Arrows Of Desire Tour Thread

[RileyLewis]

While I'm sure most of us here would pay $100 to see him (and indeed, many of us are for the VIP tickets at shows), many casual fans may not. There's definitely a demand curve for different ticket prices.

 

And assuming that he could make the same amount of money, which do you think he'd rather have:

 

100 people paying $100, or 500 people paying $20? As a dancer myself, I would rather have more people in the audience than a smaller amount paying less.

 

So it's definitely a trade-off. I would love having an extra few songs, but I understand the realities facing performances.

[Outtahere]

Lets not forget the length of the songs. A lot of those songs are over 7 minutes long. Plus most of the setlist is comprised of the new record which is only normal. I think the fact that he plays almost the whole record is great.

 

My personnal feeling were he to change the setlist would be to drop Hello Time Bomb and Load Me Up. But that's only because there are so many of his songs I like more than these two and I know he probably has to do the hit singles.

[AnOceanPearl]

I've seen MG play 15 times since 2000, and going through the setlists I have available for those times, at the shows I've been to, the most songs I've heard at a full band show is 17, and for an acoustic show 20, so him playing 15-17 songs a night is actually right in the norm from what I've experienced.

[uglyredhonda]

Kingston: great show, but weird as hell, mostly thanks to the evening's anti-hero.

 

Btw - Gentlemen Husbands: pretty solid melodic rock band. Sorta The Reason-ish.

 

Just before Matt's set, this big guy comes lumbering up front and tries to cram himself into the first couple of rows. He's got Row A, but doesn't realize that there are two rows in front of that tonight. Eventually, everybody points him in the right direction. Guy's full-on smashed. He's holding two drinks, which surprises me - I can't believe they actually served him in his state.

 

The venue (apparently) wanted people to stay seated, but this guy's up and trying to get everyone around him up. Matt finishes the first couple of songs, and the guy starts yelling at him. Nothing insulting - more along the lines of "I just came from the bar - you guys should be playing there!" Matt bantered with him a bit, which was pretty funny. "All right, that's it, we're all moving to the bar." (Big cheer from the crowd.)

 

Set was solid. Started out with "Knives", which worked well as an opener. "Arrows" was super-fast. There's an extended part of "Load Me Up" (the same area where they used to do the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" bit) that works pretty well. We got "Last Parade" tonight, which was great. No "X-Rated" (or "Time Bomb"). "Rabbits" sounds interesting - I like it a lot, but seems like it needs a little something towards the end. (Blake goofed one part of it - it was funny when Matt turned around later in the song and Blake acknowledged it.) I took a bunch of pics, including one of the setlist, but it'll have to wait until this weekend.

 

Printed set:

Garden of Knives / Last Parade / Load Me Up / Arrows of Desire / Multineering / So Close / Non Populus / Born Losers / Had It Coming / We're Long Gone / Weapon / Alert Status Red / Letters in Wartime / / While We Were Hunting Rabbits / Apparitions / Guns of Carolina

 

Late in the set, the big drunk guy pulls out a cigarette and asks everyone around him (including me) if we have a lighter. Repeatedly. (One guy left and went to the washroom - when he got back, the big guy acted like he thought he'd left to go get him a lighter.)

 

Towards the end of "Weapon", the big guy apparently decides to head out to the lobby (possibly to find a lighter). He makes it about half-way there and face-plants in the aisle. A few people run over to help him - Matt sees what's going on and halts the song. The big guy apparently tells the people around him that he'd rather the show continue - Matt declines, noting that he doesn't want to play while someone's being tended to in the aisle, especially if it turns out to be something more severe. After the big guy gets helped out - rather than restart "Weapon", he says, "Well, the end of 'Weapon' sounds something like this", and plays the last section (with the band joining in) at like double or triple speed. (It was pretty funny.)

 

Overall, it was a great show, even with the anti-hero. Matt's banter was solid - it seemed like the big guy might have gotten him going early. (Kinda wish the rest of the crowd hadn't tried to be funny - people really need to realize that anything you're going to yell at a musician will always sound way better in your head.)

Edited October 25, 2013 by uglyredhonda

[hoogie]

 

Btw - Gentlemen Husbands: pretty solid melodic rock band. Sorta The Reason-ish.

 

 

YES!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who knows The Reason. Funny enough, I saw Gentlemen Husbands open for The Reason in London last year. Glad to see they're getting some national attention. Looking forward to seeing them open in a few days.

[foats]

the whole Brockville show is up on youtube in HD video. Is there anyone who can rip the audio and upload it by chance? Thanks in advance.

[juanpe]

Did anybody record any of these concerts? If would, would it be possible to listen to them (or some parts of them)? at least to hear how the new songs sound live... You'd make me very happy! :-)

[NonPopulus]

I can't but feel that these set lists could be longer and more diverse, and I think most others feel the same.

