Hi Folks!

I thought this would be an interesting topic. I was inspired to make this post after seeing In Flames recently. They put on a great show, the band sounded great and they were clearly well rehearsed. However, the setlist was very mediocre. I didn't expect them to play primarily material off the first 5 albums per se, but they only played 2. There was also no encore. After looking at their previous setlists they seemed to typically play 3-5 older songs. Gatecreeper and Creeping Death were both fantastic though! I was just hoping to at least hear a few songs like Moonshield, Jotun, Pinball Map, Behind Space, Ordinary Story, Gyroscope, Artifacts of the Black Rain, or Graveland.

Anyway! So what are some bands with frustrating live setlists? They don't have to be bad necessarily, but just frustrating for whatever reason.

Insomnium on their current North American run. 5 songs from the fairly tepid new album, and then all the predictable shit they've been playing on every tour for the last decade.

The obvious wrongdoers;
Anthrax & Kreator

Can't be bothered seeing them live anymore the past 15 years

I saw Ghost last Summer. Don't care for their post-Meliora radio-friendly pop stuff but the début and sophomore album are good stuff. They only played one track from those. They also didn't bother to play Jesus He Knows Me, the current single from their latest EP and best track they put out in years. I was truly disappointed that day.

For me, it's setlists that are very predictable and feature the same songs time and time again (examples below). Although I do gather some bands want to cater for all fans - the price you pay for being a big fan I guess

Kreator
Already mentioned. I don't mind if they play a load of new songs as I like most of their catalogue. Unless they're playing a special sort of setlist, they tend to pick from the same pool of songs.

Ozzy
You could probably guess about 80-85% of the setlist before the show starts. There were some cool gems unearthed in the Gus G era though (Killer of Giants, The Ultimate Sin, I Just Want You, although the latter two only done once or twice)

Edguy
I saw them a fair few times, and the sets were usually quite similar. The Tinnitus Sanctus tour and Space Police tour did have some nice deeper cuts included though (and the Tinnitus Sanctus show also dropped a few setlist staples).

last time i saw rotting christ a couple of years ago, they played one track off the debut, and all the rest were from the last few snoozefests - sakis sounded like strained shit to top it off

I don't see most bands but every 4 or 5 years if I'm lucky so while it would be cool to see deep cuts Its not a big deal if they play the "hits". That is assuming I don't dislike the material.

Nothing says playing it safe and "we don't believe in our new album" like only doing 2-3 songs from it and the rest of the setlist is the same as the previous tour.

When I go a see band, I want to hear new stuff. And encores can fuck right off anyway.

Deep Purple do a greatest hits (from the 70s) set with maybe 1 80s tune, 1 Morse tune and 1 from whatever the latest album is.

Obviously Ian can't sing anymore so they should lean into the modern Morse stuff but they still insist on Lazy. Ugh.

I've been frustrated (a little) by Overkill, first seing them few years ago, because of setlist but also sounding, I did expected something more like Years of decay but their sound is different onstage, despite the biggest drums on earth they got it light, dynamic fits with modern material for sure (and no it wasn't a bad concert at all) but yeah a bit disappointed to find no fat & heavy thrash

I thought Testament sucked the first time I saw them (2013). It was clearly an off night for Chuck because he was struggling to sing a lot of the songs and they didn't do an encore. Also Overkill were supposed to be at that show but Blitz was sick so they didn't play. Overall a very disappointing night.

The setlist from the Sepultura farewell tour is meh at best. Only a song each from the first four albums. They kicked off the tour here in my country, first time playing here, and I skipped it. After seeing that setlist, no regrets.

I saw them a couple weeks ago in Michigan and it was one of the best shows I've seen in years. But, I absolutely loved the new album Origin and this was my first time seeing them, so I was completely blown away.

*Shit I now see you wrote Insomnium. I was talking about Ominum Gatherum. I listened to about two songs from Insomnium and left. I'm sure I'm in the extreme minority of people that like Ominum Gatherum more than Insomnium without question.

I'd have to be paid to go see In Flames at this point.

I would spend the entire set dwelling on what could've been.

I've seen Leprous a couple of times recently and I really dislike how they always end their set with The Sky Is Red. I think that's one of the worst songs they've made and leaves me with a bummer at the end of the show.

