What pisses me off with Helloween is they play what they say "Kai's Medley" and They only play 1 min of Starlight, Ride The Sky and some other songs. I wish they played the full songs.... Also they should stop playing Forever and One and play a fulll song from the first album like Murderer, Warrior or Ride The Sky in its entierety!

Scorpions also play it safe. No Animal Magnetism, no Virgin Killer, no Pictured Life (thank god Uli plays it live everytime) and No IN TRANCE!! Hell I would even be glad and less annoyed if they played Inheritance or any other gem from Lonesome Crow.

They didn’t play Number of the Beast live during The Future Past tour. Fine with me but I can understand first time viewers being a bit disappointed. The serlist was killer though, so people still got their money’s worth.

Whoa, where did you read this? Fucked up if true. But they played Save Us when I saw them, that's certainly a deep cut.




Fear of the Dark wore out its welcome when Iron Maiden played it on Somewhere Back In Time, which was supposed to be a strict "80s albums only" set. Everyone and their mother wanted Alexander The Great in that spot and they blew it.

Forgive me for enjoying "Fear of the Dark" whenever I see it live. It's a great, iconic song that works much better live than it does on record -- how can anyone resist singing along to that main riff? If you'd never seen Maiden before (which is most of the audience at any given concert they play) then you'd rightfully be bummed if they didn't play it.

It perplexes me that Iron Maiden always pops up in these sorts of conversations, since they're an uncommon example of a legendary band that still clearly puts a ton of thought and energy into revamping their whole show/setlist whenever they embark on a new tour. They routinely put together "back in time" packages where they'll focus on a particular '80s album, while also mixing in other older material as well as playing new stuff. And even though I don't tend to like most of that new stuff, a part of me still respects them for standing behind it, as it's always a bit embarrassing when bands who've been around for as long as they have crap out a new album now and then and never really support it live save maybe for one uninspired single that no one really wants to hear anyway.

Of course they can't please everyone, but it's my impression that they always earnestly try to please as many people as possible. Yeah, they have a small handful of songs that've kind of reached "untouchable" status which you can bank on them playing pretty much every show ("Fear of the Dark"; "Trooper") but who really cares? They're good songs. It also helps that despite being really old fucking men they all still perform with the energy of twenty-five year olds. Be thankful they're still at it and they still clearly care. I'll keep seeing them every chance I get.

I'm going to see Rotting Christ for the first time tomorrow night. It's the first time they've come to New Zealand, so I'm super amped to see them and it's in very small, intimate venue so that's obviously a major plus. But one thing that does frustrate me is when bands of their legacy and stature do come down to finally visit us, they don't adjust their setlist to something that covers their whole discography. What frustrates me personally is the complete lack of tracks from Sanctus Diavolos and Theogonia, without doubt their best period of music after the initial trio of albums. Strangely the set leans heavily on songs from Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού, a great album for sure but basically a 3rd of the set seems a bit much, spread the love around a bit more I say. One more from Non Serviam would've been nice. Nevermind, I can't wait to see them regardless and I'm sure they'll be amazing.

Here's the current setlist:

666
P'unchaw kachun- Tuta kachun
Demonon Vrosis
Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy
Apage Satana
Dies Irae
Like Father, Like Son
King of a Stellar War
Archon
Non Serviam
Societas Satanas (Thou Art Lord cover)
In Yumen-Xibalba
Grandis Spiritus Diavolos
The Raven
Encore:
The Sign of Evil Existence
Fgmenth, Thy Gift

Helloween situation is frustrating indeed. Considering they actually had a somewhat interesting setlist when the reunion first happened in 2017 with stuff like Kids of the Century, Living aint no crime, Why?, Waiting for the Thunder, I can and If I could Fly thrown into the mix. No real deep cuts per se, but at least some diversity of tracks. Nowadays it's right back into their usual habit of playing nothing past Time of the Oath (one of which is that terrible ballad Forever and One) except for a handful from their latest album (one of which is Mass Pollution, which sucks), the most boring and predictable songs from the overrated Keeper duology and, I'm sorry but, way too much stuff from Walls of Jericho. That whole medley is unnecessary, especially if it's being followed immediately after by yet ANOTHER song from WoJ. Just play Ride the Sky and get some newer tracks in. Or if you wanna utilize Kiske more, grow some balls and play stuff like Mankind, First Time or Giants.

Before seeing them in '22 I hadn't seen Helloween for over 10 years. Then coming back, outside of the joy of seeing Kiske and Hansen on stage, nothing really felt new. They really need to shake things up.

Savage Grace played their first non-festival date in 14 years a couple weeks ago, and over half of their set was from the new album released last year. I'm guessing Chris Logue wanted to play those songs while he had the opportunity, but did he have to play almost the entire album? At least on the classic songs they played, the live singer Tasos Lazaris was killing it.

