Call it a “legacy” show; for whatever reason (a PR stunt; to please the die-hard fans; to tape it for a multi-disc live release or series; to raise funds for charity; to end their career with a bang), has any artist pulled this off – and how long did the show run, and how well did the artist[s] maintain their usual level of quality over the duration? The tracks wouldn’t have to be in chronological or any other discernible order, but the setlist[s] have to cover the entire discography. And just to make it extra fun, let’s be as specific as possible as to whether any or all of their songs that only knew a limited life in demo form were included – as well as any cover songs that the artist was known to do over the course of their career.
Two obvious caveats here: I’m only interested in bands with a substantial body of work. One or two albums are a cinch to cover this way; I’m going to set the bar arbitrarily at **four studio LPs – plus B-sides. **
And second: if an artist did this over a span of two or more shows (say, over a weekend), that basically counts, but acknowledge that it wasn’t limited to one onstage appearance.
OTTOMH, I’m not aware of any such concert being staged by anyone, but that in itself doesn’t mean much… What say you, Dopers?
Also, I did a search on “discography” and went through all twelve pages. No such thread yet… until this one!
Coheed and Cambria periodically stage Neverenders, in which they play their entire discography in order (four albums worth, as of the last Neverender. It’s up to five, now, though). It does take place over several days, however.
Being in order is somewhat important because their albums are all part of the same story, and while sometimes obtuse, if you know the background behind each song you can sort of follow the story as they play it.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been to one, as they always take place in New York or London.
On a related theme, the Who did an entire tour where they played the whole Quadrophenia album in order for every show. That was their 96-97 tour. They played some other songs as well after they finished the album.
I don’t know if any other group ever did something like that.
I saw that Who (Tommy) tour. It was horrific. Townsend played acoustic guitar the entire time. Ugh.
Rush is doing something like this for their Fall tour this year. During their three hour set they’ll play the entire ‘Moving Pictures’ album in order.
A few tours ago they did something similar in which they played at least one track from each album they’d released. Brought back a lot of memories, that one did.
Wilco played their entire discography (although I don’t know if b-sides were included) over 5 nights a while back. My Morning Jacket is planning a similar 5 night event in October, with one night for each of their five albums plus b-sides and covers from that time frame.
I hope that sooner or later someone will do it in one fell swoop, even if it runs to a Ring-Cycle-like length (and perhaps elaborateness of staging) that goes on for up to twelve hours or so (with long intermissions between albums).
Seriously? I think it’s more common for a band to play an entire concept album live, when supporting that album, than not. In fact, I can’t think of a case where a concept album wasn’t played in its entirety during its supporting tour. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, I’m just drawing a blank.
I think people are confusing the Who tour in 69 where they played Tommy for a few shows with the 89 tour. The 89 tour was the one where Townshend played a lot of acoustic guitar and they played Tommy for a few nights. For the rest of the 89 shows they opened with a medley of Tommy songs.
The main unusual thing about the Quadrophenia tour was it was 23 years after the album came out. It wasn’t a case of them promoting a new album.
I remember hearing about that, though I didn’t make it to any of the shows. From what I recall, there are a few older tracks that the band regrets and have essentially disowned. But they stuck to the concept and played all their songs. Jeff Tweedy apparently apologized before some songs, and/or told the crowd something like “now’s a good time to go to the bathroom.”
Yep, I was at two of those (incredible) shows. He apologized for making us hear “I Thought I Held You” which he said was crap and we could all take a bathroom break during the song if we wanted. He also made some hilarious faces while singing certain lyrics in the song that made him cringe from their cheesiness.
I believe Hatebreed had 4 albums plus a bunch of singles and EPs when the did two nights for their 10 anniversary show in New Haven. They played every song they’d recorded during the shows, that I know.
It helps when most of the songs are under 3 minutes.