More often that not it's a band playing the classic albums only, but with Gorgoroth it's the opposite. I want to hear more stuff from Pentagram and Antichrist, instead they seem to lean on that piece of shit Quantos possunt.

I have seen them a bunch in the last 6 years.....yeah....I agree. They need to retire "Electric Rattlesnake" at the very least.

Wish Blind Guardian did more old stuff- they were still fucking amazing live but we got two songs from the first four albums that weren't acoustic singalongs (one of which Hansi just let the audience sing!) and those two are my favorites. Especially a bummer since they break out random different old songs in encores which means they could easily swap out even one of the 10+ minute new songs for two old ones without having to learn new stuff or significantly change the setlist.

I happen to like a few of those 10 minute new songs.



Agreed, especially if the new albums are amazing like Invincible Shield and God Machine.

At this point, In Flames themselves are very much aware that they are an almost entirely different entity then what they were in the 90's and 2000's. I still don't really understand how it happened, but around the early 2010's their sound changed drastically, and they became very popular with a very specific kind of crowd. And from what I gather, these newer fans don't give much of a fuck about their material from the 90's and 2000's. And In Flames being where they are now, artistically, probably feel much closer to these newer fans then from their early days fans. It's something I find a little upsetting, in a way, since I believe that bands should try to remember how they got where they are, and how important the early days fans were, but eh... With In Flames the newer stuff is so far removed from what they used to do, it's almost impossible to reconcile the old and the new in a coherent setlist.

Megadeth is the winner here... what a boring set!

Equilibrium did this to me recently, though admittedly it's my fault for not studying setlist.fm like I normally do. Loved their first two albums back in the day, third one was alright too then I stopped paying attention around the fourth as it was obvious their good run was finished. Checked one of their recent singles beforehand and it wasn't amazing or anything but seemed like they were courting fans of the old material.

Boy howdy is their new stuff terrible and completely dominating the setlist. Zero tracks from Turis Fratyr, only the most obvious one from Sagas and not until the very end, zero from Rekreatur.

I love Cannibal Corpse to death, but it's time for them to let go of Hammer Smashed Face / Stripped, Raped and Strangled / I Cum Blood. Keep one, cut the others loose. Let's face it, they're one of the top death metal bands out there, but they aren't pulling 90+ minute sets and they have too deep of a catalog to keep playing the same three songs over and over again.

I would disagree with those picks but I do think they need to retire Scourge of Iron or Evisceration Plague. I saw them in September last year and their set had way too many of those mid-paced ones (Scourge of Iron, Evisceration Plague, Blood Blind, Inhumane Harvest and Death Walking Terror). I get that Blood Blind is a new one and Inhumane Harvest is from the last album, so those two get a pass but come on. Retire Evisceration Plague and Death Walking Terror.

My main complaint about them is that they haven't played enough songs from the new album. Only 3 - We'll Be Back, Soldier On and the title track - have been played live so far, the latter only being debuted a few weeks ago on their newest tour, while Dystopia had 7 songs played.

That and Ironbound, there's so many great songs from both: Endless War, Black Daze, Give A Little, Drop The Hammer Down....the list goes on.




Angry Again needs to die a horrible death.

They're one of the last bands that I personally would complain about. They actually change up their setlist a fair bit from show to show. You may have just been unlucky with the date you caught, though they are pretty heavy on Imaginations/Nightfall/The God Machine on this current tour. Their previous two US tours got a ton of deep cuts from the first 4 albums; I've always been pleased by how diverse their sets are.

Yeah.

I saw them last year and they mainly did the most recent 2 albums, with a small collection of older songs, and I saw in an interview shortly after that since it was their first North American tour post-Covid and they never got to tour Heart Like A Grave, they wanted to do that album justice. Fair. Then apparently the next tour was going to be much more mixed. Excited!

...so much for that. I mean, the new stuff isn't bad, but I'd love to hear some shit from One For Sorrow, or more old tunes as well. A snippet from Winter's Gate would be sick too; I wish I saw that tour. Anyways, I'd seen them twice and am glad I finally got to, but I'm ready to hear them change up their setlist.

