This thread is inspired by the conversation @gojikranz and I had about the fact that both of us had bought tickets for gigs this weekend in which we were promised the participation of Trevor Horn on overlapping days on opposite sides of the Atlantic… naturally one of us didn’t get what we were promised! But I wondered if any of you had bought tickets for something based on information you were given at the time of the tickets going on sale, that didn’t materialise when the gig arrived? One example that springs to mind is when I bought tickets for one of Steve Hackett’s tours, and in the promo for the tour it specifically said he was going to play “The Steppes” to mark x years since the Defector album. He didn’t - but I spent the whole set thinking “it must be coming next…” Not the worst, since I didn’t exactly buy tickets just for that, but I’ll bet some of you have better stories!
The Waterboys during the Room To Roam tour. They'd released two excellent folk-rock albums but had distilled themselves into a sub-U2 indie-rock quartet for the shows. A crushing disappointment. Not trusted Mike Scott since.
I only have 2 that aren't that big of a deal They Might Be Giants - March 2020, delayed, May 2021, delayed, September 2022 - they skipped Road Movie to Berlin on my stop, but TMBG live shows are full of improvisation and general "it's a surprise" even if the claim was "every song from Flood" or any other album, other gigs on this tour have similar oddities or exceptions, so this is more like a learning experience of their live shows, and it's easily one of my favorite shows I went to Renaissance - October 2022, 50th anniversary tour (err, of Prologue, I guess?). Made a long post regarding this show, I wasn't mad more than extremely confused. Set was incredibly disjointed and half of it was "Annie Haslam related" material. The performance was good, but there's a difference between "deep cuts" and "songs from your solo albums I haven't even heard because they're so distant from Renaissance and you threw like, 4 of them in your set", a track from her appearance on the Intergalactic Touring Band album, and the closer was... I Think of You A short closer is fine, but a lovely folk pop song is a very confusing way to end the show. "Island" from the 1969 s/t was back, Kalynda from Azure d'Or... I don't know, the billing suggested it was going to be a "greatest hits" affair and instead it was like, 3 signature songs, a handful of really unexpected deep cuts I adore like The Sisters, The Captive Heart, Day of the Dreamer... but the first album and Azure tracks were done at the 2021 show I saw, and the rest was so obscure you could tell all the people three times my age might of been actually upset. I consider it a wash personally for the three songs I mentioned - those were wonderful picks, but the second half really went off the rails
Good idea for a thread! I'm struggling to think of any shows where artists/songs/etc were explicitly promised but not delivered. I do remember Robbin Thompson played DC's Bayou the night before Springsteen played RFK Stadium in 1985, and because he and Bruce had been bandmates years earlier, everyone assumed Bruce would pop up for a few songs at Robbin's show. Nope - no sign of Bruce. But since no one promised Bruce, I guess it's not a perfect fit for the thread.
Not sure this is the type of response you're looking for and I'll preface this by saying I adore Bob Dylan but in 1991 I bought tickets to my first ever Dylan show and what I got was a complete **** show. I know Bob likes to re-arrange songs when he plays live but what was played bore little resemblance to songs as I knew them. On top of which Bob was clearly out of it and the classic mumbled delivery was way worse that I ever imagined it would be. To this day, the only show I have ever walked out on.
Saw "The Coasters" at a casino once in the 90s. Found out later there wasn't a single original member in the group.
I went to see the Byrds Celebration in 1994 with the understanding the Gene Parsons was their drummer. They said he had an injury (untrue)
Left of centre post. I was mixing an over seas touring band, venue not sold out but close, after a long and protracted setup for the headliner, with one member (the drummer) being a complete DB, the show gets underway, after the 1st song, guitarist fiddles with his amp, then walks off stage, I thought ah his amp has blown and he has gone to get another one with the tour manager, strike forward, 10 minutes he hasn’t returned, crowd getting restless, tour manager comes up to me, put house music on, gig is over , band has split up. Lol Certainly not what was promised, I did get paid though.
Agree 100% I think I saw the first show of the tour. It was billed as The Renaissance Legacy tour. The first set was fantastic and I figured we'd get more of the same. The 2nd set went off the rails with the solo stuff. I'm sure some people loved it but definitely didn't fit the billing. Actually "I Think of You" would have redeemed the show for me as it's one of my favorite Renaissance songs but they didn't do it that night. sam
This is a whole sub-genre to itself I think! Artists who sound one way on record but live end up presenting things in a very different way… I’ve even seen some artists once and loved it, and gone again expecting something similar but got a totally different experience - I guess this often happens when solo artists bring a large band at the height of their success but as fortunes start to wane, have to scale back (or play completely solo!) I do think though that there should be some indication of what you’re getting when the tickets go on sale.
A few years back Sammy Hagar said he was going to play the entire OU812 album at his Vegas residency with Mike. Never happened. Didn’t even add one OU812 song to the set.
