Can We Please Retire the “Play the Whole Album” Show
Can we please all be done with full album live shows?
I went to go see The Wallflowers on Thursday, in Gruene, Texas, just outside of New Braunfels. I’ve wanted to see them for a long time etc. I don’t know why I thought they were a little bit cheesy back in the day, but I always liked them—what some people would call a guilty pleasure, but I’m a not guilty pleasures guy.
Anyhoo, my wife and I went down, had a wonderful dinner, and saw the show. They sounded great. And just as importantly, they looked great.
A real crackerjack L.A. band. Jakob Dylan is a great front man. And as he ages, the tougher his voice sounds, the better it sounds, in a very Dylan-esque way. I’m a big fan, and their music gets a little better every year.
Howevever!, I had no idea they were playing the big album, Bringing Down the Horse, live.
The problem is it’s front-loaded. All the hit songs are on the front side. So they just kind of went through them in succession, and then played all the slow numbers from the B side. All good songs—very weird pacing. And I don’t know how the album ended up that way in the first place, but so be it.
It made for a very awkward show. So awkward that Jakob even commented on it himself, multiple times.
So, artists of the world, I release you from feeling like you have to do these kinds of shows. You have my permission not to do them anymore.
I saw Pixies do it once, and they were actively horrified, and it made the show very weird.
Let us not do this anymore.
I will still go. I will still pay the money to see it. But it is not my preference.
And now you all know.