 

[...] I think the emphasis should on blowing people away in the live shows. That's the stuff that keeps people coming back.

 

I think I have to agree with you. I'm not a career musician or an expert at what it takes to run a tour financially or logistically by any stretch of the imagination, but for those who travel to see multiple shows on this tour, I think it would be fair to see a little more variety in the setlist other than changing the order slightly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would be fairly easy to learn a song in a sound check just to throw in a surprise here and there.

[AnOceanPearl]

New songs for this tour bolded

 

October 26, Hamilton

Garden Of Knives / Arrows Of Desire / Load Me Up / Giant / Non Populus / Born Losers / So Close / Hey Hell Heaven / Had It Coming / We're Long Gone / Weapon / Via Dolorosa / Letters In Wartime / Encore / While We Were Hunting Rabbits / Alert Status Red / Apparitions / True Love Will Find You In The End

[RileyLewis]

Always nice to see new additions! With those 2 new songs, he's now played as many songs on the first 9 shows of this tour as he did for the same amount of shows as the last tour (22). So I'd say he's right on track. And it's normal for new songs to be slowly added as days go by.

Edited October 26, 2013 by RileyLewis

[NonPopulus]

New songs for this tour bolded

 

October 26, Hamilton

Garden Of Knives / Arrows Of Desire / Load Me Up / Giant / Non Populus / Born Losers / So Close / Hey Hell Heaven / Had It Coming / We're Long Gone / Weapon / Via Dolorosa / Letters In Wartime / Encore / While We Were Hunting Rabbits / Alert Status Red / Apparitions / True Love Will Find You In The End

 

I noticed that. Just like that, he throws a couple more songs into the shuffle. Good on him for adding a couple more songs into the rotation. I enjoy his cover of True Love and Giant is always welcome. I really like how it's right up front with the other rockers. I'm really looking forward to my first show in about two weeks now.

Edited October 26, 2013 by NonPopulus

[jackwork]

Here's hoping the Toronto show gets a couple of new additions too. I'd love to see a different track from Vancouver such as Volcanoes or The Boy Who Could Explode or It's Been Awhile Since I was Your Man from WLRRR. I know those are longshots but an even bigger longshot would be In A World Called Catastrophe. I've only ever heard less than suitable live recordings of that song. It's one of my favs.

[NonPopulus]

Well, after listening to Guns of Carolina on Live Road, I can understand why he's closed with it at nearly 90% of the shows. It has great atmosphere.

[jackwork]

Well, after listening to Guns of Carolina on Live Road, I can understand why he's closed with it at nearly 90% of the shows. It has great atmosphere.

 

Edit: After refreshing the page, it came up. It sounds pretty good. I was hoping for an acoustic version. Oh well. Weapon was posted too, from the Peterborough show.

Edited October 26, 2013 by jackwork

[Manchalivin]

The Boy Who Could Explode would be awesome. That's one of my favourite MG songs.

[NonPopulus]

I did enjoy the opening trifecta of While We Were Hunting Rabbits, Lights of Endangered Species, and The Boy Who Could Explode.

[uglyredhonda]

Notes about Hamilton:

 

The security guards were being RIDICULOUS about people taking pictures. Matt commented about how the venue looked like a spaceship with all of the ushers running around with flashlights (ostensibly helping people to their seats), but they were actually running around pestering people who pulled out their phones to snap pics. I grabbed a few anyway, but it was absurd. I was way more distracted by security than how it would have been had people been taking pictures.

 

The setlist is actually slightly incomplete. If you saw Matt's recent post(s) about wanting to play songs from Walk Hard - they actually played parts of two of them (the title track and "(Mama) You Got to Love Your Negro Man"). It was hilarious - Matt was leading the charge, and the guys had this look of "Is this actually happening?"

 

Btw - in both Kingston and Hamilton, the guys played a short improv while Matt was grabbing a swig of VitaminWater. (Matt's apparently not drinking beer on this tour - I only saw him touch VitaminWater at both shows.) In Kingston, they teased a bit of Zeppelin, too, as Matt tried to lure Lance out to play some guitar. (Matt noted that it was a shame that the best guitar player around was the guy sitting off-stage.)

 

"Via Dolorosa": they should be playing this every night. I found myself humming it to myself in the parking garage after the show. Before I got to my car, I heard someone else singing it out loud. It sounds great, and it's reaching people.

 

"Giant" sounded fantastic. I really like "Garden" as the opener. Btw - "Carolina" was on the printed setlist as the last song - Matt must have changed his mind. ("True Love" sounded great.)

