Sunday, July 5, 2009

Blur Play It Safe At Hyde Park Reunion - Setlists

Picture via flickr, courtesy of Stew Dean

We've been getting psyched up for Blur's reunion for months now, and despite the fact that there have been numerous warm up and festival gigs, for some reason it seemed like this weekend's Hyde Park gigs were truly the "real thing". As such, we were psyched to track down the setlists, although in the end we would have liked to have seen things turn out a bit differently.

Not that there was anything wrong with the setlists per se: by all accounts both gigs were totally monumental, and we haven't heard a peep of disappointment from any party that was in attendance. However, from the outside, it seems that the band played it very conservatively.

The sets leaned heavily on older material, with the only newer material being singles. In fact, most of the set was a greatest-hits run through. Now, granted, when you haven't played for almost ten years as a unit, you do have to do a certain amount of head nodding to the past. That being said, one of our favorite bits of Blur is the experimental conflict that arose in the second half of their career.

We're all for poppy goodness (and lord knows Blur are the masters of it), but we have to admit we would have liked to have seen a little bit more of their edgy material. That, and the fact the setlist was identical both days, I mean - come on. Not even a variation for the encore? Still, as they say, beggars can't be choosers, and when it comes to a Blur reunion, we are most certainly that.

Blur At Hyde Park July 2nd and 3rd - Setlist
1. She's So High
2. Girls And Boys
3. Tracy Jacks
4. There's No Other Way
5. Jubilee
6. Badhead
7. Beetlebum
8. Out Of Time
9. Trimm Trabb
10. Coffee And TV
11. Tender
12. Country House
13. Oily Water
14. Chemical World
15. Sunday Sunday
16. Parklife (with Phil Daniels)
17. End Of A Century
18. To The End
19. This Is A Low
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20. Popscene
21. Advert
22. Song 2
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23. Death Of A Party
24. For Tomorrow
25. The Universal

1 comments:

DF said...

Agree absolutely. Still wish I was there...especially the warm-up shows.