Most older bands kinda struggle finding a good balance of tracks I think. Most end up just having a greatest hits set with one or two tracks from the newest album, which is fine if you've never seen them before (and if they can keep the energy up). Generally I'd love if more bands did album anniversaries or special setlists with songs from a specific era or something. As a fan it's always cool to hear some of the deeper cuts.

Isis used to be a bit frustrating.

Looking at setlist.fm, Battle Beast have barely played anything from their first three albums in recent years. I don't know if it's some sort of 'fuck you' to Anton Kabanen, and whilst I'm all for bands playing newer stuff, I think it's shame they're swerving the early stuff, as they've got a lot of good songs on those albums.

Helloween - nowadays they're just playing the greatest hits. Weikath and Gestner said they don't want to play deeper cuts. Sad.
Rage - why the hell do they always play "Straight to Hell"? that's pretty much their worst song ever.
Accept - the ending five or six songs are always the same ones. Also, they completely ignore Russian Roulette. It's so frustrating.
Scorpions - they never play stuff from the 70's.
Aria - they barely play old stuff, which is their best.

In Flames should consider doing an Arch Enemy/Black Earth kind of thing.

Call an alternate version of the band Moonshield or something, get some of The Halo Effect members in there, and do sets that cater to fans of only the early albums.

I think this is one of the few things Arch Enemy has done right recently, and a lot of bands who have radically changed over the years can benefit from doing something along these lines.

I love Iron Maiden to death, but I wish they would drop Fear of the Dark from their setlists. Ironically enough, Fear of the Dark was my first ever Maiden album back in 1992 and the album that made me a lifelong fan and I love the title track, but it's an overplayed song at this point. Other songs I wouldn't mind if they never played live again include: Wrathchild, The Trooper and Aces High.

What bothers me the most about Maiden setlists is that they have such a long discography to choose from, yet there are albums they keep ignoring or playing the same songs from, e.g. No prayer for the Dying, Piece of Mind, Seventh Son, Fear of the Dark, etc.

I wouldn't mind hearing more deep Maiden cuts but there's still people seeing them live for the first time every time they tour- bands like that playing more classic stuff than deep cuts just makes sense. People would riot if they didn't get to hear certain songs live.

Mastodon when they were touring Hushed & Grim. That album has so many slower-type songs, and they played a lot of them. I almost fell asleep.

Thankfully the redeemed themselves when I saw them last year and they played a lot more stuff from Remission and Blood Mountain. And what do you know, the crowd was more into it because they actually played ragers and good songs!

Yeah. I saw them in 2009 and I would be lying if I said it wasn't a disappointing setlist. Backlit is a good song in the flow of Panopticon but to play that instead of So Did We, Grinning Mouths or pretty much any other song from the album? At least they finished with Altered Course, but they also played only one from Oceanic and nothing from Celestial. I certainly had a different view of balancing new with old than the band did. (Dälek played as support, they were massive.)

This is odd, I've seen Kreator six or seven times since 2006 and while they do have a solid group of songs that they will always play live, there has been some pretty good variety in their sets in my opinion. Every time I see them, they slip a few great old tracks in there that they haven't played in years, and I always look forward to those ones. At the same time, there are many great songs by them that I'll probably never see live, but that's kinda how it goes for any band that keeps putting new albums out.

On Amon Amarth's recently tour the last 30 minutes of the set was almost entirely stuff from the recent albums, which is all of their worst stuff. It was just such a weak and disappointing way to close things out after playing all of their greatest hits. I maintain that "raise your horns, raise 'em up to the sky" is one of the cringiest choruses in metal.


The fact that even fans of these bands get them mixed up is fucking hilarious and a perfect encapsulation of the Finnish melodeath sound.

Yeah, I just left after five Amon Amarth songs. I don’t really listen to them anymore but I was a huge fan as a teenager so thought it’d be a fun trip to stick around and see their set with my friends. I checked the setlist beforehand and… what? What do you mean they played all of their greatest hits? Zero WOoOS tracks in a headlining set? How is that excusable? I thought everyone agreed that that’s their best album. Nothing at all from the first four records? What a joke.

Still well worth the price of admission, as Cannibal Corpse was perfection as always, plus Frozen Soul and Obituary were fun as well.