Powerage5

Then put the blame on the festival promoters, not Maiden. Maiden do not change their setlists, period. Often not even between different legs of the same tour. That's common knowledge, and the theme of this tour (Longer songs from the new album and deep cuts from Somewhere In Time) was known pretty clearly when they would've been booked for Power Trip even if the exact setlist wasn't set in stone until rehearsals happened in April. It's not the first time the band has done a setlist which is geared towards diehard fans (In 2006 they played the entire then-new A Matter Of Life And Death album front to back, and in 2010 they played almost exclusively songs released since 2000; that tour hit a number of major festivals including Wacken), and Bruce is well known to stir the pot plenty and wreak a little havoc - this is nothing that would come as a shock to a promoter, and you can't fault the band for taking a big fat paycheck if they're contacted to play a festival like this.

But that was always going to be the case, wasn’t it? A vast majority of bands don’t do special performances for a big event, especially if it’s one that just falls in the middle of a tour. It’s not practical to put in the amount of effort it takes from a musical or production standpoint to prepare a special set for a show like this…to only play it once. It’s not even really fair to expect any collaborations between acts at this as a number of these bands notoriously do not ever have guest spots in their set, nor do they guest with other acts. You can’t expect bands that are going on 50 years old to change how they do things now. I wouldn’t even say AC/DC made a special effort - this is basically the Rock Or Bust Tour 2.0. 21 of the 24 songs played last night appeared at some point on the ROB Tour, and of the remaining three two new songs replaced the two ROB songs in the set. Stiff Upper Lip is the only truly unexpected song in the whole set. In a strange way, Priest has actually put in the most effort to making this a unique show despite being a pure greatest hits set. It was their only show in 2023, the setlist wasn’t too similar to their previous tour, and they had Glen guest with them in the encore.

I haven’t watched anything yet either. But worth noting this is the longest AC/DC show with Brian ever. I think the prior record was 20 songs, certainly not more. As for the setlist I can really only nitpick the Power Up songs. Would’ve liked one more, and while Shot In The Dark was a guarantee, I’d have preferred something else over Demon Fire. Other than that, no complaints. Plenty of rarities that got dug up for ROB stuck around (Including some that only got played with Axl), Stiff Upper Lip is a great surprise, first ever public performance of Riff Raff with Brian, and they’re still got The Jack missing from the set. Not much I can complain about there - great to see!

You ain't kidding - Blade Runner theme into Caught Somewhere In Time is the best opening I've seen them do, and that encompasses every tour since 2005. Had, yes. He's been cancer free since 2015, and it didn't really affect him at all (In the immediate time following his cancer treatment he was actually sounding better than right before his cancer). More recently Nicko had a stroke earlier this year which left him with limited mobility - his drumming has been a little simplified as he works towards fully regaining his movement. I really, really hope you get to. It's a diehard's absolute dream with so many deep cuts, new songs, and so few massive hits.

Everything is shaping up to be very similar to the Rock Or Bust Tour - two deep cuts from that setlist rehearsed, stage is very similar, etc.

At the very least, Brian (And all of AC/DC for that matter) will give it their all. They are not a band to crack under pressure. I don’t know how Brian will sound, but he will give everything he has.

And since Maiden’s physical stage set hadn’t changed in 20 years. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody

But let’s be honest, Chris Slade has the best hi-hat game of any AC/DC drummer.

You say that without any context - Maiden songs are much longer than GN’R songs. Of the 15 songs in their set this tour two of them are over 11 minutes long and another five songs over 8 minutes long. Seven of the fifteen songs have either never been played live, or haven’t been played live since 1987. It’s also probably the most technically demanding setlist they’ve ever played - there’s some extremely complex songs in the set this tour. I get that Maiden isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but they certainly are not a lazy band by any means. They chance their setlist radically from tour to tour, they play a large dose of new material when touring behind a new album, they’re all pushing their late 60’s (Except Nicko who is 71 and had a stroke earlier this year), they’re still very energetic onstage, and on top of all of that, they still sound pretty damn good. Not every band has to play marathon-length sets to be a hardworking band that gives fans their money’s worth.

Yep, forgot to mention they have side fill screens on this tour. I meant more along the lines of they don’t use a full video screen like Guns do (I.e. they can’t practically share equipment for the sake of a quicker turnover). That side the side fill screens are really just used to “extend” the backdrops for about half of the show (Days Of Future Past, The Prisoner, Alexander The Great, etc). Much different than how most bands make the video screens the focal point of the backdrop.

They have side screen stages with a feed of the concert yes, they just don’t use screens for visual effects of any sort.

Maiden’s stage set is fairly involved - they basically have an upper level to the stage that surrounds the lower level on three sides like a horseshoe, it’s about 7 feet tall and maybe 10 feet behind the drum riser. They also have a unique rigging at the back of the stage that’s basically a series of curtain rods each with a different backdrop on it, they’ll go through about ten different backdrops in a show. Everything about their show is old school practical effects, no digital screens. I imagine changeover will take quite some time and there isn’t a practical way to back line their production. The rigging has been the same for the last 20 years with the visuals changing every tour - this picture is a good representation of their setup:

Both of these belong in the MyGNR Hall Of Fame. Speaking of which...why isn't that a thing?!?

I’m not listening to this or anything else until the album drops. Angry is plenty to tide me over.

All good points. The explanation I gave was definitely simplified and more to discredit the “a vinyl rip is no better than a cellphone leak” narrative. The EQ issue I usually account for by ripping an additional track (Assuming we’re talking about something where I can compare to a proper digital copy whether it’s streaming or from a CD) and play around with the EQ on the additional track to try and get it as close as possible to the digital source, then I know what filters to apply to the track I actually wanted to rip.