The current In Flames setlist is absolutely putrid. Not a single song from Jester Race and only one song each from Colony (one of the worst songs) and Whoracle. I was planning on on checking them out at Milwaukee Metal Fest next week, but there is only one single song on the current setlist I would like to see live. I saw them several years ago pre-COVID and they played a bit more old stuff, which the crowd absolutely loved. They surely must have fans who like the doodoo they are putting out and playing live these days, but I haven't seen any even in their own crowds.

Adding Bungle and Tool. Bungle's set is basically nothing but their least interesting album + covers that I don't need to hear. Tool focuses way too much on their extremely long / boring later era material.

Thank you for the link!! Lazaris is a good singer but I liked Colon's voice more and would be good to hear the good new Savage Grace songs such as Automoton, Barbarians at the Gate, Slave of Desire, Sign of the Cross and Star Crossed Lovers with him on vocals. I don't know why he left but I assume it must be the same situation as Agent Steel. Rendezvous and Stealin' My Heart Away are the big stinkers from the new album and should never be played live again. I mean if you are a fan of 90s Savage Grace, you might like them, but the question is, Who is a fan of 90s SG when they played commercial hard rock? They could have played Into the Fire and maybe No One Left to Blame, Betrayer or Destination Unknown instead of those two awful songs.

From the show I saw, there was no tunes off Colony. They played Bullet Ride and Food for the Gods for old stuff and that was it.

They've added Coerced Coexistence to the set over the past few shows according to setlist.fm. Of course they go with the whiniest song on Colony.

I unfortunately have to add another addition to my original post. I saw Frozen Soul, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and Amon Amarth a few days ago and had a great time. All 4 bands sounded great, however I do have some issues.

1) Obituary's setlist was lacking. They played 7 songs total. 5 off of the new album, which wasn't bad, but not my favourite. But they then only played 2 songs off of Frozen in Time. No songs off Cause of Death, Slowly We Rot, End Complete or anything else. Was my first time seeing Obituary and was left a bit disappointed after listening to thr live album from a few years back. The band was tight and the setlist was by no means bad, but could have been better.


Also a side note, but Paul's drumming for Cannibal Corpse was very off for the first few songs. He tightened it up after about 4 songs, but as a drummer, it was a tough listen for the first few tunes. The guitars were keeping time rather than the drums.

Ah, I see. I don't mind Coerced Coexistence, but if I was going to choose a song off Colony, that wouldn't be my pick to hear live.

I love Harakiri For The Sky but they do love to mix the setlists up and they do, unfortunately, include a lot of what I think are pretty "meh" songs. Last time I saw them I got quite lucky but I could easily imagine seeing them and being very disappointed. In fairness, most of the songs they play are their most popular ones, so maybe I'm the issue?

A bit pet peeve of mine is Anaal Nathrakh always playing Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes. It's their second most played track according to setlist.fm which seems crazy to me. Probably some fan service as it's the first song off Eschaton but I just find it quite dull and generic and wouldn't have it in my top 30 AN songs - at least it's short.

I do wonder how many people in the Scorpions audience would actually know the Uli era songs? 20%, perhaps? Uli Roth plays live a lot still and his band are great nowadays. Furthermore, hearing Uli Roth era Scorpions songs only really makes sense when you've got Uli on guitar.

Every Maiden setlist I've seen has been pretty balanced and I would certainly have paid whatever the asking price was to see it (keep in mind that their last UK had tickets at around £60 - whereas most big bands are charging a lot more). The only expection was, obviously, the A Matter of Life and Death tour, which was a very unusual setlist and something they've never repeated (although anyone with the internet should have known that they were playing the album in full, plus five hits). 'Fear of the Dark' is a brilliant live track, too, I'll happily watch them play it anytime.

Except that is exactly what theme of the tour has been.

Nobody was expecting Desert Search For Techno Allah.

Much as I love Kamelot, they should drop those super long Forever breakdowns that last longer than the song itself and replace with something else like The Haunting or Ghost Opera or something else off of Epica. I think they did better in their more recent tour where they used new songs off of the Awakening. For the most part their setlist remained the same.

I understand, just not a fan of it. Maiden made it clear Senjutsu is a big part of their current tour, but that portion of the set still sucks compared to what they could be doing.

I could have done without The Time Machine, but the other Senjutsu tracks are good tracks live. Especially Days of Future Past and Hell on Earth.

It's their latest album. What were you expecting? It's obvious that they were going to play Senjutsu songs.
If you don't like it, tough shit, Iron Maiden shouldn't be responsible for haters.

I'm also a drummer and have always loved Paul's sloppiness, but yeah, he's clearly aging and no longer in his peak form. It was a pretty rough set.

Totally true. I just don't go see Maiden anymore unless they were doing another throwback tour. They support their new material, which as little as I enjoy it, is admirable compared to bands that play nothing off their later records.

I have no ill will towards the band for their choice to tour behind their latest release, just stating it's a frustrating watch for me personally to see them alternate between playing songs from my favorite album of theirs and my least favorite.