What's the shortest (non-interrupted) concert set you've seen?

Johnny Winter at Hammerjacks in Baltimore 1989 theee tunes 30 minutes. I remember thinking it was a short first set and then the lights came on.

 

Mars Volta - 45 mins. Cedric was not feeling well.

 

In 2004 my friend got tickets to see the Who at the Forum, a 2,300 capacity venue. He managed two nights of tickets, at the beginning and end of the run, for himself and three friends. We decided to go on the last night, thinking the band would be settled in by then, and he sold the tickets for the earlier night - bad mistake!

The cigarette smoke at the venue was apparently a big problem for Roger Daltrey's voice, this was in the days when smoking was still allowed indoors. There was an onstage announcement from Harvey Goldsmith himself and many posters asking attendees to refrain from smoking - unfortunately they were printed on A4 sheets, so hardly visible!

So there was still a lot of smoking going on, despite repeated requests from the stage. The result was that the Who cut the setlist short by about seven tunes that performance. I am still not upset about it - we got around 90 minutes of Who, and having made the decision they moved up the setlist to do an incredible version of 'Won't Get Fooled Again', Daltrey giving it everything, and the single encore was an extended 'My Generation that was more like the Live At Leeds version than the bare bones versions usual at the time.

But nothing from Tommy, and we missed out on 'Magic Bus' and 'Kids Are Alright'. Oh well - no hard feelings. Very fond memories, I was with some of my best friends all having a 'pinch me is this real?' moment and we were sitting about fifteen feet from the stage.

 

Exactly my thoughts. I saw someone earlier this year play only about 65 mins and I was not a happy camper. It was a cheap ticket/small venue, but I’d driven a long way to catch that show. If you’re headlining, play 90 mins! Enjoyed Winwood last summer, but he was under 2hrs - something of a disappointment to me. Saw Lindsey Buckingham a few years back and he only played about 80 mins. Thought he should’ve certainly gone two hours...

 

For actual short sets, I saw Wire play for about fifty minutes at the ICA about ten years ago - it was great, just about perfect, and my friend had to leave for a long drive so he missed nothing. The energy level was amazing - we often remark that more bands should risk doing a bare bones high energy set if they can manage it.

 

What's the story there?

 

pil in paris 1980! less than an hour
the smiths in versailles 1984 idem!

 

Johnny must have been very ill. When I saw him he was on a lethal combination on prescription drugs and hardly moved and still played for 80 minutes.

 

I can't take much more than 90 minutes actually, by any artist.

 

Was disappointed by how short ELO was last night. Not on til after 9 and done 1030. Quality was great but no solos or
Jamming. Barely any talk from Jeff.

 

I wouldn't go that far, but as I said about Aretha, I'd rather see a solid hour (or 45 minutes) than a padded 90 minutes or two hours.

 

Well, I'm never drunk or stoned during concerts. I guess time flies faster if you are. But I'll accept 120 minutes .

 

Here's a couple.
Early doors Primal Scream headlining the Exeter Arts Centre (now The Phoenix) The set list was Ivy, Ivy, Ivy and a cover of No Fun. 20 minutes and was wonderful.
The other and also in Exeter this time on the university campus. De La Soul were informed that there was an 11pm curfew at the soundcheck as the venue was being used for exams the following morning . They headed off to their hotel only to return at around 10.20pm . They went on stage at 10.30 and proceeded with the usual set which was around an hour and a half and paced it as such, one of the lesser singles, a bit of on stage banter and couple of new tracks. Sure enough around 25 minutes in the house lights came up. Cue an extremely annoyed audience.

 

Doubt anyone would have minded if they filled some more time with Sabbath tunes. After all, their next album (or next to next, depending which tour you saw) would consist entirely of it.

The first time I saw Ozzy was a tour when Ratt opened for them, i think it was Bark At The Moon tour, I was young and it was a long time ago so not positive. Anyway I brought my little brother, he couldnt have been more than 11, I was about 13. There were religious fanatics protesting and handing out pamphlets, Satan's music, that sort of thing. Well somehow, at some point before the concert, (this was when everyone partied out front befpore shows of course) I lost track of my brother. And when we found him, he was handing out fliers with them. Like he was brainwashed in 5 minutes. I got him tf out of that area pronto, but we teased him mercilessly for years about that. I doubt he set foot in a church for at least a decade.

 

well......she was almost an hour late coming out on stage. i must say, knowing that williams is no beauty queen, she looked especially bad that night.

she played a song.......fiddled about for a while with her guitar.....played another song....walked around the stage talking with band members......played bout half the third song, dropped her guitar on stage, said, "i can't do this tonight, go get your money back'.....and walked off the stage.

never did find out what the deal was either. saw her a coule years later in cleveland and she was unbelievably good.

 

I saw Ozzy Osbourne on the No More Tears tour. I think he played 7 or 8 songs then the played a video of Mama I’m coming home on the big screen.

That was it.

 

There was some furor here (geographically, not on the forum) about a Travis Scott show last week, he was really late I guess. Some girl actually launched a class action suit if I heard correctly. Got hassled at the border I think. Anyway i dont really know his music or if he performs with a band, so maybe this wasnt an option. But this is ideally how it should go down if you are late:

I went to see a free Gil Scott Heron show some years ago. When the band came on they announced that Gil was going to be late. He had border hassles, he was no stranger to them. Anyway it was pouring rain, but the stage was covered and I was practically leaning on it, so whatever was hanging over kept me dry. And the band just started jamming. They probably played 45 minutes to an hour before he got there, not going through the motions or killing time either, really great stuff. He finally arrived and you would never know he was inconvenienced, he was just charm and grace, laughed about it like it was par for the course. He wasnt just a brilliant artist he was a great performer, you felt like he was talking directly to you. So he did his set, I never turned around once. When it was over, I finally did, and to my amazement there couldnt have been more than 100 people there, the rain was torrential by that point. If anybody ever had an excuse for mailing it in, he may have had one that night, but he delivered.

So I missed out on seeing as much of him (that time) as I had hoped, but there wasnt an ounce of disappointment, I'll never forget that show.

 

Good thing OP said not interrupted or this would be a Replacements thread.

 

I went late August 2016 and he played 3:59 and I wanted more.

 

I guess you have to admire her honesty, right? A lot of artists would have just half-assed it for 45 minutes or whatever so they'd still get paid.

 

This show doesn't count as "non-interrupted", so it doesn't fit the thread - clearly Williams didn't intend on a 2.5 sound setlist from the start.

It's an interesting story but not a concert that matches the OP's criteria...

 

PJ Harvey played for just under 45minutes when we saw her. Amazing concert: powerful, sexy and confrontational. The Black Keys played 2 songs at the Bluesfest in Ottawa and we’re off the stage in 3 songs when it started to drizzle. Other bands we’d seen have played through the rain, what’s up w/ that?

 

I saw The Specials in Oakland in late June and their set was only probably about 80 minutes.

 

Salt 'N Peppa... whole set (including a ton of banter in between songs) was just barely an hour.

They played all the radio songs, with no deep cuts. A good show, and I guess they've been doing it long enough to know what the audience wants. Can't say I was disappointed. But its not a show I'd ever pay to see twice.