| Vocal harmony 18.08.2019 12:15 |
Recently the band has come under fire from some for playing the same songs and not changing the setlist. Since they started touring with Adam Lambert they have played a far broader range of songs than they did with Paul Rodgers. In my view the current setlist is the best they've played since the 80's. Probably more representative of more of their material than The Magic tour. The argument that currently things don't change makes me think back to 77 US News Of The World through to 79 Crazy Tour and The Game tour. Over that period they seemed to have settled on a structure to the setlist which changed little. Opening song, Somebody To Love, the medley, Now I'm Here the acoustic set, Guitar solo, Keep Yourself Alive , Bo Rhap, Tie Your Mother Down , Encore were all more or less permanent features as were many of the medley songs. Yes songs were dropped and new ones introduced but the overall feel and flow of those shows changed little. Over that period the setlist evolved rather than changed. . . They settled on what worked and many of us look back on that live period as being classic Queen. So is the current setlist boring or is it the band just being the band and settling on what works. |
| matt z 18.08.2019 16:47 |
What a Todger It's a good set list. Still not great because it hasn't touched the final two albums. For what it's worth it's still an act worth seeing, Even if most of the rockers got dropped from the last tour |
| fruhzs 18.08.2019 18:36 |
IMO the set list is good, of course. I do think however that it’s very different to compare a set list in 2019 to one in 1977. The number of songs in their catalog now is way larger than it was in 1977, for example. It’s true that the structure has similar for a good while, which is fair as it works! It does make sense. Still, the setlist in The Works tour, for example, was diverse for that time, IMO. They brought back some old tunes, etc. also, one obvious thing that does change things, is that back then they were usually promoting an album, so they always had a few new songs from that album to play and add to the setlist, which is not the case nowadays. However, I do feel like mentioned above by Matt, that they could have explored more of the material from “The Miracle”, “Innuendo” and even “Made In Heaven”, so we could somewhat hear some of those tunes live. The feeling we all get is they want to play it safe to please the audiences, which is fair and makes sense, as we see them dropping some of the new attempts with songs from the old catalog soon. With all that said, I’ve been to one gig in 2015 in São Paulo, it was a very enjoyable gig and I do encourage people to go. We were luck lucky that they played a few more songs that night than in other gigs of the same tour, and I liked it very much. |
| CM 19.08.2019 03:04 |
They still play full of energy and passion so it is really dramatic the most creative band in the world, when reduced to only two of their original members (plus Spike) can not be creative anymore and they spend a decade playing the same old hits. No, Freddie would not be proud of seeing the awesome music performers and songwritwers that Roger and Brian are, cursed to play the same old hits again and again. |
| CM 19.08.2019 03:18 |
Freddie would be proud of Adam's voice, right, but now his old friends got a new and powerful singer... do you really think Freddie would be happy seeing them play only the old music as a tribute band would do? Even when they played a few no hits, like Its Late, something was wrong for them and got back to the hits-only show. It is good Fred can not see now the old hits jukebox his great old band has turned into. ...and it is really painful. Their sound and will to play is awesome, but no new music or unusual old stuff is being wanted to play. |
| Nathan H 19.08.2019 07:24 |
It's the audiences that cause them to not play them. Most people in the audiences wouldn't know much other than the hits. I bet you Brian and Roger would love to play songs like Ogre Battle and It's Late - but can you imagine that playing in an arena full of 15,000 that only roughly 10% knew and sang the song. The applause at the end wouldn't be loud and appreciative because people won't have known what they heard. I hate it when Queen fans call Q+AL a tribute band despite it when two of the three founding members are in it! I mean it's a good thing isn't it that they play a show full of hits because not many bands can do that - it shows global success. For example, also touring at the moment is Fleetwood Mac who have massive songs like Queen (but perhaps not quite as many). But the hits they have to play at every show is according to one of the band members is ten. So the other ten or twelve they play are fan and live favourites or rare album gems. So this just shows Queen are in a different league when it comes to comparing other rock bands. They have TOO many hits because they are so popular and huge. I would love to hear rare album gems performed by Queen too but the audience interaction is so much better when the audiences know the song and are singing along to it. But in my opinion it's extreme selflessness when Queen fans despise their favourite group and, moan and groan at everything they say and/or do rather than saying something positive about them. It's affected all the members of the group over the years so surely Queen fans should respect that... |
| Nathan H 19.08.2019 07:29 |
