Listening Homework Playlists/Setlists

In YouTubeMusic

These are the YouTubeMusic playlists I use (at the bottom of my profile page). They represent my best guess of what the setlist will be for an upcoming live show. I use YouTubeMusic so I can add music videos.

Ad Blockers/Browser Extensions

I access the playlists through a browser (Vivaldi). I use multiple ad blockers and browser extensions so it’s less annoying. As of Feb 2025, I use uBlock Origin (ad blocker), Ad Blocker for YouTube, and Control Panel for YouTube. I may consider paying for YouTube Premium, but I’m not there yet.

ReadMe

Lists are for my own use, so they may not be entirely intuitive. At some point I add the opener’s set - usually after the headliner’s set. There are often duplicates - mostly because the volume on the music video is problematic (quieter). So I cycle that to the end of the list and substitute the audio/lyric video/visualizer. Lists get streamlined closer to the show.

Depending on how setlists evolve during tour, I add songs as they get played. Or I may winnow down the list - as it becomes clear what they’ve settled on as their list for tour.

“Pearl Jam” Style Lists

In some cases I do what I call a “Pearl Jam” style list. (Pearl Jam changes up their list every night.)

I may do a list like this simply because the artist frequently changes what they play from show to show. Like Belle and Sebastian.

In these cases, the list is made up of the songs they’ve played most often for the tour/recently, in alphabetical order, per setlist.fm statistics. Here are the Pearl Jam stats as an example. I typically sort for the latest year.

List Sorting

The playlists are sorted by most recently edited. So it tends to correlate to upcoming shows I have tickets for.

How Are Lists Put Together?

Usually Chicago is not the first stop on a tour, so there’s a chance there will be setlists for this specific tour updated prior to our date. But even before the first show of the tour, I’m usually scouring older setlists for a sense of what will likely get played.

Assuming their list is relatively stable from set to set, I try to start with the latest appropriate list, and use that as a base. For headliners, if they’ve recently been playing short sets, I look back for a headline set. If I’m attending a short set, I try to find a recent list that’s similarly short. Festival lists are useful for that.

From there I start looking for variations. Sometimes artists have points in their set where they may regularly play from a rotating list of alternate songs. Sometimes for the encore, sometimes in the middle of their set. I usually put less frequently played songs at the end of the list. I almost never start with a “Pearl Jam” style list unless it’s obvious I need to.

These lists evolve as I get more/updated information from setlist.fm. That’s one of the reasons I can tend to ask musicians to post a setlist. More detail on that in this post. I ask especially if there aren’t any recent lists.

In some cases the artist isn’t even in the database. That can be a more extended process to get them added.

If it’s obvious that many of the songs they play are unreleased, it makes less sense to ask. It’s still appreciated if they do post a list, but there’s less I can do about it.

That’s because my strong preference is for studio recordings over live. Really because the audio can tend not to be great. That’s one of the reasons I prefer taking pictures over video at shows.

If they’re newer artists touring with a new album, and they’re likely to play the entire album (or most of it) for that tour, the focus tends to be on what they may play from their back catalog. Shorter lists are useful for that to get a sense of their “greatest hits” set.

Established vs. Newer Artists

Especially more established acts tend to have relatively stable setlists. Even if they have a new album out, they may only play 2-3 songs from that - especially if they have a large discography to cover. Their audiences are often there to hear them play the songs they know.

Sometimes they’re playing one (or more) of their most well known albums in full. That makes listening homework easier :) . Though I’m usually then trying to figure out what the other songs are that they’re going to play. Often a “greatest hits” set - depending on how long the album is.

Newer artists with a new album may end up playing all/almost all of the album. This can make for some last minute listening if the album’s only out days/weeks before the show.