Rise and Rise of The Album Tour

The rise and rise of the 'Album Tour' is continuing in 2013 and is showing no sign of slowing down.  I've attended a few myself recently and I think that they are a definite winner for big fans of the bands but they can tend to alienate the casual fan.

What is an Album Tour?  An album tour is distinct from a normal concert tour because the band will pick one of their albums and play that album in full, usually in the same order as the record.  Album tours do vary though in whether the band chooses to play other songs as well, or just purely plays that one album.  The trick with the Album Tour is figuring out what album is going to be popular enough to draw a large crowd in and keep them interested until the end, without playing many of your other songs.   The element of surprise has also been removed, since most of the audience knows which song is coming next rather than having the enjoyment of recognition of a favourite track after the first few notes are played. A casual listener of a band would be happier with a 'greatest and latest hits' type of set as they will know more of the songs.

Our most recent Album Tour was Weezer, who came to Australia for the first time in a long time, to play what is affectionately known as The Blue Album but is officially titled 'Weezer' plus a greatest hits set.  Weezer fans seem to be of the more 'diehard' variety but I'd say that the specialisation to their debut album did probably cost them a few ticket sales.  The Brisbane Entertainment Centre was only half full but expectation was in the air.  And we were not let down, as the band appeared and started off with a set of their singles and best tracks from each album, played in order from most recent to oldest back to the Pinkerton album, accompanied by frontman Rivers Cuomo's funny 'time machine' sounds between tracks.  The band then took a brief intermission before a screen appeared and began to show photos.  A long-time friend of the band gave a vocal commentary of the band's history and a few funny asides as we saw some quite personal photos and unique memorabilia.  The band then re-appeared in fresh outfits and played through the Blue Album in order. 

It was a ton of fun to hear Buddy Holly, Undone (the Sweater Song), Say it Ain't So, Holiday and Surf Wax America.  Weezer's earliest songs are quite simple, insanely catchy and quite stupid sometimes.  So which part of the set was the biggest winner?  I don't think you could pick a winner here.  The thing about the Album Tour is that usually the best song on the album is not the last track, so it can tend to end on a bit of a sour note with the song that's just filling in the time.  Some people obviously felt this way as they left after about Track 7.  And I'd have to say the biggest sing-along was on El Scorcho from the greatest hits section, much more so than anything on the Blue Album set.  For me, it was a perfect concert since it had all the songs you want to hear and a great album played in full with tracks you may never have heard.  We left on a high and had 'earworms' of the songs for days afterwards.

The biggest Australian example of the Album Tour that I can think of was The Living End's Retrospective Tour.  This was a massive achievement for the band, who played all 6 of their albums in full all around this big country of ours over a couple of months.  In each capital city except Melbourne, there were 7 concerts for 7 nights in a row.  Each concert represented one album, played start to finish, and there were 2 nights for their beloved self-titled debut album.  In Melbourne, the band's hometown, they played something like 11 shows in 10 days, doing extra nights when something would sell out.  As a massive long-term fan of the band I enjoyed this like nothing else before, getting to see songs that have never been played live in the band's extensive live history.  One of the best parts for me each night was the video played before the show which detailed what was happening in the world and around the band creating the album that was being played that night, and the video thanked their fans for their support.  It brought a tear to my eye on the first night and filled me with pride every night after.  I seriously thought nothing had ever been attempted like this before and I give massive kudos to TLE for their energy and commitment to what must have been a draining experience.  But I recently discovered that American band The Bouncing Souls played a run of shows in America where they played all 8 of their albums in full, getting through 2 per night over 4 nights!  Wow!  The Album Tour is alive and kicking.

Ignoring Pink Floyd's "The Wall" tours back in the 1980s which probably were the beginning, I believe it probably has its origins in the "All Tomorrow's Parties" festivals, which is a festival which has happened in various locations around the world and involves one artist or group being chosen to curate the festival by selecting their choice of bands or artists to play.  Since it began in 2005, the ATP people have run a number of "Don't Look Back" events which have featured iconic bands performing an iconic album, sometimes re-forming especially for that purpose.   Past events have included performances from The Stooges ('Funhouse'), Belle & Sebastian ('If You're Feeling Sinister'), Gang Of Four ('Entertainment'), Ennio Morricone (classic film soundtracks), Slint ('Spiderland') and Sonic Youth, whose series of performances of the classic 'Daydream Nation' earned the title of Time Out magazine's Gig Of The Year 2007. 

Other tours I can recall are The Pixies who have done the 'Doolittle' album, Helmet playing 'Meantime'. Bodyjar reformed and played 'No Touch Red'.  A less successful attempt is Australia's The JD Set events, which bring out a band who play the full album of another band of their choosing, usually an inspiration to them.  Good Charlotte playing Weezer's Blue Album was spectacularly unsuccessful, not because the band weren't doing justice to the songs, but because the crowd just didn't want it.  The two bands are too different and the crowd was getting restless for some mindless Good Charlotte pop, so the set was abandoned after about 6 songs.  Weezer playing Weezer was about 3000% better!

To support my claim that this phenomenon is gaining popularity, I present to you the fact that The Offspring have recently sold out 3 shows in Australia where they are playing their debut album 'Ignition' in full, plus a few greatest hits.  These are sideshows while the band is in Australia to play the Soundwave Festival so that is a lot of people who want to see more Offspring.  Given that The Offspring are widely regarded as a joke, a novelty band, sellouts, or just plain making bad music these days, these shows illustrate the power of the Album Tour very well.  'Ignition' actually is a really good album that deserves to be heard in full by the fans although I would have gone if it was 'Smash' instead.  And the speculation is growing by the day that Metallica will be playing the album affectionately known as the 'Black Album' in full at Soundwave 2013, which would be an absolute winner.  That album stands up right through to the last track and would have long term fans excited that it means less of the newer, tinnier songs in the setlist.

If this phenomon is indeed going to continue and grow over time, I'd just like to put out into the universe that I'd love to see Rancid playing 'And Out Come the Wolves', an album which has absolutely transcended place and time and is still on high rotation in the car to this day and where the last three tracks are as strong as the first three.  Track 14 was probably my favourite for many years, a telling sign when most albums made struggle to have 6 or 7 really good songs that you know all the words to.  Second on the wishlist would probably be to hear Rise Against do 'Siren Song of the Counter Culture' and third would be Metallica performing the entire 'Ride the Lightning' album.

Now over to you guys to tell me what great Album Tour gigs you've been to or what would be your dream Album Tour.