General setlist talk

[DecanoLP]

Hey guys,

with the new touring cycle coming up, I thought it would be a good idea to create a thread for general setlist talk! First of all: Some of you might remember the statistics I did for the 21st Century Breakdown tour here and here. I'm gonna do this again since the feedback was great and I think it's pretty interesting to see what the band is going to play now. Especially with three albums coming up.

Please don't use this thread for posts like "I want them to play Private Ale, Worry Rock, Jackass, I Want To Be Alone and 16 at my show". This should be a serious, realistic discussion thread

So, we know Green Day will be playing two (or three with the secret show?!) in Japan before they're heading to Europe for some shows. A few questions I've been think about a lot lately are:

1) How many new songs are they going to play?

I'm pretty sure they'll play Oh Love and Let Yourself Go and maybe one or two extra songs from Uno. Maybe Stay The Night, Killy The DJ or Nuclear Family...

2) How many old songs are they going to play?

I do hope they'll keep playing the real old stuff and I'm very confident that they'll do so. Billie Joe said in a recent interview that they didn't know how many new songs they're gonna play yet. This means there'll be enough space for some old stuff, right?

3) Which songs are they going to drop?

Pretty interesting question in my opinion. I don't have a clue at all... Maybe East Jesus Nowhere? Wake Me Up When September Ends? Mhm...

4) Which song are they going to open with?

Most interesting question for me. The 21stCB - touring cycle is over which means opening with SOTC/21stCB wouldn't make much sense. Otherwise, they can't open with a new song either (except Let Yourself Go maybe since it has lots of energy) because there'll be lots of people not knowing the new stuff.

Maybe a song we've never heard as an opener before. I can imagine them opening with Welcome To Paradise again. That would be epic as hell!

If there's already a similar thread existing, feel free to close this one

[WestboundSign!]

I really like the idea of this thread. I've seen some discussion about setlists appearing here and there in several threads but it's way better to have a seperate one for a discussion about all this, since it's pretty interesting speculation.

I'm trying to refer to your questions now:

1) As you've mentioned as well, in the video for the Summer Sonic festival, Billie Joe said they didn't know how many new songs they'd play. I guess they'll be playing Oh Love and Let Yourself Go, it'd only make sense. I hope we'll get some more new stuff as well. Not too much, but a few more songs. I also think that on these festival (and 2 concert) dates, we'll only get to hear new songs that will be on iUno! - or mainly.

2) I think they're going to stick to their big catalog of songs with newer and older stuff. I love how they played a lot more songs from their first album on the secret shows than they did before, so I hope they're keeping this.

3) That's a tough question. I've been thinking about that a lot as well and I honestly have no idea. I can imagine them dropping songs like The Static Age or also some classics from American Idiot. I don't know.

4) Probably Let Yourself Go? Or Oh Love? But I could also imagine them opening with Welcome To Paradise, as you've already pointed out. A lot of their best known songs, which also are on International Superhits, would be great openers, I guess

[LittleBoyNamedTrain]

Good idea for a thread! I'll answer your questions:

1) How many new songs are they going to play?

Hopefully around 30-35 (ie. the same as last time). A longer set is always better in my opinion, especially with all these new songs.

2) How many old songs are they going to play?

They'll play a fair few, definitely. Judging by their performance at Not So Silent Night they're still into their old stuff just as much as their newer material. I'd love to hear more from 1,039 in the next tour.

3) Which songs are they going to drop?

Hopefully, none. I'd quite like them to play a different set each show, giving them a chance to play all their songs over the course of the tour. That'd be great.

4) Which song are they going to open with?

Oh Love, possibly? We need something with a build up like 21CB, instead of them running onto the stage and bursting into song. Need to get the audience excited first.

