Janabis

What's the point other than fun playing secret gigs to 100?

Why do they need a reason other than having fun?

GNR is playing in Canada where the big cities are thousands of kilometers away from each other, it's winter, people don't travel much in the winter, so I see no reason for changing the setlist completely for the few fans who go to more than one show.

You still don't get it. Do you understand why there are only a "few fans" who go to more than one show? It's not because it's Winter and it's not because they need to drive hundreds of kilometers. It's because the songs played are 95%-100% the same each and every night of a given tour (Tokyo and Osaka being the only exceptions). I'm just one guy and I would have gone to at least two more shows on this tour alone. I know there are lots of other fans like me. We're talking about thousands or tens of thousands of additional ticket sales over the course of a tour. Pearl Jam have based their whole career on building that kind of fanbase and that's why they're so much more successful.

-You still don't get it

-I know a lot of fans who went to more than one show

-I would have gone to more than 2 shows, but you know, I gotta work too

-"I know there are lots of other fans like me"

-"We're talking about thousands or tens of thousands of additional ticket sales over the course of a tour." FYI most of the shows were almost sold-out

-"Pearl Jam have based their whole career on building that kind of fanbase and that's why they're so much more successful" Success is relative. Can PJ fill 5 soccer stadiums in South America?

Sounds like you're agreeing with pretty much everything I said.

GNR is playing in Canada where the big cities are thousands of kilometers away from each other, it's winter, people don't travel much in the winter, so I see no reason for changing the setlist completely for the few fans who go to more than one show.

You still don't get it. Do you understand why there are only a "few fans" who go to more than one show? It's not because it's Winter and it's not because they need to drive hundreds of kilometers. It's because the songs played are 95%-100% the same each and every night of a given tour (Tokyo and Osaka being the only exceptions). I'm just one guy and I would have gone to at least two more shows on this tour alone. I know there are lots of other fans like me. We're talking about thousands or tens of thousands of additional ticket sales over the course of a tour. Pearl Jam have based their whole career on building that kind of fanbase and that's why they're so much more successful.

GNR would definitely sell more tickets and develop a bigger hardcore fanbase if they mixed up the setlists more. I've seen them seven times over the years and I would definitely have gone to more shows if they were putting just a couple little surprises in each one. I saw them once on the current tour based on the great shows they played in Japan. If they were still playing the 2006 set I wouldn't have bothered, and if they had been playing different UYI material at each show I would have seen them two or three times here in Canada instead of just once.

If you don't care about what songs they play, that's fine, but you should understand that there are many fans who really do care and decide on how many shows to go to based on that. That's why Pearl Jam can sell out pretty much any venue in the world and GNR can't come close. It's the hardcore fans who want to see every single song played and travel to each and every show to make it happen that makes the difference in ticket sales when you compare bands like GNR and PJ. If GNR wants the kind of fan support that is needed to sell out arenas across the US then they really need to earn it, and you can't do it by rotating through the same set of ~25 songs and leaving half of your catalogue permanently untouched.

Just got home, it was a really good show. Axl sounded better than I expected, even on This I Love. Axl had almost nothing to say all night, but he seemed to be in a good mood anyway. Whole Lotta Rosie was a nice surprise and sounded excellent. I would have preferred Prostitute or Catcher over some of the other new tunes, but I'm impressed with the length of the shows they're playing these days. The only part of the set that didn't flow very well was This I Love leading into Nightrain. It just seemed like an awkward choice at that point in the show.

I can still purchase 6 floor tickets and 5 seated tickets, I know that's only a little example but it doesn't exactly sound like a packed out arena. But fuck it, i'm sure it will be awesome none the less!

Yeah I just bought a ticket for Sunday's Edmonton show this morning. Floor tickets still available and I got a nice seat in the 100 level near the stage.

"We did Wholte Lotta Rosie with piano!!"

Nightrain

NFW...This is the best set-list GNR has ever done PERIOD.

Let's not get carried away.

I really wish they had started playing sets like this one back in 2002.

I'm impressed that there are still such dedicated fans around. I'm actually going to be in Tokyo that weekend but not sure if I'm willing to go through the hassle of looking for a ticket and waiting around all night to see if Axl shows up.

Every decade has some contribution by a classic band , but what did the ninties give us ?

Radiohead and Pearl Jam are the first that come to mind. All the grunge bands of the early '90s contributed a lot to rock music, though most of them formed in the late '80s I guess (AIC, Soundgarden, Nirvana etc).