Via youtube, I have been watching a lot of artists concerts and I find it interesting that most artists only play the hits in concert. Other than Prince, Rush is the only other artist that I know will play ANY song from their albums, hit or no hit. I remember someone telling me that they would hope that if they went to a Prince concert, they would mainly hear "the songs that made him"(the hits). I think he would be in for a rude awakening.
My question is 2 fold..do you think its wise that Prince plays "whatever(hit, not hit..released or unreleased songs)" in his concerts
#2 what other artists play non hit songs routinely on their tours

I'd disagree with that... most artists DON'T concentrate on the hits as much as
you assume, certainly no more than Prince. In fact, I'd say that Prince has
become a lot more 'Hit' driven in his setlists in the last decade.

One thing that Prince seemed to have stopped doing, that most other major
artists DO, is support his latest album live. With the exception of the One Nite
Alone tour, Prince rarely plays more than a couple of tracks from whatever
his latest album is.

In contrast, the two BIGGEST artists in the world, U2 and Madonna regularly
draw VERY heavily from their latest release when playing live. Often accounting
for anywhere between 1/4 to 1/3 of their show to the new material. With the
remainder of the set being drawn from their hits and usually including a few
interesting fan favs or unexpected album tracks.

I noticed that during the EMANCIPATION tour..I think he did "Sleep Around" and "Face Down" live and the other songs were the hits..

As a fan and long time Prince concert goer, I'm TOTALLY in for new, unreleased and obscure songs being played live...

BUT...having hits is a double-edge sword..cause the casual fan WANTS to hear those songs and fans like me would rather not hear When Doves Cry for the 1000 time played live. Great song, just heard it a bit too much

The hits is where he makes his money and where ALL artists make their money. If you don't play something that everyone knows, you'll make people unhappy. And rumor will go around that you aren't playing any hits, so ppl won't go to your shows. Yuo'll still make money, but the shows aren't gonna be money makers like stadium tours. See ONA as an example. That tour was focused on sheer musicianship and great music, but not very many hits were played.

As for other artists, did Rush have that many hits other than Tom Sawyer?
If you're talking about the big acts then you'll hear them all do a mix of hits and non-hits or fan favorites. Metallica, Aerosmith, MJ (RIP), Madonna, Outkast, Alicia Keys, AC/DC. A lot of ppl are casual fans so they want to hear their favorite song that played on the radio and more than often...they are HITS.

rudedog said:

So that people will no longer abide in a sea of ignorance..Rush's biggest hit is NEW WORLD MAN

other Rush hits include:
Time Stand Still
Tom Sawyer
Subdivisions
2112
Spirit of Radio
Freewill
Limelight
YYZ
Red Barchetta
Roll The Bones
Closer To The Heart
[Edited 7/22/09 17:00pm]

DigitalGardin said:

He started the whole show with "Jam of The Year" for every show. He also played "Get Yo Groove On", "Face Down", "One of Us", and "Mr. Happy". He played a lot of era music as well, not just Prince music.

DigitalGardin said:

Hey now, I kinda resent that, I'm not IGNORING them, I just don't like them. Though i did try and get into them...