Concertgoers know well enough that most bands tour with a specific setlist. But in some tantalising cases, the songs about to come remain a mystery. Imagine seeing someone in the crowd excitedly refreshing a fan database between songs, trying to work out what is coming next – and inevitably being surprised anyway!
Bring Out Your Dead
There is a good argument to be made that The Grateful Dead were the model of this phenomenon. Their setlists varied so much from one night to the next that the catalogue of songs they are documented to have played runs past 500, and fans followed them from city to city because no two shows were the same. Deadheads kept meticulous records, first in printed guides like Deadbase and later online. The Internet Archive’s collection of Grateful Dead shows still holds recordings of nearly every available concert.
Some bands make this an art form, theming each gig around something different. Take Phish. In the summer of 2017, the band played thirteen nights at Madison Square Garden, each themed around a different doughnut flavour, and got through a whopping 237 songs without a single repeat. Rolling Stone’s breakdown of all thirteen nights shows how much ground that covered, and it’s ludicrous in the best possible way.
Making Guessing Part of the Show
When done well, this kind of uncertainty is not a flaw in a live show. After all, fans who know the encore in advance have already heard the concert in a way. It also gives a good reason to buy tickets for a second, third, and subsequent night, because every show is unique.
Sometimes it is this unique:
The same design idea turns up in less expected places. Games of chance have long relied on the fact that you cannot predict the next result, and people understand this is exactly what makes them interesting. Sometimes, it’s part of the structure, not just the outcome: Megaways slots that reshape the reels on every spin are a clear example. This mechanic, developed by Big Time Gaming, changes how many symbols sit on each of six reels from one spin to the next, so the layout itself is different every time. With up to 117,649 ways the symbols can line up, the next configuration is just as unpredictable as a Phish setlist.
Bands that play the same set every night are dependable, and there is nothing wrong with that either from a concertgoer perspective. But there really isn’t anything like having a bit of mystery when showing up for the big night. In an interview with Total Guitar, Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam said “It’s kind of odd to have 130 odd songs and people are clambering and if we play it people will be on the internet [looking for them].” And isn’t that part of the fun? It can be especially sweet for longtime fans, as it always offers a way to relive the first time listening to the band, when everything in the collection was new, and there was always a surprise around every corner.
