The length of Lana's recent promo tour spots

[StrawberryBlond 14,916]

I meant to write this the next day but things kept coming up. Basically, I went to see Lana live in concert in Glasgow last Wednesday (let me know if anyone here was there!) and it was at the Hydro, which is a 13k capacity arena. Despite the fact that she announced this date before her recent announcement of an upcoming world tour, the assumption was that this would be like any other tour date, i.e. a long setlist, a 2 hour show, that kinda thing. It was only when I saw a few days before the show that Wikipedia had mentioned the date in a statement saying "promotional stops were announced in..." that I became a bit concerned. I started thinking: "Wait, promo gigs are short. What if she only performs, like, 8 songs, is on for about an hour and that's it?" But I immediately reasoned that if this were the case, she wouldn't perform in a big arena. Promo gigs tend to be in clubs or theatres. Also, considering that her album had sold 24k in its opening week just a few weeks before, both Glasgow and the Liverpool date would add up to 24k people if, hypothetically, all tickets sold, which would mean that this might be all the gigs she's planning on doing for the whole of the UK, to prevent her from doing a lot of small venue dates. It would be counterproductive to do arenas for promo gigs when she'll need all the ticket sales she can get for her upcoming tour. Also, queuing to get inside, I heard a security guy say that the support acts come on at 8pm, Lana comes on at 9pm and she should be finished around 11pm. So, that it was settled and I relaxed.

8pm came and nothing. Eventually, when it got to 8:45pm, I accepted that there had been a misunderstanding about support acts, which was weird as it said "Lana Del Rey plus special guests" on my tickets. Seeing as the last time I saw her, she started on time, I sincerely hoped she wasn't planning on starting later. She came on 5 minutes late, so she began at 9:05pm. And it was all over by roughly 10:20pm. That doesn't sound like long, but because she hopped from song to song, isn't one for speeches and most of her songs are long, she managed to cram 14 songs in. They were (not completely in order but as close as possible): Cruel World, Cherry, Born To Die, White Mustang, Shades Of Cool, Blue Jeans, Music To Watch Boys To, Ride, Video Games, Change, Ultraviolence, Summertime Sadness, Love, Off To The Races. I was on the highest possible row (the very top tier was closed) and there was a skirmish of sorts further allow my row and security had to step in. I still don't know what it was all about and it all happened on the last song, so it ruined my enjoyment of it and right after the moment died down, all the lights came back on and suddenly it was a case of mass exodus. I had no idea what was going on and thought for a minute, it was connected to what just happened and started panicking (let's not pretend that everyone's a bit worried to go to arenas now in light of recent events). But no, it had genuinely ended on schedule.

There was a bit of general unrest. There was even a girl sitting eating a burger and chips on the ground outside, ranting and raving about how she was charging us £50 for tickets, completely ripped us off and it resulted in us buying food and drink that we couldn't even finish eating in time. Granted, it wasn't the worst case of misleading an audience I'd ever seen. Madonna sang an extremely short 45-minute setlist (15 minutes of which was taken up by a speech) at an intimate theatre gig in Paris on the MDNA tour but instead of billing it as a promo gig, she included it in the general tour roster, making fans think it was just another tour date, albeit more intimate. It enraged fans so much that they demanded refunds (some had paid £200+). That is probably the worst case. But it was still a bit ridiculous that her management did this to manipulate hungry fans into buying tickets. When these dates were announced, she didn't say they were part of a tour and we were led to believe 2 arena dates was all the UK was getting. She hadn't performed here since 2013. She had released 3 albums in that time, so we were thirsty to see her live again. I can't help thinking that her management purposely told us nothing and told Lana to tell us nothing in order to get our money. There were apparently people who had camped out the day before. I have no doubt that some people had travelled from all over and booked hotels. It's a lot of people to let down.

I'm not blaming Lana for this, I'm blaming her management and the way the music industry works in general. Not telling fans if a new single is a lead single or a promo single so we support it regardless, announcing a tour but not telling us what album it's supporting, re-releasing multiple albums so fans have to buy it twice...I just want them to be honest with us. So, yeah, let me know if you were at any of the promo gigs and what you thought. And remember, you don't mess with Glasgow fans!

[SiliconeMonster 1,617]

I saw her in San Diego, CA with an identical setlist. She came on at around 9:20 and we left at around 10:45. Nobody seemed upset because we were the opening night and a few of the songs she performed were live debuts and a few acapella crowd requests so there was a lot of excitement. I had seen her before, and was aware that she performed pretty short setlists (which is disappointing I agree), so I wasn't shocked or upset. I had a wonderful time. When I saw her before it was right when Ultraviolence was released and she showed up late, only played 10 songs, one of which had to be restarted due to a technical error and only 3 of them were from Ultraviolence.

