Aloha !

I've read other Def Leppard fans say the same thing and complain about Def Leppard's stale setlist many times. However, would it have been different if they'd have focussed on the past but would have selected different songs from their back catalogue?

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

When it comes to Bon Jovi, for someone who has seen them several times, there's generally no more than 2 songs in the set that are something less predictable. And when tour goes on, even those two turn to predictable.

No. What would be exciting is for different back catalog songs thrown in with good focus on the new album songs. I've saw them twice in the last decade because of this. I actually had an excellent show in 2002 on the X tour with the kind of setlist I wanted, but it was the last of such shows. The last time I saw them was ridiculous.. even playing Mirror Mirror did not make up for it and I walked out during the encore. I don't walk out of shows.

Rush serves up a shining example of exactly how to do it. Their sets are made up of a good chunk of the latest album along with well known classics and obscure album tracks. Just look at the Clockwork Angels setlist. Their setlists are pretty static! When they toured doing the entire Moving Pictures album... it was done with that focus while still doing obscure material from throughout their history (which is precisely the model Def Leppard is currently following.) So if Bon Jovi were to do it.. it's fine to do a tour that celebrates Slippery When Wet or New Jersey by doing the entire album.. but NOT on a new album tour. It would have to be a separate tour.

Nope. Even though this is not a bon jovi setlist thread, which has been discussed a million times on here before, I can look at the setlist from, say, a Dublin show of each tour from These Days right up to 2011, and the setlist is significantly different each time. Even between the two back to back shows in 2011, totally different sets. Some lousy choices and/or performances of course, but this band do (at least more than DL) attempt to represent their entire career catalogue across a tour- with the exception of 7800 of course :(! - I'm talking about mixing sets up, not playing rarities btw.

As for Sebby there;
Meh, not really, but that's just me. I like hearing new fresh songs by a band I that I am seeing live who I have seen several times before. That ''current'' feeling, knowing that your listening to a current song, written recently by the artist in front of you is a good vibe. The song might suck of course, but I still find it exciting. That is why I like watching support bands too, or when an artist I like says they are going to play a brand new song I haven't heard, I am very interested and usually would take this over a song I've seen them perform countless times before.

I love a bit of nostalgia, don't get me wrong - but the reason I probably won't be going to see bands like Aerosmith or Leppard again for example is that I have seen them already and could probably predict 95% of the set, and I know they won't be playing any of the newer stuff, especially once that tour is over. I Liked 'Just push play' and 'Songs from the sparkle lounge'' for example, but it sucks that it's pretty unlikely I will see the songs live at a new gig.

Andi

They did play songs from the new albums - before they had to do double-headlining. During Slang tour, they played 4 Slang songs when I caught them. Euphoria, same thing Ditto for X tour. That's a good amount to represent the new album. I don't want to hear more than 5 new songs in a show. Bon Jovi and Iron Maiden, which are two of my favorite bands are the worst in this - let's face it, none of their recent albums are classics, so goddamn play more songs from your history (excluding the hits that should be played anyway), you have at least 10 studio albums! ****ing Maiden toured AMOLAD playing every snooze inducing songs from that album and ****ing Bon Jovi played 8 HAND songs and didn't play BOBITA. Those suck balls. I understand you need to promote the new albums but that's overkill.

Anyway back to Def Leppard, after X tour, they started doing those double headlining shows and that's when the setlist started to suffer. I think they played max 2 songs out of YEAH and 2 (or max 3 songs) for SFTSL. Way too few. I used to say they caught the Poison setlist disease. But maybe that has something to do with the shortened time - they did double headlining after all. BJ never had to suffer through that.

This LV residency is focused on Hysteria. The first part of the set is just a bonus and they've done well busting out old songs including Good Morning Freedom (come on, in BJ history that's like busting out Love Is War).

I'm good with bands touring and playing full albums as long as it's their classic albums. I am totally against bands touring and playing 2/3 or the entire new album. That is just shit.

Ha, we are very different it seems, which is fine. And ''Matter of life and death'' is actually by favourite Iron Maiden Album as a whole, so I was ecstatic at that setlist on the tour, as I have seen Maiden several times before and this was a new experience plus I loved the songs.

But yeah, you raised a good point re: these co-headlining tours being part of the problem for DL. Both times I saw them they were 'sharing' (still as headliner..) the bill with first Whitesnake/Alice Cooper and on the second show Journey.

Andi

You must've enjoyed that AMOLAD show then, good on you. I absolutely hated it. Not a big fan of the album either - was very happy with BNW and DOD, not happy with AMOLAD.

I also caught the DL double headlining, with Whitesnake, but I went because I wanted to see Whitesnake not DL.

Hopefully DL can headline again in the future. Or if they want doubleheadlining, just tour with Bon Jovi. That would be a great tour if they each play their full set.

I don't get how playing 8 songs of a new album in that album's tour is overkill and it isn't overkill when they play the same greatest hits songs since they've been released. I'm totally in if a band is playing new songs, that's what makes it interesting to see them several times and it's what makes you know that you'll hear the new songs live and they won't be just forgotten in time.

According to this, it looks like the Viva Hysteria shows from earlier this year will be put together for a DVD!

http://www.deflepparduk.com/2013newsjul141.html

Thanks for the heads up, Dave! I had been following that site during the Viva Hysteria shows. They did announce they were filming at the time. I do hope they wind up releasing the entire show or what would be equal to one between the two filmed shows with the different songs. One of the nights they filmed they opened with "On Through the Night" unless I am mistaken.

Looks like Don't Shoot Shotgun is now getting played in the sets out in Europe now. Nice!