Anyway, this was going somewhere. I think the opposite can almost be said of Animal Collective’s live shows, because of exactly what makes them click as musicians (and I’ll be honest, I like them a lot more than you’ve let on), which is that sometimes their best music almost appears to be accidental. Hearing those guys fucking around with sounds is part of what their music is all about, and it’s not even remotely close to the self-satisfying bullshit I’ve seen/heard about/watched live videos of regarding the recent Pumpkins shows.

Ha, in that example, yes, if I had to see Animal Collective I would vastly prefer it if they played the songs they’ve done that I’ve enjoyed in the past — “Essplode,” “Who Could Win A Rabbit,” “Chocolate Girl,” “Penny Dreadfuls,” “Grass,” a couple songs off of that Panda Bear record. Some googling reveals that their recent shows actually do hit a bunch of those numbers, so good for them. That said, I think they are the kind of band who could pull off shows with little to no recognizable material, if just because I think their fans want them to be far out, and probably don’t come expecting to hear anything in particular. Some acts are like that, you know?

I think it’s always a good idea for bands to play their best known songs, and to make an effort to represent their catalog. That seems to be a common denominator in most good shows, along with an artist just knowing what they do best and having a sense of which songs translate in concert. But yeah, it’s never a good idea to play to an audience without giving them something they would know and enjoy. If you can get people on your side, they will be much more eager to be patient with new or weirder material. If you’re an established act, many people who come to see you play are doing so because they enjoy your material, and they should get some payoff on that, because if you don’t, you run a strong risk of making them feel like they’ve wasted money on you — especially in this economy! — and sour on you. Bands tour to build audiences, not to tear them down!

I feel like R.E.M.’s setlists, particularly on the Accelerate tour, have done a great job of balancing their show out so that all the different sort of people who’d go to an R.E.M. show could walk away pleased. Casual fans will get most of the big big hits. Fans of the recent work will get some of that, longtime fans will get some IRS oldies. They generally get around to playing something from every record, barring one or two in any given show. (They generally avoid Around The Sun these days.) In the waning days of that tour, they’ve played a staggering number of songs from all of their records, many of which had not been performed in ages.

I was looking at Jay-Z’s setlist from the Izod Center recently, and that was a great one — that guy really wants you to go home happy, no matter what kind of fan you are.