Metallica Concerts, 1982-2012 [Infographics]

http://cilekagaci.com/2011/11/30/metallica-on-stage/

by amacinho • 15 years ago

96 40 15 years ago

"This is an examination of Metallica’s concert history from 1982 to 2012 with a focus on the numbers of songs played live and the albums that they belong to. We took the raw data from Setlist.fm (plus Last.fm in the last part), groomed it and visualized it with our own tools."

earbitscom2• 15 years ago

I am so glad that some people have a lot of time on their hands. This is awesome.

joejohnson• 15 years ago

I know! Now, imagine if those same people also had good taste in music... That would be so cool!

earbitscom2• 15 years ago

Clearly they do, because they were smart enough to know that Load and everything from there until Death Magnetic should be looked at separately, since it sucked. But yes, I need to see a Tool version of this immediately.

thret• 15 years ago

I'm sure Tufte would approve.

andrewfelix• 15 years ago

Pretty well reflects the quality of the Albums. Thank god for Death Magnetic.

tnuc• 15 years ago

Yes a good reflection. Looks like Lulu has never been played.

tptacek• 15 years ago

They'd need to drag Lou Reed out for that, right?

http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2011/11/29/makes-sense-2/

tibbon• 15 years ago

This is pretty cool.

A few interesting observations:

1. Metallica seems to have realized themselves that St Anger wasn't something they wanted to play after that tour. The Load album seems to have been similarly dropped pretty hard.

2. It appears they never even tried playing the majority of Reload live. This is interesting to me as a musician, because I'd have thought that Metallica would be the type of band to try a lot of their songs live before recording them, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

3. Very shocked that they never played Unforgiven II live, since it was a single and everything.

4. I really liked the Audience vs Band chart.

marcinw• 15 years ago

Am I only the person ever to like Load? I know it's not their best, but I still enjoyed it.

nigelsampson• 15 years ago

I enjoyed Load and Reload, gave up after buying St Anger.

Favourite album is S&M.

prawn2• 15 years ago

I didn't mind it, despite a couple of weaker tracks. Don't think I bought Reload though and barely listened to St Anger.

At some point, I reckon Hetfield lost the magic and was forcing things from that point.

quaristice• 15 years ago

They've played Unforgiven II once live. Check the graphic again. I think the video is on youtube.

In general, they didn't play new stuff live.

Here's to hoping they play fixxxer live one day.

eftpotrm• 15 years ago

Amen to that.

From the same album, I was really shocked they'd never played Prince Charming live. Can really imagine that going down a storm, it's just the right pace for a good gig song.

Throw in them and 2x4 for your next setlist please :-) Bit of variety's good and I can imagine them all going down well.

daemin• 15 years ago

I would imagine they don't play The Unforgiven trilogy live much because they seem to be more mainstream than what their fans (at the concerts) would like.

jonursenbach• 15 years ago

They stopped playing St Anger material after that tour because that album/tour almost broke them up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Kind_of_Monster_(film)

But probably also because it's awful.

jwr• 15 years ago

My observations were similar, but more generally: notice that everything until the Black Album gets played at concerts, while everything after that just tapers off quickly.

Which doesn't surprise me, as I think their work used to be much better in the past.

vosper• 15 years ago

This is great, but the low contrast between the text and the background makes it very hard to read.

With no evidence I feel that this is something of a trend at the moment; I've recently battled our designers when they have sacrificed readability.

I'm 29 and have excellent vision, I can't imagine how hard this could be to read for people who don't.

Codhisattva• 15 years ago

My eyes are still bugging out from the 55 seconds I spent on jwz's site. Arg!

danteembermage• 15 years ago

Cool idea, but I'm going to quibble a bit on the Audience vs. Band Chart. Suppose for simplicity that a band has four songs A, B, C, and D that respectively 40% 20% 20% and 20% of people would prefer to hear at a concert. Now suppose the band can only play one song.

Which song should they play?

I don't think the answer to that question is a random mix of the songs with 40% song A, I think the answer is 100% song A. If you play any of the other songs, you make 20% of the audience happy, if you play A you make 40% happy, it strictly dominates. In other words, I don't think playing the songs at a concert in proportion to their last.fm statistics makes sense since at home listeners have as much time as they want but concert time is a limited resource that should be used on the best songs.

So I would be interested in the rank order of listening stats vs. rank order of concert songs and look for anomalies. Unforgiven (I, II, III?) are probably going to make that list since I've actually heard of that one and I am definitely not a Metallica fan.