I reckon the possible reasons why they haven't played much of the last few albums is the emotional and personal side of recording (seeing one of their band members slowly dying probably gets really personal especially some of the songs on MIH like Mother Love). And, the other reason may be the complexity of some of the songs seeing that they had more technology meant that they could add more to songs. Some of them are probably very layered which may make them unsuitable for a live environment. |
| Sunshine 19.08.2019 11:05 |
Then turn it around, what songs should be taken out in favor for new ones?' I really believe the hits they play are the necessary ones. So then leaves the question, what other songs should they take out ? |
| Saint Jiub 20.08.2019 00:29 |
In my opinion, there are only a few sacred cows that cannot be taken out: Bohemian Rhapsody Love of My Life We Will Rock You We Are the Champions Crazy Little Thing Called Love Another One Bites the Dust Under Pressure Radio Ga Ga Any other song could be removed from the set list. There could be enough room for more than two deep cuts (Machines and Doing All Right). Heck, if whole obscure songs leaves the casual audience "cold", perhaps they could do a medley like in the Works tour. |
| The Real Wizard 20.08.2019 01:11 |
Saint Jiub wrote: In my opinion, there are only a few sacred cows that cannot be taken out: Bohemian Rhapsody Love of My Life We Will Rock You We Are the Champions Crazy Little Thing Called Love Another One Bites the Dust Under Pressure Radio Ga Ga Any other song could be removed from the set list.People love Don't Stop Me Now - it's one of their biggest tunes now. Somebody To Love and Fat Bottomed Girls have to be there too. They're all such massive hits. Even Hammer To Fall is a biggie since it's in the film. Of course we want to see them digging deeper into the back catalog, but they know they can only get away with a couple curveballs per night. They know what works and what doesn't. Hell, they'd already stopped playing most of the first 6 albums by 1980. |
| gandorb 20.08.2019 04:38 |
I really liked their current setlist, but I do wish a couple of songs from their last two albums were included. The way they used the intro to Innuendo to open the concert was spectacular, but it only served to make me want to hear the whole song. They also included a glorious snippet of You Take My Breath Awa, but was disappointed that it got cut short,. They have left Machines, 39, and Doin' Alright in there, all getting decent audience response. As much as I love Brian's guitar playing, his biggest solo was so long that they could have cut it in half and added a deep cut. Honestly, as great as he played throughout, the only time the audience seemed restless was towards the end of the solo. I think another deep cut would have gotten a better response and certainly please the more well versed Queen fans. |
| cmsdrums 20.08.2019 05:59 |
I lost all reasoned thoughts of the set list once they made a massive fuss about adding Spread Your Wings and It’s Late to he era specific News of the World tour.....and then promptly binned them off after a few US dates. Terrible decision. Brian seems to want EVERY song be a 100% fans on seats cheering belter, and has lost any semblance of thought to light and shade where they might enjoy something a bit different and unexpected from a musical point of view. |
| Holly2003 20.08.2019 08:43 |
cmsdrums wrote: I lost all reasoned thoughts of the set list once they made a massive fuss about adding Spread Your Wings and It’s Late to he era specific News of the World tour.....and then promptly binned them off after a few US dates. Terrible decision. Brian seems to want EVERY song be a 100% fans on seats cheering belter, and has lost any semblance of thought to light and shade where they might enjoy something a bit different and unexpected from a musical point of view.Spot on. Brian's trying to compete with Fred to be the version of Queen that has the most audience participation. It's a pantomime version of Queen, with no artistry or novelty. And while I recognise that's been highly successful for the Queen+ brand, it does nothing for me. |
| ggo1 21.08.2019 05:00 |
Yeah, the decision not to persevere with SYW and Its Late still annoys me. Particularly when you see the videos of just how good Its Late was. Spread your Wings would have been fine if it was earlier in the show too, though maybe a bit of bravery wouldn't go amiss. Machines is an interesting choice from the current tour but I do feel they could drop two hits and add a couple of deep cuts. Thing is, even some of their singles could be considered deep cuts. Save Me on the last tour was a welcome addition. I was lucky enough to see them do Love Kills a while back. So they do occasionally try, but they could do more. Maybe swap a few around in the tour. It's fair to say that the band didn't change the set much from year to year after about 1979 so it isn't a new thing. But of course back then there was no internet so when we went to a show the set list knowledge wasn't really there. |
| fruhzs 21.08.2019 05:21 |
I think I heard they dropped machines already. Not sure if they brought it back already. |
| rockchic65 21.08.2019 08:41 |
fruhzs wrote: I think I heard they dropped machines already. Not sure if they brought it back already.It was gone from two shows then they put it back for the next and since then they've done it for some shows and swapped it for Dragon Attack at others. |
| fruhzs 21.08.2019 23:59 |