No worries! It seems like a lot of people here think a vinyl rip is the equivalent of the cellphone leak or the people recording Perhaps in the bars while playing it on the jukeboxes - that’s not the case at all. A vinyl rip is literally using a turntable as the audio input on a computer, and recording from the input. So exactly what is coming through your speakers is what ends up on the digital file. So if it’s an old record that’s chewed to shit and full of pops and skips, that’ll reflect on the file. If it’s a brand new record that’s a good quality pressing and has no flaws, the file should be extremely good (Like the example I gave above).

It's extremely easy to get a good vinyl rip, given that the vinyl is in excellent condition, and it's a quality pressing (This is absolutely key - if it's a crap pressing, it's gonna be a crap rip). A minor amount of touching up the rip can make it sound excellent. To give an idea - this is a rip of a vinyl-only track from one of my favorite bands, that doesn't sound like it's been touched up after ripping to me. If you think this sounds like ass, I don't know what to say

Good to see ya back around these parts man!

Views on YouTube videos don't necessarily correlate with the level of anticipation the forums have, nor do they account of repeat viewings (Not saying there's necessarily a lot of those, but certainly a small number). You don't hype the song up to be the myth it is because a YouTube video told you to - it's a totally different experience than being on the forums, getting the tiniest breadcrumb about it every few years, etc. That's why we in particular have built it up so much compared to a wider audience. There are surely not tens of thousands of unique forum users who have had that experience with this song and all hold it in that regard.

I agree with a lot of this. But one thing that we on the forums tend to forget is The General is the most anticipated GN’R song of all time…for a few hundred people. We put it on a pedestal, but 99.9% of GN’R fans have never heard of The General. It’s very easy for us to oversell the song’s mythological status, because we ourselves have wanted to hear it for so long. But most GN’R fans out in the wild probably don’t care to hear it, or anything else as long as the band keeps touring the hits.

He did not confirm it. He was asked if it would be on streaming and responded with "perhaps". That may be a cheeky way of saying it will be, but it may very well mean exactly what he said. Either way, it was not an unequivocal "yes".

Your arguments are a much more reasonable take which I can’t find any issue with. My initial post was more about people saying they’re done with the band over this, how this band can’t do anything right, or how every other artist out there releases every single song on streaming services. That is simply not true and there is plenty of precedent for a release like this in the music industry even in modern times.

I think the mythical status of the song is certainly part of it, or at least why so many people seem so vehement about it in this instance. But that’s also why I mention that I’ve seen plenty of similar comments about UYI and LNL AFD. It may be more drastic in this instance, but it’s not an isolated incident. I also think the nature of the song, from what little bit we know and have heard, may be why it’s not getting a widespread release. We know according to Bach it’s the heaviest GN’R song to date. We’ve heard enough from the cellphone clip to support this statement I think. The song is alleged to be about child abuse. Combine all of this, and it’s clear the song is not going to be mainstream in any way. It could very well be a calculated move to release it as an exclusive track that’s available to the diehards who know the song’s reputation and are excited to hear if, while not making a big fanfare about it to a mainstream audience who the song may not sit well with. There is another option I haven’t seen mentioned yet. Suppose the 7” comes with a download card - these UMG press releases wouldn’t technically be false as the only (legal) way to get the song would be to purchase the 7”, but would still give the option to have a digital copy. I wonder if people would still feel so upset if that scenario were to play out.

I don’t get how this is a “cloud of uncertainty”. It’s not commonplace for B-sides and bonus tracks to be released in streaming. Loads of other artists have vinyl-exclusive tracks, and you never see them explicitly saying ahead of release “you won’t be able to stream this, so you better buy the physical release!”. Some artists like to have vinyl-exclusive tracks, and I think that’s a great thing to keep the tradition of physical media alive. In a way it’s really grinding my gears because I don’t see other fandoms have this level of outrage when a single track isn’t released on streaming. Yes, I get that GN’R fans are particularly starved for new music. But I saw plenty of similar complaints (albeit to a far lesser degree) about the Japan exclusive bonus tracks on the UYI reissues, and the hidden cassette in the Locked N Loaded AFD set. There’s a tradition of artists giving Japan in particular bonus tracks, and having hidden goodies in big, expensive box sets. There’s no reason to abandon some of these practices just because 99.9% of new releases get put on streaming services. I don’t agree with TB on almost anything, but situations like this really give credit to Beta’s infamous “complaints, complaints, complaints” comment - GN’R fans have such a dramatic way of twisting every single positive into a negative.

I've seen them 7 times since 2016 (2016 x2, 2017 x2, 2021 x2, 2023 x1). In those 7 shows I've seen 46 songs played, not counting solos and jams but including Duff songs. It's So Easy x7 Knockin' On Heaven's Door x7 Live And Let Die x7 Mr. Brownstone x7 Nightrain x7 Paradise City x7 Rocket Queen x7 Sweet Child O' Mine x7 Welcome To The Jungle x7 Chinese Democracy x7 November Rain x7 You Could Be Mine x7 Estranged x7 Civil War x7 Double Talking' Jive x7 Better x6 The Seeker x5 Coma x5 This I Love x4 Patience x4 Don't Cry x3 My Michelle x3 Slither x3 Used To Love Her x2 Yesterdays x2 You're Crazy x2 Absurd x2 Black Hole Sun x2 I Wanna Be Your Dog x2 Raw Power x2 Wichita Lineman x2 Madagascar There Was A Time Whole Lotta Rosie Anything Goes Attitude Bad Obsession Dead Horse Down On The Farm Hard Skool New Rose Out Ta Get Me Perhaps Pretty Tied Up Reckless Life TV Eye