Full album live performances feed indie rock nostalgia

August 4, 2008 1:04 p.m. by Ethan Stanislawski

We've been seeing a lot of performances of full albums lately. Between Daydream Nation, Exile in Guyville, and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, the trend of performaning favorite albums live has proven a considerable boon to ticket sales and reinvigorated the popularity of some old bands. But is it truly an authentic live experience?

Liz Phair had the following to say about the origins of her highly-anticipated Guyville shows: "When we decided we were going to rerelease it, everyone at ATO said, 'You have to play it live -- you have to play the whole thing live.' And I was like, 'Holy crap, really?' I don't think I've ever played a lot of those songs live." Sonic Youth enjoyed a huge spike in ticket sales with its limited Daydream Nation performances, and performed tracks that they normally never perform.

So it seems that these shows have to constantly balance between serving fans' nostalgic tendencies while playing rarely performed tracks and serving up a traditional live experience for a band. While it certainly appeases fans, the move borders perilously close to a marketing gimmick. No one has turned down the concept yet, though.

[Reuters]

5 Responses

August 4, 2008 at 1:17 p.m.

babussolini

Maybe it's a last-ditch effort to establish indie's underground-ness, the idea that it works according to a different model than mainstream's preference for singles

August 4, 2008 at 2:07 p.m.

lala

these are also huge albums. and, they are also old now (flav) or write really crappy new stuff (phair). i don't know if there's really anything indie or nostalgic (at least on the band's part) about this trend. i think it's a matter of ticket sales and playing it safe.

August 4, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.

Johnmel

The tend to think that the full album performance thing works, because of the fact that it changes up the live sets of established bands. In Sonic Youth's case, they basically had to re-learn (and in some ways reinvent) those old songs for a live setting. For them, it worked as both a challenge to the band and as different way to experience the album for their fans. But I can see how the playing a whole album thing can become a gimmick. It's weird for a band to, in a way, "cover" their own songs. But I don't see Sonic Youth or even Liz Phair or Public Enemy turning into the nostalgia-gross Rolling Stones any time soon...

August 4, 2008 at 4:41 p.m.

narfish

I feel like Liz Phair has been playing it safe since Whitechocolatespaceegg and if anything, her Guyville performance may have reminded people that she was relevant once...I'm not so opposed to the idea of recycling the golden era if the current era is sucky. But then you look at a band like Mission of Burma, whose recent stuff is great, but they've scheduled an entire performance of Vs. for their next tour. Based solely on the sold-out LA show I attended for the last one, they did just fine sales-wise. They're not playing it safe. They just realize that there is demand for the older stuff.

August 4, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.

mburr

This is an interesting way for bands to deal with their older catalogs. If the band doesn't want to play "that song" every night, they can schedule it in with a particular show.

Full album live performances feed indie rock nostalgia

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