Just returned from a week in California. A few uber-fans and I followed Cowboy Junkies from show to show. Fuel prices were higher than Hawaii but beer prices were substantially lower. You win some and you lose some.
Seeing eight concerts in eight days was nothing short of fabulous when you live on an island that gets less than eight worthwhile shows each year. Over the course of the tour, the band never opened with the same song which had me thinking about opening songs.
The first show I scalped tickets to was Billy Joel (which felt lame in high school and seems even less cool now). His show went Storm Front -> Allentown which I remember only because my friends and I had a pool on the opening song. I had my money on Allentown. Looking back, this seems the most logical approach to set list building. Promoting a new album can be delicate when fans want to hear popular songs they can sing along with. Everybody is on their feet and excited when a band hits the stage. It's a great time to "slip" a new song through and then transition right into a hit.
My favorite concert opener (off the top of my head right now) would be Bon Jovi in 1989. After Skid Row opened (and my mom left to stand in the lobby), the boys from New Jersey opened with "Lay Your Hands On Me" which blew my Catholic school socks right off. The keyboards and drums build and build and then the band explodes on stage. The rest of the show was pretty disappointing and ranks near the bottom of my glam rock phase. But the opening song killed.
With set lists hitting the internet shortly after each show, bands should be more anxious than ever to keep it fresh and surprise the fans. After all, it would be pretty lame to play the exact same set list each night when everyone with a ticket could Google what you played last night. It would be even lamer if you did that after charging $250 for a ticket. That would mailing it in. Even if it's in a bottle, Sting.
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