I do think $65 was a fair price for my ticket considering how quickly they sold out and that the venue was very intimate and I was extremely close to her despite not standing in line all day. It was at the House of Blues. In your case, I do think your $50 ticket was a ripoff especially when you ended up in the nosebleeds and didn't get to enjoy the concert because of the people around you.

TBH because these dates have been so sporadic and randomly announced and timed I didn't even consider it a 'tour' in that sense. It was more like an extended performance of her hits and new stuff. The advertisement for some her recent gigs has been questionable. It seems like she's testing the water for an official tour next year which she's been teasing on social media lately that will HOPEFULLY be more focused on LFL and have a slightly longer setlist.

[gagaisitalian 3,573]

Other than the Endless Summer Tour, Lana's show are generally shorter than that of a mega pop star so 14 songs seems pretty normal for her.

I've seen her quite a few times, and with all of the festival dates and two promo tour dates I've seen her at, I have come to not only expect a short show, but a very similar show to every other time I have seen her lol.

I love seeing Lana live, but obviously her shows aren't as well thought out as other artists of her caliber. And what someone already mentioned, these random shows she has been announcing all over the place seem to be testing the waters for the world tour she says she plans to announce. And perhaps they are trying to figure out their favorite songs to perform/which work best with her older hits, but do it in a fun way that also makes them money to put into the main tour.

[venusfly 17,885]

I was at the Glasgow date too! Block 224 I think. 

I agree the show was far too short, I saw the openers were cancelled on the Hydro FB page and turned up around 8pm, the show started at 9 and ended at 10 and she spent the last 10-15 mins taking selfies with people, the set was only about an hour long

I was also kinda sad she only performed 3 or 4 L4L songs and they were the slow picks from the album, a lot of great tracks were missed out considering it's the current album cycle.

Overall it was a great show and I was amazed with her vocals but it wasn't what I expected, I do hope she comes back with more lust for life song during the main tour because I'll definitely go.

[StrawberryBlond 14,916]

17 hours ago, SiliconeMonster said:

I do think $65 was a fair price for my ticket considering how quickly they sold out and that the venue was very intimate and I was extremely close to her despite not standing in line all day. It was at the House of Blues. In your case, I do think your $50 ticket was a ripoff especially when you ended up in the nosebleeds and didn't get to enjoy the concert because of the people around you.

TBH because these dates have been so sporadic and randomly announced and timed I didn't even consider it a 'tour' in that sense. It was more like an extended performance of her hits and new stuff. The advertisement for some her recent gigs has been questionable. It seems like she's testing the water for an official tour next year which she's been teasing on social media lately that will HOPEFULLY be more focused on LFL and have a slightly longer setlist.

Remember that you're talking in dollars when you say $65. I'm talking pounds, but yeah, £50 is equivalent to $65. I chose the seat, there were other ones closer but I thought being up at the highest peak would be beneficial, so I could get a birdesye view, it can look quite epic that way. And it was an end-row seat, which I prefer. Like I said, it was the top tier on a reduced capacity plan. The very top levels were curtained off, so the highest seats were actually the second highest tier, so not the nosebleeds really. I saw everything and never had to squint, so I didn't think it was a bad price. Because it was a central view, it was more than surrounding tickets which were £35-45. Most of it was fine, it was just the very end that something kicked off.

Thing is, we weren't told at the time if this was the start of a proper tour. It was just sporadic dates. Because that might be all that Europe was getting and there was no further explanation, we understandably lost our s**t and was were like: "We need tickets! Who knows when she'll tour again at this rate!" But yeah, I'm hoping that she'll do a proper world tour soon, as stated in her recent announcement and I hope she comes back to the same places she did the promo gigs in because I wouldn't like to think that she did these gigs so she wouldn't need to go to these areas again on the tour.

16 hours ago, LDR said:

Other than the Endless Summer Tour, Lana's show are generally shorter than that of a mega pop star so 14 songs seems pretty normal for her.

I've seen her quite a few times, and with all of the festival dates and two promo tour dates I've seen her at, I have come to not only expect a short show, but a very similar show to every other time I have seen her lol.

I saw her during her Paradise tour and while I can't remember all the songs she sang, she sang more than 14, for sure. And she only had one album and a re-release back then. So, I expected something similar. Not too much focus on previous work, especially Honeymoon, but the same length of show as last time. So, I was a bit put out.

