Play it All?

All Tomorrow’s Parties have been urging acts to play their great albums in full since about 2005, and the practice is catching on. I don’t know about you guys, but I think this is a sensible and sweet idea (I know Christine enjoyed it at Pitchfork last month.) Liz Phair offers the best explanation for why this odd twist on the typical concert set list makes so much sense to audiences:

Phair recalls, “When we decided we were going to rerelease it (Exile in Guyville), everyone at ATO said, ‘You have to play it live — you have to play the whole thing live.’ And I was like, ‘Holy crap, really?’ I don’t think I’ve ever played a lot of those songs live.”

Phair admits to some restless nights worrying about how she would relearn the material and translate it to the stage, but so far, the performances have been warmly received. “Everybody was just so into it,” she says. “I knew it wasn’t about me. Nostalgia is about people wanting to relive their experience with it. I very much felt that every moment onstage.”

Remember buying an album, putting your head phones on, turning the lights out or dim enough to hurt your eyes reading the lyrics sheet, and letting the complete emotional story, a year in someone else’s life, wash over you and speak exactly to the shades and colours of your particular angst and love pangs? If so then you know why an artist playing that album in full would be the perfect euphoric gift. I know some local acts have started playing with this for album launches - United Steelworkers of Montreal played their new album in full at it’s launch, then came out for an encore and played the first album from start to finish. They watched recognition flicker across the room, and people who got it felt like they were drawn into a secret association of lovers, and it made for a very special evening. But does this only work for acts who have already managed to create that complete-feeling album as art, or, like the Steelworkers, band as epicenter for community? Is there any point in attempting this with a first or second release? Would it help you deepen your connection to the few people in the crowd who do own your album already and increase a desire for it among others, or would it just come across as lazy or pretentious? What do you think?