[PaulS]

Green Day are notoriously conservative with their setlists, so I'm not expecting huge changes. DecanoLP's excellent thread is worth reading, and the following stats are taken from there. It would be really interesting to have something similar for the older tours, but it's harder to do retrospectively. The most likely songs to appear in every set are probably:

Song Of The Century: 132x (100 %)

21st Century Breakdown: 132x (100 %)

Know Your Enemy: 132x (100 %)

East Jesus Nowhere: 132x (100 %)

Holiday: 132x (100 %)

Are We The Waiting: 132x (100 %)

St. Jimmy: 132x (100 %)

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams: 132x (100 %)

Brain Stew: 132x (100 %)

Jaded: 132x (100 %)

Basket Case: 132x (100 %)

She: 132x (100 %)

King For A Day: 132x (100 %)

Shout (including some covers): 132x (100 %)

21 Guns: 132x (100 %)

American Idiot: 132x (100 %)

Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life): 132x (100 %)

Minority: 127x (96.2 %)

Hitchin’ A Ride: 120x (90.9 %)

Longview: 115x (87.1 %)

The first two songs from 21CB would only really work as set openers, so I don't see them returning. Likewise, I have a hard time believing KYE will be regularly played now they're not obligated to do so.

These are the second-tier songs that will get played a lot, but not every night:

East Jesus Nowhere: 132x (100 %)

Jesus Of Suburbia: 115x (87.1 %)

The Static Age: 100x (75.8 %)

Wake Me Up When September Ends: 79x (59.9 %)

Welcome To Paradise: 75x (56.8 %)

2000 Light Years Away: 56x (42.2 %)

Geek Stink Breath: 29x (22 %)

Letterbomb: 27x (20.5 %)

When the tour reaches the second leg, they'll start mixing up the middle of the set a bit with old songs:

Nice Guys Finish Last: 25x (18.9 %)

Going To Pasalacqua: 22x (16.6 %)

J.A.R.: 11x (8.3 %)

Christie Road: 10x (7.6 %)

Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?: 5x (3.8 %)

In amongst all of this will be the new songs, but it's impossible to predict which without hearing the albums. The singles aren't necessarily a safe bet, as was shown with Last of the American Girls, but I'd imagine Let Yourself Go and Stay The Night will be there. About the only thing you can be sure of is that they will open the set with a couple of new songs, as was the case with the Nimrod, AI and 21CB tours.

[Martyn]

For the actual main tour after the 3 albums are out, i'm hoping for ten new songs, 20 old.

For the old songs, possibly basically the top 20 songs listed by last.fm in terms of plays:

http://www.last.fm/music/Green+Day/+charts?rangetype=6month&subtype=tracks

However, without Know Your Enemy (never knew it was THAT popular), Give Me Novacaine, Whatsername + more King for a Day + an older track or two.

Of course i couldn't complain if they had part of the setlist, maybe 4-5 songs, which they mixed up on a nightly basis...rare songs, b-sides, requests, covers, etc.

[TheJedi]

idk what i think they'll play but they can NEVER stop playing King For A Day and Jesus of Suburbia. they just have to play them

For the actual main tour after the 3 albums are out, i'm hoping for ten new songs, 20 old.

For the old songs, possibly basically the top 20 songs listed by last.fm in terms of plays:

http://www.last.fm/music/Green+Day/+charts?rangetype=6month&subtype=tracks

However, without Know Your Enemy (never knew it was THAT popular), Give Me Novacaine, Whatsername + more King for a Day + an older track or two.

Of course i couldn't complain if they had part of the setlist, maybe 4-5 songs, which they mixed up on a nightly basis...rare songs, b-sides, requests, covers, etc.

only ten new songs, after three albums with 37 songs? no way, i want a lot of old ones too but more than ten new.

[Boston]

My hope is that they kind of ditch 21st Century Breakdown entirely. Honestly. That way they'd have room to play a bunch of songs from the trilogy (which I want) as well as a handful of hits from American Idiot and the rest of their back-catalogue (which I also want) and maybe a couple of rarities from 39/Smooth, Kerplunk, and Dookie.

In reality though, I think that their North American tour in 2010 was meant to satisfy the "old" fans who wanted rarities to be played live. They might have already known that as they expanded their catalogue they wouldn't have the time, even in a three-hour show, to play everything that everyone wanted to hear. So what I think is that they'll do the "essentials" from each album before the trilogy and play all of the singles from the trilogy along with some unreleased tracks.

[Punk Rock Love]

I hope they play Blood, Sex, and Booze... I'm taking my 6 year old nephew to see them, and that's his favorite song!

[Red Lights Flash]

• I'm assuming they'll play Oh Love and Kill the DJ, which are singles.
  