16 hours ago, Venusfly said:

I was at the Glasgow date too! Block 224 I think. 

I agree the show was far too short, I saw the openers were cancelled on the Hydro FB page and turned up around 8pm, the show started at 9 and ended at 10 and she spent the last 10-15 mins taking selfies with people, the set was only about an hour long

I was also kinda sad she only performed 3 or 4 L4L songs and they were the slow picks from the album, a lot of great tracks were missed out considering it's the current album cycle.

Overall it was a great show and I was amazed with her vocals but it wasn't what I expected, I do hope she comes back with more lust for life song during the main tour because I'll definitely go.

I was in block 230! At the very end of the row. It was definitely an 1 hour 20 minutes long, though, I saw the time on someone's phone. So, at least she hit the hour mark. Yeah, I expected more tracks from L4L as well, especially considering that L4L is one of the singles. She could have just played the recording of The Weeknd's voice for his parts. I even hoped that because it was an exclusive promo show that at least one of the featured artists was going to make an appearance and maybe that's why A$AP Rocky was on 2 tracks, so it would be worth his time coming, so he could sing with her! So, to just see her pay dust to all the collabs was a bit disappointing, especially considering how they've been shown so much love by her fans. So saying, you can't please everyone. There was a guy outside complaining that she didn't sing any of his favourite songs. 14 songs across 4 albums and a re-release and there was nothing he liked? Can't be much of a fan.

[SiliconeMonster 1,617]

3 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Remember that you're talking in dollars when you say $65. I'm talking pounds, but yeah, £50 is equivalent to $65. I chose the seat, there were other ones closer but I thought being up at the highest peak would be beneficial, so I could get a birdesye view, it can look quite epic that way. And it was an end-row seat, which I prefer. Like I said, it was the top tier on a reduced capacity plan. The very top levels were curtained off, so the highest seats were actually the second highest tier, so not the nosebleeds really. I saw everything and never had to squint, so I didn't think it was a bad price. Because it was a central view, it was more than surrounding tickets which were £35-45. Most of it was fine, it was just the very end that something kicked off.

Thing is, we weren't told at the time if this was the start of a proper tour. It was just sporadic dates. Because that might be all that Europe was getting and there was no further explanation, we understandably lost our s**t and was were like: "We need tickets! Who knows when she'll tour again at this rate!" But yeah, I'm hoping that she'll do a proper world tour soon, as stated in her recent announcement and I hope she comes back to the same places she did the promo gigs in because I wouldn't like to think that she did these gigs so she wouldn't need to go to these areas again on the tour.

I see. I assumed that the back would be literally the back row. That sounds like a pretty good deal actually. That's good that they at least tried to bring every ticket closer to the stage. I found it a little weird personally that there was no 'title' or 'name' for the date, like how she's had the Endless Summer Tour etc. I also scrambled to get tickets because she doesn't tour very often, nor does she have that many dates and had only come to where I lived once before. I also hope she repeats her promo shows with a fuller setlist in addition to other cities.

[venusfly 17,885]

11 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

I was in block 230! At the very end of the row. It was definitely an 1 hour 20 minutes long, though, I saw the time on someone's phone. So, at least she hit the hour mark. Yeah, I expected more tracks from L4L as well, especially considering that L4L is one of the singles. She could have just played the recording of The Weeknd's voice for his parts. I even hoped that because it was an exclusive promo show that at least one of the featured artists was going to make an appearance and maybe that's why A$AP Rocky was on 2 tracks, so it would be worth his time coming, so he could sing with her! So, to just see her pay dust to all the collabs was a bit disappointing, especially considering how they've been shown so much love by her fans. So saying, you can't please everyone. There was a guy outside complaining that she didn't sing any of his favourite songs. 14 songs across 4 albums and a re-release and there was nothing he liked? Can't be much of a fan.

I was at the very top row at the end too, so close There were some people complaining around me when I was leaving too  and some guy dragged his gf out early, so it was kinda embarassing to be around but I still enjoyed the show.

I wish she would up the production value of the show, the layout was minimal and the screen was under-used. It was nice hearing her say that she lived here for a while, I never knew that about her.

All in all though my only complaint is the lack of lust for life songs, its the first album of hers that I've managed to thoroughly enjoy, I usually stick to the singles for the older ones

[StrawberryBlond 14,916]

9 minutes ago, SiliconeMonster said:

I see. I assumed that the back would be literally the back row. That sounds like a pretty good deal actually. That's good that they at least tried to bring every ticket closer to the stage. I found it a little weird personally that there was no 'title' or 'name' for the date, like how she's had the Endless Summer Tour etc. I also scrambled to get tickets because she doesn't tour very often, nor does she have that many dates and had only come to where I lived once before. I also hope she repeats her promo shows with a fuller setlist in addition to other cities.