Bo102010• 15 years ago

The graphic brought up these same kind of questions for me. If you're a band with a new album out, how much from that album should you play? Would you rather boost demand for it, or keep long-time fans happy so they come back to the show next year?

The answer may vary by band. My favorite band, Reel Big Fish, recently did a tour with lots of "deep cuts" and few A-side hits. I loved it, and I think lots of long-time fans did too. But was it economically optimal?

prawn2• 15 years ago

Makes me wonder if artists with some history couldn't double up on gigs in a given city, playing classics in one show and favouring newer material in the other. Of course, hardcore fans would attend both.

marknutter• 15 years ago

I gave up on Metallica years ago after they went on their tirade against Napster. Band that becomes famous because of people sharing garage-band tapes with each other bitches about people for sharing their music after they become famous; it's the ultimate hypocrisy.

mwsherman• 15 years ago

I am happy that is actually an infographic: original analysis presented graphically. Too often, an “infographic” is just a list that someone did in Illustrator.

wavephorm• 15 years ago

Is this what happens when a Metallica fanatic takes Adderall?

dwhitney• 15 years ago

I can't believe they never played "Don't Tread on Me"

CWIZO2• 15 years ago

and Escape. That is one epic song.

malkia• 15 years ago

Metallica before the black album is the Metallica I like, anything since then I can't simply listen to it.

crikli2• 15 years ago

I'd like to see an infographic on how badly Lars' ability to maintain tempo live has degraded over time. I love their pre-Black studio work and LSB&P, but live it's just tough to listen to them bludgeon their songs to death at 110-200BPM.

CWIZO2• 15 years ago

I don't know when you last saw them live, but I've seen them last year in Zagreb and I thought they ware great (admittedly that was my first Metallica concert so I really can't compare).

crikli2• 15 years ago

They still put on a good show, no doubt. You don't walk out disappointed in their ability to entertain.

What I'm saying is that from a musicianship perspective they're a disaster in a live setting. Lars can't maintain a steady tempo and is constantly pushing and pulling the beat...I'm sure he refuses to use a click track, but he should as he's just not talented enough to stay on tempo. I don't know how Rob stays with him other than the fact that he's just really a great bassist.

They blast right through the breaks in their songs without taking a breath. For example, watch Harvester of Sorrow in Seattle from Live Sh!t, recorded in the 1992. They take a break after one of the mesaures and walk around for a few seconds and then come in hard with "All have said their prayers...". It was an amazing effect and man, we'd go nuts in the pits, freezing during the break and then just smashing sh!t up when they came back in. It was, to use a word that has sadly lost its meaning, epic.

These days they don't even pause between songs, much less breaking at the end of a measure for effect. They just bleed one song right into the other. For a guy who's been going to shows for over 20 years it's been tough to watch them stop caring about how they play.

mmaunder• 15 years ago

The Black album wins. Obviously.

dasil003• 15 years ago

For the love of god where is the PNG?

kang• 15 years ago

About Audience vs Band Chart

When I am home listening to Metallica I might prefer the lighter songs like Unforgiven II. Whereas a concert is not just 'music', it is a whole performance! An energetic song definitely makes a difference. Thus, the chart is partly right saying that the songs from the extreme left would make people more happy, but how would playing those set the mood for the concert which determines the overall experience?

jasonkester• 15 years ago

It's actually surprising how much time has passed since Metallica used to be good. Looking at the infographic, they've now spend nearly 2/3 of their career in the "play the songs from this album on its release tour, then never again" phase.

I still distinctly recall the day in 2003 when I first uttered the previously unthinkable phrase "more crappy Metallica" on hearing their new release.

I actually downloaded their latest album when it so publicly got leaked on the internet. Then, with dashed hopes, deleted it an hour later.

Shame.

mgkimsal2• 15 years ago

I don't think this is unique to Metallica. I'm a big McCartney fan, and he too will play a few from the new album, a couple from mid career, but mostly "oldies" hits. There's little he can do to please everyone, so the hardcore fans realize there's just no way he's likely ever to do "Girls School" or "Morse Moose" live. :/

I think Metallica is in a similar place with the amount of history they have, and yet I'm not sure anyone would ever slap the label "oldies" on their work. :)

untog• 15 years ago

Is that such a bad thing, though?

I've seen Radiohead live a few times and I'm always very sad that I never saw them in The Bends/OK Computer era- they barely ever play songs that far back any more. It's a huge deal when they play Creep, too.

I'm not saying that every band should just play crowd-pleasers, of course, but it's nice to hear the stuff that made the band every now and then.

Metallica Concerts, 1982-2012 [Infographics]

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