Performance Staples?

[OneWAY]

I've been wondering about this since the tour announcement. Will there be any staples for the tour? Of course, when I say "staples," I'm referring to songs that absolutely get played every night. From tour to tour, Al always played certain songs, although they might've moved around each time out. Like how Smells Like Nirvana was moved up near the beginning of the show several years ago, or how Fat was no longer being the encore lead-in for the last couple years.

In this case, would it be reasonable to assume that even though every show will have a different set list, certain songs will always be played? If his show this past April is any indication, it seems the acoustic medley has been extended to include more "big hits," and the tradition Star Wars encore is still in place. If I were to guess, I'd say that those two things would be the only constants between each show.

With how unpredictable this tour seems to be, my imagination has run wild with these thoughts. It's exciting, but man, I'm going out of my mind waiting for the tour to begin.

[RyRyTheJewishGuy]

I can see the YODA encore still being a part of the show. And maybe an unplugged medley like he did on the last tour.

[TMBJon]

If you mean carryovers from previous tours, I think RyRy is exactly right.
I suspect Yoda, and possibly Saga as well, will remain in the show. And likely some version of the acoustic medley to cover all of the big parody hits that are otherwise missing.

If you mean are there any new additions to the setlist this year which will be played in every show, I suspect there will be a handful of these as well. Most artists who regularly play a different setlist every night (Bruce Springsteen, They Might Be Giants, among many others) still have about half of the songs remain the same each night, though sometimes in a different order. Hopefully, due to the past rigidness of the setlist, Al will be extremely adventurous and truly mix things up more than I'm expecting!

[Muppetboy09]

I would assume that the opener, the acoustic medley, and encore will stay the same. They will probably come up with a choice for which song is the strongest opener to the set, and keep it there, and the encore will maybe be one of his longer originals (maybe Albuquerque again). I'm not convinced that the Star Wars songs will stay, nor any parody outside of the acoustic medley.

[richegreen]

Wasn't his show last April FOR a Star Wars event? In which case that is no indication of what Al as top billing will do. I wouldn't be surprised if both Star Wars songs go and the chant makes an appearance elsewhere. It did start off as the Another One Rides the Bus chant anyway.

I highly suspect that he is going to open each show with a straight cover (possibly a different one each night), just to mess with people expecting it to turn into parody. It's extremely common for live concerts to feature covers even with the biggest artists, and I bet they're itching to do some themselves (remember a couple tours ago when they'd do a snippet of a straight cover when asking the audience for requests?)

With a songbook of about 60 songs, I expect that many will have overlap. Going to 2 shows, you'll get a couple repeats but most will be unique. Go to 3 shows, and odds are that you'll hear a good number of songs at least twice. Jackson Park Express might show up a couple times over the tour, while Midnight Star will be played almost every night.

[OneWAY]

All good input!

While the April show was a Star Wars event, I feel like the SW songs might still be present, even if Al wants to push an Albuquerque encore again. The situation might look vaguely like the Straight Outta Lynwood tour, in that case. I actually REALLY like the idea of opening with a straight cover, which would be a great way of introducing the whole "no one knows what's about to happen" vibe. I'm planning on going to three shows, so it will be exciting to see exactly how much they will vary.

[Yankomaniac]

I certainly see Albuquerque being done every night at or near the end. Makes too much sense for them not to. A vast majority of people who barely like or listen to Al know Albuquerque and tend to expect it at a normal gig.

[spmahn]

I think Yoda will, and always should, be the closer since it's been the one consistency throughout nearly Al's entire career, you can dump Saga Begins though, it's a fun song, but it's not as iconic as Yoda. An Al show without Yoda would be like seeing KISS and them not playing Rock and Roll All Night or ZZ Top not play Legs.

[Yankomaniac]

I think Yoda will be there in some form, maybe without the chant.

[richegreen]

Strangely enough, Yoda NEVER had costumes until he started teaming it up with Saga Begins, so it still fits into his whole "no costumes, no props" rule

"Next I want to do a song about a little green man. No, not Billy Joel, we already did him"