Drjohnrock

The most prominent example I can think of is The Fall. For the most part, when you saw them, they played mostly material from the latest album, some from the album before that, and very little older material. And what older material they did play almost never included their most revered older tunes like Fiery Jack.

I always found The Fall's approach in that regard refreshing, though I can see how it would put a lot of fans off. When most people spend their hard earned money for a concert, they want to hear the songs they're most familiar with.

When I saw Lou Reed on tour in support of his 1989 New York album, he took a King Solomon approach: the first half of the show was tunes from that album while the second half was older material. I was glad that some of the older material was from 1987's Mistrial, an album which a lot of people dislike but I don't.

jadis

Fiery Jack is such a classic...

My postpunk obsessed friend lived in London around 2015-6 and saw The Fall back then and said he *really* wasn't happy with the show because they only played the latest album and he didn't like the latest album so he got a rotten deal...

Drjohnrock

The Fall was very well known by then for focusing on new material. But live Fall was very different from the recordings. I didn't like The Infotainment Scan album but the stuff off of it sounded better live.

Norg

none ive noticed alot of live acts play there hits no matter what ...like they got a gun to there head if they dont :P

might be a industry thing IDK

Buckeye Randy

The extreme of playing new material can be Todd Rundgren. It can be a little challenging when he plays a new album start to finish and it hasn't been released yet.

As far as playing hits, Radiohead didn't play Creep when my son saw them.

Buckeye Randy

I have no problem with this.

If I see a band nearly every tour, I look forward to new material and lesser known deep tracks.

If I'm seeing a band for the first time, I like the sampler platter that includes the best known songs.

I know some artists feel obligated to play a hit even if they personally don't care for. I have no idea if Eddie Money liked or disliked the song "Two Tickets To Paradise". I smiled when I saw him around 2005 and he opened with what is arguably his most famous though not highest charting song. I thought he must hate hearing people scream, "2 Tickets". The remedy to that, get it out of the way!

Similarly, when I saw The Saints (RIP Chris Bailey) kick off their American tour in 2007 they played "(I'm) Stranded" 2nd or third in the set. That was a fun night!

SweetHeartHolly

My most favorite singer, Mason Ramsey that is, just released his first album on September 20th and so a lot of it is being done during his shows. It has fourteen songs on it and Mason had a hand in writing every last one of them.

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly (a girl who only loves him more every day)