PJ Setlist Analytics

PrezIntense

So I've written a series of functions that scrapes setlist fm and have been using it to understand some of my favorite artists...including Pearl Jam. It's been a fun side project for me and I've used this foundation to answer lots of set list questions for friends (eg "Have Footsteps and Crazy Mary ever been played in the same night?"). Anyways I thought I'd make a discussion to share some of my stuff and open it to anyone to ask random setlist questions...

This is the song distribution of the Dark Matter Tour so far

PrezIntense

Geographical Distribution of Pearl Shows (as of Jan 15, 2025).

The density overlay shows a pretty high concentration in the northeast -- that stretch from NY/Philly to Chicago.

PrezIntense

And the full world version....

PrezIntense

Compare how Pearl Jam constructs set lists to an artist like Taylor Swift, who plays pretty much the same songs every night but then has a SUPER rare track for that audience.

Not a Taylor Swift fan personally (you like what you like -- no judgment from me) but that is an interesting model where everyone gets the same 25 -30 songs or whatever and then gets some total one-off rarity.

enddem

PrezIntense said:

 (eg "Have Footsteps and Crazy Mary ever been played in the same night?"). Anyways I thought I'd make a discussion to share some of my stuff and open it to anyone to ask random setlist questions...

Portland 2024

Seriously though, great work, thanks for sharing

PrezIntense

enddem said:

PrezIntense said:

 (eg "Have Footsteps and Crazy Mary ever been played in the same night?"). Anyways I thought I'd make a discussion to share some of my stuff and open it to anyone to ask random setlist questions...

Portland 2024

Seriously though, great work, thanks for sharing

Yep! Were you there? I bet it was awesome. Here are the other times...

enddem

PrezIntense said:

enddem said:

PrezIntense said:

 (eg "Have Footsteps and Crazy Mary ever been played in the same night?"). Anyways I thought I'd make a discussion to share some of my stuff and open it to anyone to ask random setlist questions...

Portland 2024

Seriously though, great work, thanks for sharing

Yep! Were you there? I bet it was awesome. Here are the other times...

I was! Both in the encore set, which is one of the many reasons it's seared into my brain. And it was in fact awesome! Again, great job with all this, thank you for sharing it.

AndySlash

PrezIntense said:

 (eg "Have Footsteps and Crazy Mary ever been played in the same night?)

pjdb.net was a great resource for those types of questions. a shame it just up and disappeared.

BF25394

Cool stuff, but take anything you find with a grain of salt as there are plenty of errors on setlist.fm. (There are also errors on this site, which is a reason not to take the app that uses this site for its data as gospel.)

PrezIntense

BF25394 said:

Cool stuff, but take anything you find with a grain of salt as there are plenty of errors on setlist.fm. (There are also errors on this site, which is a reason not to take the app that uses this site for its data as gospel.)

Sure -- In my career as a data scientist I've learned that every data source is flawed. Setlist.fm is community sourced and there are pros and cons to it -- I've found that bands with larger, more dedicated live fanbases (like PJ) have much more accurate listings. I've spent lots of time cleaning this data over the last several years and, while I do still find things here and there, the PJ data is fairly clean -- especially post 2000.

Get_Right

Cannot say I am huge fan of applying data analytics to rock concerts. But it would be nice this old timer could actually read your bar graphs.

logan5ive

Get_Right said:

Cannot say I am huge fan of applying data analytics to rock concerts. But it would be nice this old timer could actually read your bar graphs.

It's easier to read if you open it in a new tab.

PrezIntense

Get_Right said:

Cannot say I am huge fan of applying data analytics to rock concerts. But it would be nice this old timer could actually read your bar graphs.

Humans are inherently data-driven and, to me, it's strange to NOT want to look at data...but to each their own.

As a data scientist and mathematician, data is one of the ways I make sense of the world. As a lifelong musician it's only natural that part of my world I'm looking at through that lens is music. 

Like @logan5ive suggested, right clicking and opening the image in a new tab makes it easier to view...should you be inclined to do so.

Get_Right

Thanks for the tip. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. That applies to PJ setlists for me. Of course I still look at every setlist thread