IF YOU ARE GOING TO SEE A BAND WITH A NEW ALBUM, DO YOU ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE ALBUM FIRST?

JOEJOEJOE

I usually wait to hear new material live for the first time.....if it turns out to be good, I like having the memory of first hearing it live as opposed to on record.

CarryTheZero

I try to listen a few times before. It’s hard for me to pick out lyrics sometimes depending on how the sound is. Tend to enjoy it a bit more if I have some familiarity.

drakeheuer14

Always before when possible. I feel a little disconnected from the experience if I don’t know enough songs in a set.

BrainofBGA

As above.

A mate of mine took his daughter to see the Arctic Monkeys last week. He doesn’t really know their stuff. He created a playlist of their tracks based on recent set lists on setlist.fm

He said that he certainly enjoyed the concert more being more familiar with some of the material. 

brianlux

I never thought about it back in my far more frequent concert going days.  If I didn't have the new album that a band was touring to promote, one of my friends would and we would listen to it and go see the band later. 
If I had it to do over again, I would at least try going without having heard the album first simply to see what that's like.  But I have never once done that.

Interesting idea there, Joe!

2-feign-reluctance

I have, yes. 

Loujoe

Yep. Like to be able to hum along

CarryTheZero

Now I have seen opening bands that I have been floored by having never heard a song. 

Some examples:
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Marcus King Band
Stars
Ida Mae
Future Birds

Now a life long fan of BHIC and Marcus King.

tempo_n_groove

Depends.  Iron Maiden I didn't have a real hunkering to listen to anything new.  The newer bands I see I always do.

GB281198

I try to listen before so I recognize the songs especially the lyrics. With the convenience of YouTube and Spotify I can get familiar with an artist that I'm only a casual fan of. I like to watch live video recordings if they're available for opening acts as well. I go long periods without listening to a band and if I'm going to a show I'll listen to as much of their catalog as I can kinda like cramming for an exam 

Go Beavers

No. I’ve been to many shows where I’ve only heard one or two of the band’s songs and it’s always been a great experience. Some that come to mind are Sigur Ros, Alabama Shakes, Widespread Panic, The Shins and Robert Randolph Band. 

jjflash

Yes. Songs are like friends: it's good to know 'em, to have a common history.

If it's a song or two the band is actively working thru in preparation for a forthcoming album then I'm all for hearing something that's foreign to both the crowd and band. However, if the album is in the public domain then I'll definitely spend time with it in the days/weeks leading up to the show. IMO, it's fun to have those Eureka! moments where the first notes echo across the crowd and it's like "Hell, yeah, they're playing that song!!" It makes for a deeper, more connected experience.

I saw Neil Young a couple of times on the Le Noise tour, where, in a typical Neil move, he toured prior to releasing the album. They were great shows, however the presentation of that particular batch of songs was like meeting absolute strangers. In hindsight I've always wished I could re-hear those fresh new songs having first had the opportunity to live with them a bit beforehand.

Touring around an unreleased album is one thing; teasing a few new upcoming songs is another, For example, hearing Pearl Jam play the yet-to-be released songs Lighting Bolt and Future Days at Wrigley '13 was awesome.

PJ_Soul

Yes, always. I want to be familiar with the music. I have a friend who would rather go in blind... he will even choose not to listen to any music by a band he has not heard before if I'm taking him to their show. He seems to think believe that this allows him to "go in fresh"... But honestly, it backfires on him every time, LOL. What happens is he forms some baseless idea of the music in his head beforehand, and when the band inevitably doesn't exactly match that preconceived notion, he is left feeling somewhat nonplussed. And yet he insists on continuing with this habit. As the stubborn bastard would say, "it's his plan and he's sticking to it." He does the same with movies. It drives me fucking crazy! It's like he's going out of his way to makes things worse for himself but refuses to learn the lesson.

eeriepadave

I usually do yeah. Mainly just to get me pumped up and to get familiar with their latest material.

hrd2imgn

I like knowing, but MMJ was one I did not look into early, and I was floored by their performance.  The problem came in not knowing the name of what song I liked.  With streaming and Utube this is not really a problem anymore, but back in the day you had to pay to try it out.

JOEJOEJOE

I used to be adamant about listening to new albums before shows, but after I saw REM play a bunch of songs from New Adventures in Hi-Fi (Before they were released) on the Monster tour, I liked the idea of my first exposure to new songs being in a live setting.

HughFreakingDillon

always for headliners. not always for openers. I was pleasantly shocked by Crown Lands when they opened for Jack White. But seeing PJ a couple months before VS was released and they played six tracks off it, they were difficult to make out. could also have been the sound though. 

PJ_Soul

HughFreakingDillon said:

always for headliners. not always for openers. I was pleasantly shocked by Crown Lands when they opened for Jack White. But seeing PJ a couple months before VS was released and they played six tracks off it, they were difficult to make out. could also have been the sound though. 

Oh, yeah, never for openers. I have discovered one or two bands I hadn't heard before who really grabbed my attention enough for me to really check them out after. That isn't a good track record for unknown openers!