Interesting! Thanks! |
| Queenman!! 23.08.2019 09:07 |
ggo1 wrote: Yeah, the decision not to persevere with SYW and Its Late still annoys me. Particularly when you see the videos of just how good Its Late was. Spread your Wings would have been fine if it was earlier in the show too, though maybe a bit of bravery wouldn't go amiss. Machines is an interesting choice from the current tour but I do feel they could drop two hits and add a couple of deep cuts. Thing is, even some of their singles could be considered deep cuts. Save Me on the last tour was a welcome addition. I was lucky enough to see them do Love Kills a while back. So they do occasionally try, but they could do more. Maybe swap a few around in the tour. It's fair to say that the band didn't change the set much from year to year after about 1979 so it isn't a new thing. But of course back then there was no internet so when we went to a show the set list knowledge wasn't really there.----------------------------------- Indeed, a big shame. From my point of view the performance of Adam of the song SYW was vocal wise good but the point is he can't deliver it properly to the audience by just sitting on a chair for large time and expect the audience to go wild and participate. That brings me also to one of the main problems I have with Adam. For me he's still a theaterperformer who plays a role every night, makes the same jokes every show and so on. The rockstar attitude which big names had/have is so really important. It's to cross over the message of the song you are singing and connect with your audience. I really miss that with Adam. He prefers making sexual gestures while standing on high heel shoes instead of a bit more walking and running around the stage like Jagger and Mercury to connect with the diffirent parts of the venue etc. A bit more harder/tougher image and not like a overdressed make-up pussy may also help. |
| rockchic65 23.08.2019 12:23 |
Queenman!! wrote:But the point is that wouldn't be him so he wouldn't be being natural at all. You can't expect every performer to be like others, that's like expecting Freddie to have performed how Elvis did or Dave Grohl to perform the same as Bowie or Prince. Each to their own, being authentic is being yourself whatever that is and if Adam's not a Dave Grohl or a Freddie then it's pointless expecting him to perform like them. The simple answer is he's himself and if it's not for you then fine don't see him, he won't and shouldn't change to be more like someone else, would Freddie have changed the way he performed just because a few people didn't like what he did? I very much doubt it.ggo1 wrote: Yeah, the decision not to persevere with SYW and Its Late still annoys me. Particularly when you see the videos of just how good Its Late was. Spread your Wings would have been fine if it was earlier in the show too, though maybe a bit of bravery wouldn't go amiss. Machines is an interesting choice from the current tour but I do feel they could drop two hits and add a couple of deep cuts. Thing is, even some of their singles could be considered deep cuts. Save Me on the last tour was a welcome addition. I was lucky enough to see them do Love Kills a while back. So they do occasionally try, but they could do more. Maybe swap a few around in the tour. It's fair to say that the band didn't change the set much from year to year after about 1979 so it isn't a new thing. But of course back then there was no internet so when we went to a show the set list knowledge wasn't really there.----------------------------------- Indeed, a big shame. From my point of view the performance of Adam of the song SYW was vocal wise good but the point is he can't deliver it properly to the audience by just sitting on a chair for large time and expect the audience to go wild and participate. That brings me also to one of the main problems I have with Adam. For me he's still a theaterperformer who plays a role every night, makes the same jokes every show and so on. The rockstar attitude which big names had/have is so really important. It's to cross over the message of the song you are singing and connect with your audience. I really miss that with Adam. He prefers making sexual gestures while standing on high heel shoes instead of a bit more walking and running around the stage like Jagger and Mercury to connect with the diffirent parts of the venue etc. A bit more harder/tougher image and not like a overdressed make-up pussy may also help. Also there's tons of people after the shows all raving about him and his stage presence, not really the type of thing that would make him think he should be doing anything different and the reviews mention it a lot of the time as well so clearly they don't see what as he does as being anything wrong or lacking. He's never gonna suit everybody but clearly he suits a lot. |
| ggo1 25.08.2019 19:09 |
@Rockchic65 yeah, whoever sings with them, I'd want them to be themselves and definitely not try and be Freddie. I happen to like Adam, Not always a popular opinion on here, but I think he's got better with the band over time partly because he has relaxed into performing as himself and not trying too hard to be a "rock star". Also he stopped using so much vibrato. For all the whining on here (sometimes by me) about the set list choices, they just had a sell out tour of Arenas, so they're doing something right. |
| runner_70 27.08.2019 07:17 |
What has this to do in the "Serious Discussion" forum? This is not Queen. |