Ultimate Setlist - A Challenge
by Shawn Lampron | Wednesday, March 4, 2009
PHOTO: Nine Inch Nails Live @ Rock Oz’Arenes Festival - Avenches, Switzerland, 8.15.07 on Flickr by Nine Inch Nails Official CC BY-NC-SA
Chris’s quest to secure setlists of every concert he’s attended prompted me to think up a gauntlet to throw upon the ground for him and other readers. As a fellow Nine Inch Nails fanatic, it was beneficial for me to meet Chris, given that my dedication to the band is nothing compared to the near-frightening depth of knowledge the man possesses in regards to the band. How could I compete when writing about music? Well, let’s throw out a not-so-original challenge to Chris and to all the readers: Imagine if you will that your favorite musical artist calls you up. If you can’t suspend your disbelief, imagine that you’ve won some manner of contest. Your favorite musician explains that you have twenty minutes to come up with a setlist. For the sake of argument, let’s say it’s an eighty minute setlist, the length of an average CD. Factoring in live performance interludes, this would equate to a ninety minute show. You’re allowed to ask for any version of a song as long as it fits within these time constraints. What do you pick? There’s my challenge to Chris: Show me your perfect personal NIN show. To the rest, pick your favorite artist and show me the personal concert that would permit you to die in peace afterward.
Just to show I’m a good sport, here’s my setlist for Trent and the boys in advance of Chris’s list:
Shawn’s Setlist
- Dead Souls
- 1,000,000 (rehearsal)
- Burn
- God Given
- The Perfect Drug
- Heresy (version)
- The Hand That Feeds
- Hurt (live)
- Get Down Make Love
- Sin (long)
- Closer to God (remix)
- Capital G
- Echoplex (rehearsal)
- Survivalism (tardusted)
- Only
- Ringfinger
A devastating and varied list, if I do say so myself. *promptly dies*
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Comments
beth says:
OK, so duh on favorite band. Ultimate setlist:
Pinion
Wish
1,000,000
Discipline
Gave Up
Head Down
With Teeth
Only
Me, I’m Not
The Great Below
5 Ghosts I
Reptile
Closer (The Only Time)
Capital G
The Great Destroyer
Head Like a Hole
Encore:
The Big Come Down
Hurt
Zero Sum
What I would NOT give to see Zero Sum played in an arena…
E. Christopher Clark says:
I’m so intimidated now. Two NIN lists already, and Shawn’s talked me up as the Biggest NIN Fan EVAR! so I’m, like, totally obligated to come up with something brilliant.
Oh, the pressure…
P.S. Remember, everyone else, that just because we’re going nuts about NIN doesn’t mean this is a NIN-exclusive challenge. You’re invited to do this challenge, whether your favorite band/artist is Miley Cyrus or Gwar, Van Halen or Van Hagar… hell, even Limp Bizkit fans are welcome (though I can’t promise we won’t make fun of you for that obsession…)
Shawn says:
I think the biggest challenge is fitting your favorite songs into the set. With Nine Inch Nails, the catalog of songs is so huge now. Doing it so quickly produces interesting results, though. Despite the fact that I really enjoy The Fragile, I didn’t pick a single song from that album, which I found very interesting.
E. Christopher Clark says:
I know that I kinda-sorta cheated by not offering my very quick, first, immediate idea. But I did come up with this list during a 20-30 minute long subway ride, so I hope that makes up for it.
The Frail
The Wretched
1,000,000
Wish
Last
Gave Up
Just Like You Imagined
The Becoming
Heresy
Closer (The Only Time)
Capital G
Warm Leatherette
Nightclubbing
Maybe Just Once
God Given
Head Like a Hole
—Encore—
That’s What I Get
Leaving Hope
I may do a whole post explaining my choices. I also want to do a second set that’s just instrumentals. That’s another dream of mine, to see the band play an entirely instrumental set.
E. Christopher Clark says:
Just saw that our pal TheAndyHicks posted a Cure setlist on his blog. Check it out, and give him some comment love.
E. Christopher Clark says:
This is an awesome challenge. I’m going to wait until I’m in front of my iTunes library to do it, though. But once I do, I’m going to try and stick pretty closely to that 20 minute time-limit suggestion.
Or, well, maybe that’s wimping out. Maybe I should just be able to do it from memory. But I do want to stick to the 80 minute time-limit, and iTunes would make that easier.
Decisions, decisions… :-)
And c’mon, party people! You’ve got to try this. And remember: this is about YOUR favorite band, not mine or Shawn’s. If that happens to be NIN, that’s fine. But let’s try to generate as diverse a collection here as we can.