My most recent example - in 2019 my friend and I saw Bat for Lashes in London in support of her excellent “Lost Girls” album which is a real synth and percussion fest. When we got there, it was a very stripped back affair, with Natasha and one other musician playing piano and keyboards and singing - long story short it was actually spellbinding and we both agreed it was an amazing gig. However we both said we’d ideally want to see her with a band next time. Fast forward to 2023- she announces a gig at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Now I cannot find any reference to this now (seems like the original announcement post has gone from social media) but my friend and I both distinctly remember her saying she would have a band so that she could do full justice to the most recent material that didn’t get a proper tour. We eagerly buy tickets, await gig time, and discover that not only is there not a band at all, but vast portions of the set (like three quarters of it?) is Natasha dancing around singing to backing tracks. Much is made afterwards by her and her fans of this wonderful new Kate Bush-esque stage presentation but from where I was sitting, she put on a costume, danced about in front of a mirror, and when things got really exciting, stood on top of a fake rock. (There was one other musician, who occasionally played violin; and occasionally Natasha played piano but honestly it was mostly karaoke with mime…) I think this is probably my most disappointing example!
When I saw KISS in 1983 I only learned the day before that Ace was no longer with them. Heard it from kids in school who didn’t even like the band. Gene kept saying in the press that Ace was fine, he’s playing on the record, etc. Promotion for the concert was the Creatures album cover which naturally features Ace. I was a MASSIVE fan and this was my second time seeing them (first time since 1979), and Ace was my favorite, so it was definitely disappointing. On the plus side, as replacements go I enjoyed Vinnie Vincent.
I had a similar experience in Las Vegas. Joe Grushecky played at a casino the night after Springsteen played the MGM Grand. Of course rumours were rampant that Bruce was going to show. And I saw a spare Fender amp on stage with a patch cord coiled on top just begging to be plugged into a Fender guitar. . . My waitress said the Boss was in the house . . . but he didn't show. The show was sponsored by a Springsteen fan club and the place was packed with Springsteen fans. My guess is that he didn't want to steal the spotlight from Joe. It would have been my only small club Springsteen experience. Ah well, I still had a great time!
I am very much in love with the rich dynamic between artists creating in the moment and their audience. I have been to too many concerts in recent years that have involved one, sometimes two, occasionally three middle aged men-in-black hunched over laptops laid out side by side on a refectory table. Very occasionally there might be a guitar and some nondescript back projections involved . Press play, look serious and keep your head down to avoid eye-contact with the rubes. It's something but it isn't what I recognise as a concert. I think the performer-listener exchange adds something and when it is absent and there is no attempt to create a visual context and the venue is designed for listening rather than dancing then I feel like the butt of a joke. There are plenty of people who think arena pop shows are ersatz because of lip-syncing and the emphasis on dance but are happy to take seriously what is essentially a paying audience attending a studio playback session. I saw Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith recently (whose music I usually absolutely love on record) and although her set was very one paced she at least makes an effort to bring a degree of spectacle to what I suspect is a musical performance where most of the work has been done in advance with no audience present. For the record, this is not about genre. I am not at all interested in bands of excellent players whose sole aim is to recreate the records they have already made as accurately as possible. What is the point in that?
2003 KISS Symphony in Melbourne originally had Ace on the promo. The other three flew over for a press conference some months before to promote it and said they “hoped” Ace would be there. Ended up being Thayer’s first official concert as a full member. Ace on the poster. Ironically signed on the top by Thayer. 2001 Australian/Japanese Farewell Tour dates were advertised as original lineup as well, Eric Singer rejoined after tickets had been sold.
KISS on the End Of The Road Tour - "when we've played in your town it will be the last time EVER" They were back four years later in the same town, same venue, same setlist, tickets 3x the price. I passed.
“Once we play your city, that’s it” - Paul Stanley, 2019. They’ve played Sydney for the last time ever in 2022 and are going back for one “final ever” show there later this year. They played the final ever show at Tokyo Dome twice, 2019 and 2022. I’ve lost count how many “final ever” UK shows they’ve done on this tour. They’ve been back for at least two festival shows after the tour itself. They played the final ever show at Madison Square Garden in 2019. Two more scheduled for December 2023.
"The road is still under construction" - Paul Stanley, 2023 These guys could easily have been politicians.
This is slightly left field, but I booked tickets to see Jean-Michel Jarre. Had priority booking at the venue, so got in early and got really good seats. Third row in the center by the middle aisle. They were not cheap, as you can probably guess. I was really made up and looking forward to a great gig. Got to the venue in plenty of time, went to the seats expecting to be in the middle, only to find I was right at the end of the row in front of a massive speaker stack. Talking to everyone around me we were all not where we expected, and the people in the middle were made up as they thought their seats were going to be at the edge. Either the promoter or the venue had got the seating plan reversed, and everyone was in the wrong place. It was too late to do anything, and no-one took any responsibility for the error. They all blamed each other. The people in the best seats were not going to give them up, and the people at the venue did not want the hassle of trying to sort it out. They said we needed to talk to the promoter, try contacting them on a Sunday evening!!! Really spoilt the gig as it was a big arena, and we were a long way away from the center and had to crick our necks to see anything. Had a good view of the speaker stack though
Ian Brown last year going on your without a band, and singing karaoke to backing tracks. whilst not explicitly stating he would be playing with a band - it’s clearly expected from an artist with his catalogue of songs.
Completely agree with this- I went to see Ulrich Schnauss a few years ago, and it was a lot like watching someone working really hard on a budget spreadsheet, but zero performance. Even the pretty projections couldn’t make it worth staying to the end.
