If your favorite band were coming to town, would you be excited? Of course. What if they announced they were going to perform a start-to-finish rendition of an album that established them as superstars? Well, obviously, that would be upsetting.
At least, that’s the conclusion you might come to, based on a 2009 Washington Post article I ran across while doing research about Styx’s Tuesday night performance of “Pieces of Eight” and “The Grand Illusion” at the Tivoli.
This may be Styx’s first foray into performing a classic album, start to finish, but similar shows have been going on since Pink Floyd’s The Wall Tour in 1980-1981, which some consider the start of the trend. This year, Roger Waters is revisiting the album on its 30th anniversary with The Wall Live, a two-leg tour with 100-plus dates, almost three times as many venues as hosted “The Wall” in the ’80s.
At a series of dates at Giants Stadium last year, Bruce Springsteen played through a classic album a night, including “Born To Run,” “Born in the U.S.A.” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” Weezer recently confirmed special shows for “Pinkerton” and the self-titled “Blue Album” as part of its upcoming Memories tour in November. Devo, The Pixies and Steely Dan have also performed album concerts.
Post writer Chris Richards questioned this trend, arguing that substituting a track list for a set list eliminates the element of surprise vital to live shows, turning bands into the equivalent of human iPods.