• When asked about how many new songs they would play in an interview, they said: "we don't know how many songs we're gonna play at Summersonic. We definitely know we're gonna play one! But we got a big catalogue to choose from, so it'll be a lot of old songs too"
  
• Please drop King for a Day. I don't need to see it a third time.. might as well fool around during a new song we haven't heard live yet.
  
• I'm sure they'll keep the 'essentials' from each album. I have no clue which song they'd consider an essential from 21stCB though. Probably KYE and 21 Guns.
  
• I'm going to I-Day Festival in September, and according to their website Green Day will play for 150 min.
  

[Martyn]

• Please drop King for a Day. I don't need to see it a third time.. might as well fool around during a new song we haven't heard live yet.
  

This. so much.

Think Know Your Enemy + 21 Guns are the most played from 21CB, according to last.fm. so i agree, they'll probably keep those two

[ChelseaDagger]

I know this isn't answering the questions, but I am really curious which songs will include major "fan interaction" . Like in the American Idiot tour, they brought people up to play Knowledge, and In the 21CB tour, they brought someone up to sing Longview, and another to play Jesus of Suburbia. (I'm not including other fan moments, like the stage dive, or falling down at the end of East Jesus Nowhere).

I wonder what songs people will be brought up to SING or PLAY this time around????

[greendepent]

Oh, finally a thread that I can comfortably comment

Well, I noticed that Tré's kit lacks of the ride crash and the china (Anyway, in the studio vids you can see him using three crashes). That means they could drop all the songs that need these things, like 21stCB, Jesus Of Suburbia, 21 Guns and East Jesus Nowhere.

For the incoming shows at Japan, I expect a similar set like Not so silent night, plus some new songs. I think that they can start with Nuclear Family, keeping the old ritual of begin with the first song of the new record.

From the last two records, they could save: Letterbomb, St. Jimmy, American Idiot (as closer looks great!) and Know Your Enemy. Possibly Murder City, too.

Oh Love will replace 21 guns or Boulevard... maybe both. Green Day concerts must be a party every second in this era.

The old classics is almost sure that they keep they slot. But rarities will appear, since the band manipulate more songs than before, like One For The Razorbacks, JAR, Going To Pasalacqua and Paper Lanterns.

EDIT: Green Day putting out She? They love that song. In the secret shows, was played. Basket case isn't. There's more chances of a drop of Basket Case than She

[Nemo.]

4) I think American Idiot as opener would be great. AI is a song that gets me really pumped up but welcome to paradise would be awesome as well.

[Raven93]

1) about 20

2) a lot

3) the static age , EJN ,

4) nuclear family

[greendepent]

For the question 4. In Insomniac, Nimrod, American Idiot and 21stCB they opened with the first song of the new record, no matter if it was known before. But other openers are Going To Pasalacqua and Welcome to paradise, that could appear too

[StarKiller]

I think they're going to play 30+ songs for non-festival shows. Oh Love and Kill the DJ are kind of a must, since they're singles and I can imagine Fuck Time being played. I assume that they'll play heaps of old songs, pre-AI and 21stCB. Along with that, I think they'll drop most of the 21stCB songs and probably Are We the Waiting. And yes, Welcome to Paradise would be a hell of an opener.

[Guest]

I expect the setlists will be significantly shorter than the 3-hour epics late in the 2010 outdoor tour. Probably closer to two hours. With three new albums to promote, I doubt we'll get more than three or four songs off of each. As far as an opener, I'd bet Green Day plays it safe and opens with a new song, then follows that with an old favorite (AI or a shortened Minority, maybe). I also doubt we'll see much of the longer material (JOS, Homecoming, American Eulogy, the extended Minority) to make room for as many of the new songs as possible, maybe 20-25 songs total?

The problem with releasing three albums at once (and not playing four-hour shows every night) is that you either have to ditch a lot of the old material or ignore a lot of the new. I'd bet the band leans more toward ditching old material. It's fine to play three-hour shows at the end of a tour, but burning yourself out on three-hour shows at the start of one is never a good idea.

[Silent Duck]

The problem with releasing three albums at once (and not playing four-hour shows every night) is that you either have to ditch a lot of the old material or ignore a lot of the new. I'd bet the band leans more toward ditching old material. It's fine to play three-hour shows at the end of a tour, but burning yourself out on three-hour shows at the start of one is never a good idea.

