Setlist Conservatism

I've been reading some mixed reviews of the current Mostly Autumn spring tour, which finished at Bilston last night. I greatly enjoyed the Rhyl show, but I've read a couple of very negative accounts of Friday's show at Harpendon, focussing on the appallingly bad sound. In contrast, all accounts of the final night at Bilston sound like a superb show in front of an appreciative crowd. Makes me wish I'd gone.

There have been two noted criticisms of this tour. First, the band don't seem quite as tight as they were in 2005, although some nights were worse than others. Secondly, the current setlist is very conservative. On this tour I feel they've included too many 'oldies' at the expense of much stronger recent material. At Rhyl, they only played three songs from "Storms" and just two from "Passengers".

While the first two albums have their moments, I think MA's songwriting and arrangements improved dramatically from "The Last Bright Light" onwards. Passengers and Storms both contain a lot songs that make much of the first two albums look rather half-formed and perhaps a little dated. But MA are still playing more songs from the ten-year old debut than the current album.

Why are songs like "Bitterness Burnt", "Simple Ways", "Black Rain" or "Storms" itself not being played live?

I understand long-term fans wanting to hear the oldies, but I get the impression that it's the more recent material that makes the most impact on would-be new fans. If MA are to survive and prosper, they need to expand their fanbase.

I'm not saying that MA should abandon their roots completely, and play an entire set based on "Passengers" onwards. But I do think they haven't quite got the balance between old and new quite right on this tour.

I've also posted this to the official MA forum, where it's gathered a few responses