb, i wanna go, etc are songs that are sure to create new fans while songs like two-way, schizophonic, velvet presley, pissjoy, and splattermania will fail at doing so. Is there really that big a difference? And even if there was, what If they played 2/3 the usual suspects with about 5-7 surprises in there? would the curious onlooker say "well, about 12 of those songs sounded like sure hits but the other 5-6 were kinda blah. Not bad, but I'm not sold." And would 15-18 usual suspects all of a sudden convert them?

I just think you can do a good job of pleasing everyone here.

And yes, I will email Ginger's myspace page... I may as well.... can't hurt.

[Arabiandisco]

You make a good point about casual fans being won over by any of the material (it is all that good), but if they played Pissjoy or some obscure B-side, where is this new fan going to get what they heard at the gig from? Endless Nameless is hard enough to find, never mind the singles...

And I think it is a fantastic thing that there is a hard core of fans in the US. The more the merrier, but if it's only the hard core that show up then I think the promoters should be shot. The point of touring when you're a small band (like the WH are, particularly outside of the UK & Japan) is to expand the fan-base.

Though I think I basically agree with you, actually. a 60/40 or 70/30 split of the "hits" to the lesser played stuff ought to be able to please everyone. We just have to accept that when a band has such an excellent catalogue of songs to choose from, everyone will have some personal favourites that they won't hear...

[daphe.ltd]

The point of touring when you're a small band (like the WH are, particularly outside of the UK & Japan) is to expand the fan-base.

That's true for sure. But it's also to keep the regular customer coming back for more. And...who's better at helping to expand the fan base than an excited Wildhearts fan? For example, I started out as a convert, introduced by a long-time fan, and now I'm bringing new converts to shows and getting them to buy records. It's good to please the regular customers and keep their word-of-mouth advertising working for you, too.

-daphe

[nuno75]

I'll take what I get. I'm just glad to be able to see them live.

[seventieslord]

I'll take what I get. I'm just glad to be able to see them live.

I agree 100%. But that doesn't mean I can't take efforts to make it even better!

[daphe.ltd]

I guess I'd be most happy if they would play a fair number of songs from the new record.

-daphe

[Soundog]

I'd be happy for you if you got a fair amount of obscurities. I've seen them doing the exact same set for three nights in 2001 when I traveled over to the UK for the reunion tour - which was in no small part down to the Danny situation - and... well, it wasn't a let down since I flew over without even knowing whether the gigs would go ahead, and of course it rocked mightily, but it wasn't quite the ideal scenario.

However, what's rarely being mentioned is that they would have to get the time to rehearse these songs enough to deliver them about as tight as the standards, or they would run the risk of a patchy performance. I have no idea what the WHs individual agendas are, but finding that time might just be the problem.

Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[seventieslord]

I'd be happy for you if you got a fair amount of obscurities. I've seen them doing the exact same set for three nights in 2001 when I traveled over to the UK for the reunion tour - which was in no small part down to the Danny situation - and... well, it wasn't a let down since I flew over without even knowing whether the gigs would go ahead, and of course it rocked mightily, but it wasn't quite the ideal scenario.

However, what's rarely being mentioned is that they would have to get the time to rehearse these songs enough to deliver them about as tight as the standards, or they would run the risk of a patchy performance. I have no idea what the WHs individual agendas are, but finding that time might just be the problem.

Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

...and who knows if, or how many songs require brushing up, and how long it takes to get back up to speed on such songs.