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Old 30-07-2019, 15:59
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darkanddivine darkanddivine is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Wolfland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IntlDebris View Post
I know it's a festival set, so they're going to go for the top 20 singles approach, but this is still pretty grim reading. Regardless of whatever our opinions here on the board have been, the past five albums have all been very well regarded, critically, and the band have mostly seemed pretty happy with them. In fact, there are only three songs from this century (eight albums), with the rest of the setlist from the '90s (five albums). There's a little bit more balance in the tours, but it still feels like they're playing up the 'legacy band' thing, which feels pretty much the opposite of what the band are about.
I think a lot of these festivals (judging by the line-ups) are catering both to a specific audience and a specific sub-set of bands. Long story short, I think that has a hand in the sets they play.

Back in the days of the late 90's/early 00's, there were literally a handful of music festivals for all alternative music and alternative music fans (Reading, Glasto, T, V etc.) Over the years, these became prestigious and quite expensive, so a few "alternative alternative" fests came along (eg: Truck, 2000 Trees, ArcTangent.) These fests were, in many ways, set up to cater to fans of smaller bands who were increasingly locked out of the big festivals. Or, if that didn't cater to your tastes, you had the rise of specialist fests for dance, metal and so on (Parklife, Download etc.)

The trouble for many British 90's rock/indie bands is that they aren't specialist enough to play a specialist festival, and they aren't big enough for any of the mainstream festivals anymore. On top of that, they're not exactly up and coming either. That's why, it seems to me, there's been an absolute explosion of these festivals that do a bit of a nostalgia fest. In part theyr'e catering to the bands who wouldn't get a look in, but also to the fans who feel that they don't want to watch a bunch of 18 year olds salivating over bands they have never heard of. For the demographic involved, these warm and fuzzy fests probably make a lot of sense. Take the kids, have a "lovely time," ignore the bands you've never heard of in the day and then put the nippers to bed. Then have a few beers and reminisce about how great it was when you had more hair and a slimmer waistline.

It's kinda genius in a way. Take a group of people who would be retiring from going to festivals and offer them a way back in. Decent price, decent bands, and an all-round family vibe. To be honest, this doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, but I can see what some people see in it. And in an era where getting any sort of stage time at a major festival is a vanishing prospect for some bands, I don't blame the likes of MSP for making lots of people very happy. I think that explains why many of the setlists (not just MSP) at these events are pure nostalgia porn. More the power to those who go, but for me it's a complete waste of moolah.
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Last edited by darkanddivine; 03-08-2019 at 19:50.
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