If Springsteen can do 3hr+ gigs every night at 62, then surely Green Day can do it too.

[Felipe.]

1) How many new songs are they going to play?

4

2) How many old songs are they going to play?

a lot

3) Which songs are they going to drop?

21st century breakdown / east jesus nowhere / 2000 light years away / hitchin' a ride / ....

4) Which song are they going to open with?

Know Your Enemy or Nuclear Family

[GuitarPunk94]

1) How many new songs are they going to play?

imo they will definitely play Oh Love (its the first real single and well known by 'normal' green day fans) and 1 more song (LYG or Kill The DJ)..maybe if we are lucky they will even play a third one (Stay the night?! *.*)

2) How many old songs are they going to play?

according to the time they are allowed to play (in munchengladbach entry is at 18.00, so GD probably start at 20.00 and have to end by 23.00) a setlist with around 30 songs seems ok, 2-3 new songs and 27-28 old songs

3) Which songs are they going to drop?

i used this to decide ( http://www.setlist.fm/stats/average-setlist/green-day-13d68939.html?year=2010 )..EJN, BOBD/WMUWSE.....

4) Which song are they going to open with?

a good question! cant decide..but im rly hoping for Welcome To Paradise (i visited two GD concerts and they never played it :'( its one of my fav GD songs) or sth very rare/old school or maybe sth related to UNO

[TheJedi]

I expect the setlists will be significantly shorter than the 3-hour epics late in the 2010 outdoor tour. Probably closer to two hours. With three new albums to promote, I doubt we'll get more than three or four songs off of each. As far as an opener, I'd bet Green Day plays it safe and opens with a new song, then follows that with an old favorite (AI or a shortened Minority, maybe). I also doubt we'll see much of the longer material (JOS, Homecoming, American Eulogy, the extended Minority) to make room for as many of the new songs as possible, maybe 20-25 songs total?

The problem with releasing three albums at once (and not playing four-hour shows every night) is that you either have to ditch a lot of the old material or ignore a lot of the new. I'd bet the band leans more toward ditching old material. It's fine to play three-hour shows at the end of a tour, but burning yourself out on three-hour shows at the start of one is never a good idea.

lol didnt Green Day play 2.5 hours every night on 21CB tour?

[Annie, get your gun]

I'd like if they don't play so much of the new stuff, they have Oh Love and maybe the new single coming on August 14 but that's it! Though the fact that Green Day will be really exited 'cause they're on the stage again and play more new songs than they should, can't be discarded!

These dates on festivals don't sound as an "official tour" 'cause the records aren't out yet, but it is the beginning. However, in the short interview clip from Summersonic they said that they don't know how many new songs they're gonna play, but they've a lot of catalogue to choose.

I'm waiting for my chance to see Only Of You And the ones I would like they keep playing: Whatsername, Letterbomb, Macy's Day Parade... (And maybe on this new tour they could play Jinx and Walking Alone)!

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

I'd like them to build the American Idiot/21st Century Breakdown parts of the setlist around the less overplayed tracks, like more Letterbomb/She's A Rebel/Horseshoes & Handgrenades and less 21 Guns/Jesus Of Suburbia. I suppose they'll always play American Idiot, I can never get into that one for reasons best outlined by Brandon Flowers but it would still fit into a setlist built around the new material, likewise with Holiday and St. Jimmy. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams/September Ends should go.

Would be great if they didn't do any encores anymore, just continued the full set, and eventually to finish, Billie-Joe just plays the electric palm muted version of Good Riddance from Bullet In A Bible. I would love to see a different set closer than Good Riddance but you have to make concessions and I suspect they will always finish gigs with it. I've seen Foo Fighters rattle through a 2hrs+ set with no encore and Dave Grohl played the whole time, even as the rest of the band went off and came back on 5 minutes later dressed in kilts and Scotland shirts.

I'd like them to build every set as though they're playing it at Tiki Bar. Drop the heavy instrumentation and play as a 4 piece. Strip things back a bit.

[Clayish]

They'll open with Nuclear Family.

[That Dude]

Hopefully the setlist will change with every show and there won't be a 'standard' set they do.