Bands playing albums in full

What bands have you seen playing albums in full?

Any good?

Thoughts on the increasing ubiquity of it?

Inspired by the Manics thread and the ensuing discussion about how they’re touring an album nobody likes

spiritualized doing “ladies and gentlemen…” with an orchestra and gospel choir around 2009/2010

it was fucking incredible

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I saw Built to Spill do Perfect From Now On in full. It was great, but in general I don’t like when bands do this and much prefer random setlists. Full album shows take the surprise out of things.

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No but I would have loved to have seen the Idlewild/Twilight Sad gigs where they did this at King Tut’s. Good idea for a classic album but would miss the range of songs that a band with a big back catalogue can normally break out (see all the different songs The National swapped in and out on the last UK tour)

don’t think i’ve seen that many

Super Furry Animals touring Fuzzy Logic and Radiator not too long ago was pretty fun. had never seen them before or listened to them a massive amount previously but had a v good time.

saw Television do Marquee Moon a couple of years ago even though i’d imagine a normal Television setlist would basically that anyway. they played it in a different order which was interesting. actually thought the non-MM tracks in the encore sounded more impressive, probably due to having fewer expectations.

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gonna see them doing Keep it Like a Secret next year. i normally prefer a random setlist as well but having never listened to BtS that much before it’ll be nice to know what to expect and listen to beforehand

completely forgot i went to see them doing the first album in full in London a couple of years ago. that was good. i expected a few tracks from other albums at the end though but they just did 2 early b-sides and fucked off.

i’d seen them supporting Idlewild when the first album had just come out but didn’t really know any of the songs at the time so was good to get another chance to hear album tracks live

I’ve seen:

Spiritualized playing “Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” (Gateshead Sage, 2009)
Spiritualized playing “Sweet Heart Sweet Light” (Edinburgh Queens Hall, 2011)*
The Twilight Sad playing “Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters” (Glasgow King Tuts, 2013)
Manic Street Preachers playing “The Holy Bible” (Edinburgh Ushers Hall, 2015)
Spiritualized playing “And Nothing Hurt” (London Hammersmith Apollo, 2018)*

*weren’t advertised as ‘full album shows’ but the new albums were played in full in track order

All were utterly magnificent, particularly the Twilight Sad gig. I almost exploded with joy when they played “Three Seconds Of Dead Air” as the last encore.

Sonic Youth doing Daydream Nation was a delight as I’d never seen 'Cross the Breeze live and it was a favourite SY song. So on that basis I love them!

Whereas the Sebadoh album the band did, because they had no roadies and because they had to swap instruments / retune between EVERY song, stretched a 40 minute album to about 60. This was clearly not a good thing.

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Melvins doing Houdini
Sonic Youth doing Daydream Nation
Slint doing Spiderland (although I left after Washer)

All at Primavera '06.

Ah poo, I forgot two:

The Wildhearts playing “Earth vs. The Wildhearts” (Glasgow ABC, 2013)
The Wildhearts playing “P.H.U.Q.” (Glasgow ABC, 2015)

I think Mew really nailed it with their Frengers tour - start with a set of your other ‘hits’, intermission, then album with proper set closer last track.

Helps they were excellent, of course. I would quite like to see them play Glass Handed Kites in full too tbh as there is such a brilliant cohesiveness to that album, the middle run of Apocalypso/Special/Zookeeper’s Boy are among their best live songs, and White Lips Kissed is (while not Comforting Sounds level) the right kind of album closer to be a set closer too.

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Saw Twilight Sad. Was incredible. 400 Broken

public enemy twice (nation of millions and fear of a black planet), nas doing illmatic and erm, lit doing a place in the sun

unannounced/unexpected album run-throughs can be a nice surprise rather than it being advertised as such

saw The Redneck Manifesto do Friendship in full at the Richter Collective label closing down party (with a few Disers in tow), wasn’t expecting it (still wasn’t 100% sure they were actually playing it all until they got to like the 5th song and it seemed beyond doubt) and it was pretty great.

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The problem with Slint doing Spiderland was it was exactly like the album and so it felt flat. I guess they all got together after ages and do they didn’t really have that chemistry?

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I’d love to see Slint; for some reason, I can’t picture latter-day Brian MacMahon belting out “I MISS YOU”

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i’ve seen Slint do a normal show and they play all of Spiderland anyway (albeit in a different order with a few Tweez tracks mixed in) so that’s another one that doesn’t feel like it would have been anything out of the ordinary.

also they were ruddy great (2013 i think?)

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as mentioned in the Manics thread it’s quite weird that Bloc Party are touring Silent Alarm on a non-anniversary year without getting the original lineup back together and still managing to play some surprisingly big venues

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Sonic Youth doing Daydream Nation
Stooges doing Funhouse (Hammersmith 2005)
Spiritualized doing Ladies and Gentleman
Slint Spiderland
Melvin’s Houdini/Lysol/Eggnog
GZA Liquid Swords
Mudhoney Superfuzz…
Public Enemy it takes a nation of millions
Built to spill perfect from now on
Sleep - Holy Mountain
Boris - Feedbacker
Sunn - The Grimmrobe Demos
YYYs - Fever to tell
Mercury Rev - Deserter’s Songs
Wedding present - Seamonsters
JAMC Psychocandy

I think that’s about it! I don’t have a problem with them (as you can tell). I have tickets for keep it like a secret as well, can’t wait. Some bands will play half and half sets so you still get that element of surprise and if not the encore will have a different set of songs.