 

"Rabbits" seemed better to me this time. My Kingston memory may have been affected by the craziness going on around me at that show. Blake, in particular, was tearing it up at the end. (Having said that, the Tony and Matt version from Kitchener 2011 popped up on my iPod last night, and I think I may prefer the power of that version. I think I may also prefer that take because he sang it in the album key - I wish he'd up the current version a half-step. But either way sounds great - I don't mean this as a complaint. People definitely loved it - you could readily hear people singing along in both Kingston and Hamilton.)

 

I think the only strike (to me) in the whole show was "Letters in Wartime". Maybe just the positioning - it just didn't work as a main set closer tonight. Crowd seemed disconnected during the song (it didn't seem to be reaching anyone), and then it ended and the guys walked off-stage. (The guy sitting next to me said, "What the fuck?" out loud as the guys walked off.) It may just need one more "hit" before it (I didn't notice any issues with it in Kingston). I still think the best main set closer Matt has is "Weapon" - I still love the shit out of the band walking off-stage as Matt finishes the song.

 

Overall, I loved the hell out of these two shows. The guys really sound great, and Matt seems more fired up (and probably healthier) than any show I can remember in a long time.

Edited October 28, 2013 by uglyredhonda

[AnOceanPearl]

Barrie

 

Letters In Wartime / Load Me Up / Alert Status Red / So Close / Hey Hell Heaven / Non Populus / Born Losers / Arrows Of Desire / Had It Coming / We're Long Gone / Weapon / Garden Of Knives / Encore / Via Dolorosa / Apparitions / Guns Of Carolina

[hoogie]

Just heard on the radio that tonight's show in London has been postponed....

 

Guess Matt is sick. Hopefully he feels better soon. I'm sure meeting VIP's after every show hasn't helped him either.

 

No word yet on when it will be rescheduled for. Guess I'm free tonight now.

[uglyredhonda]

Just heard on the radio that tonight's show in London has been postponed....

 

Not postponed - cancelled (per venue and Ticketmaster). :(

 

Feels weird - Matt has generally abhorred cancelling shows. I vaguely recall an Ottawa show some years ago where he shouldn't even have been standing up, much less playing a concert. (Though it's probably healthier for him to not try to play though an illness like that.)

Edited October 30, 2013 by uglyredhonda

[hoogie]

Not postponed - cancelled (per venue and Ticketmaster). :(

 

Yeah, I just saw that they changed that. Were saying postponed originally.

 

Still hoping that they may add a makeup date, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking.

 

Pretty disappointed. Oh well

[Guest jjazz]

So, the Toronto show was amazing. Aside from seeing him play acoustic and the old 2004-5 original solo band, this was by far the best thing I've ever seen.

 

Everything was just right on tonight. Crowd was totally into it, and the building was just energized for the whole set. You could tell this was a really important show for everyone involved. Massey just had that thing about it tonight. Ugh, I'm still wired. I can't get over how good that was.

 

Also, I was in line behind Stu Cameron and WARNE FUCKING LIVESEY at the bar. Didn't say anything, I was too in awe. What an interesting night.

 

The tour merch is pretty much the same as the website. Personally, I didn't think it was anything special. But there IS a tour poster which is pretty nice looking. Only $20, and it's sized 18x24 so I don't have to go custom framing it.

[AnOceanPearl]

After the first show in Vancouver during the LoES tour I walked right by Livesey, with my LoES vinyl and wished afterwards that I had asked him to sign it as well.

[Young Grasshopper]

Awesome show in Toronto, very energized and diverse crowd, loved it loved it... wasn't perfect for me but a great performance by Matt. I found a greater appreciation for Non Populus as a live show staple even if the studio track isn't one of my top 20 MG tunes. Loved hearing Last Parade, Mutineering, and Letters in Wartime... although Shallows low didn't seem to translate well within the energy of the show, Set me on Fire may have fit better. I don't like Hello time Bomb probably as much as Matt dislikes Rico, but I guess you gotta feed the Toronto crowd the hits, I would have preferred The Future is X Rated in that spot... and I waited for Hey Hell Heaven which never came (one of the few shows that didn't play it). On a less bitchy note... respect to Matt on melting my face with So Close... definitely moved up on my album faves with the passion he was ripping into it, reminds me of his chops when he was belting out I'm a Window. Matt could play 60 minutes of Bad Lands Over Blue Skies and I would still walk out glad to have seen him play... but my perfect night for a setlist would have been the Fredericton show followed by Peterborough. The audience was great, very loud and appreciative... the energy seemed to dip for the new material but then up again for Weapon, Load me Up, and of course, Hello Time Bomb. Weird to me because I'm more up for hearing the new material... Letters in Wartime, So Close, and Non Populus were my top 3 performances of the night. Tour shirts look great.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Young Grasshopper

[RileyLewis]

Due to an unforeseen event I can't make it to the Regina show tonight, and I have VIP ticket. Obviously I won't get to meet Matt or see the show, but is there anyway to get the merchandise I paid for? Does anyone know who to contact?