Yeah, it's not just for Lana, it's for any artist who has more limited demand. I think doing it this way means that you get a really intimate experience, even in an arena. The top tiers would be made available if demand suddenly increased, however. But it's like the promoters know that certain acts will have limited demand, so putting the top tier up for sale isn't even an option unless the public pushes them to. They curtain it off so well that you'd never even think that there was a whole other tier above you. It just feels like being in one of those small arenas, which is quite a nice feeling. And yeah, the fact that there was no name for the tour was a bit suspect. We should have thought it was just a one-off thing from the outset but like I said, I think her management purposely kept us in the dark in order to ensure that we bought tickets. Kinda despicable, really.

2 minutes ago, Venusfly said:

I was at the very top row at the end too, so close There were some people complaining around me when I was leaving too  and some guy dragged his gf out early, so it was kinda embarassing to be around but I still enjoyed the show.

I wish she would up the production value of the show, the layout was minimal and the screen was under-used. It was nice hearing her say that she lived here for a while, I never knew that about her.

All in all though my only complaint is the lack of lust for life songs, its the first album of hers that I've managed to thoroughly enjoy, I usually stick to the singles for the older ones

Wow, we could have met each other! I heard someone shout "Yas, queen!" from my left, so I realised there was probably Gaga fans in the house! So many people in my vicinity kept going out, presumably to the toilet, so they must have felt really cheated that they couldn't even see all the songs for their money.

I actually thought the production values were really increased this time. I saw her in Glasgow back in 2013 and she kept it really minimal then. But now she had a neon light spelling her name, backing dancers, video backdrops, which was made better by the much better production in the Hydro as opposed to the SECC back in the day, which was just a makeshift arena space, really. Oh, she did leave here for a while because she dated Barrie James O'Neill for a few years and he was Scottish, so yeah. She actually said back in 2013 that she loved coming to Glasgow because she feels like she's at home, which felt really good to hear. Maybe that's the reason she keeps coming back to perform?

Yeah, more L4L songs. However, those songs are so long that I can see why she favoured the shorter ones. To do every song on that album plus the previous hits would mean that the concert would go on all night. I went along knowing there was no way she would do all the songs but just 4 from the new album? A bit harsh. But I did like how she covered the other albums too, even though I would have liked at least one more from Honeymoon. I've no idea why she doesn't like performing stuff from that.

[venusfly 17,885]

2 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Yeah, it's not just for Lana, it's for any artist who has more limited demand. I think doing it this way means that you get a really intimate experience, even in an arena. The top tiers would be made available if demand suddenly increased, however. But it's like the promoters know that certain acts will have limited demand, so putting the top tier up for sale isn't even an option unless the public pushes them to. They curtain it off so well that you'd never even think that there was a whole other tier above you. It just feels like being in one of those small arenas, which is quite a nice feeling. And yeah, the fact that there was no name for the tour was a bit suspect. We should have thought it was just a one-off thing from the outset but like I said, I think her management purposely kept us in the dark in order to ensure that we bought tickets. Kinda despicable, really.

Wow, we could have met each other! I heard someone shout "Yas, queen!" from my left, so I realised there was probably Gaga fans in the house! So many people in my vicinity kept going out, presumably to the toilet, so they must have felt really cheated that they couldn't even see all the songs for their money.

I actually thought the production values were really increased this time. I saw her in Glasgow back in 2013 and she kept it really minimal then. But now she had a neon light spelling her name, backing dancers, video backdrops, which was made better by the much better production in the Hydro as opposed to the SECC back in the day, which was just a makeshift arena space, really. Oh, she did leave here for a while because she dated Barrie James O'Neill for a few years and he was Scottish, so yeah. She actually said back in 2013 that she loved coming to Glasgow because she feels like she's at home, which felt really good to hear. Maybe that's the reason she keeps coming back to perform?

Yeah, more L4L songs. However, those songs are so long that I can see why she favoured the shorter ones. To do every song on that album plus the previous hits would mean that the concert would go on all night. I went along knowing there was no way she would do all the songs but just 4 from the new album? A bit harsh. But I did like how she covered the other albums too, even though I would have liked at least one more from Honeymoon. I've no idea why she doesn't like performing stuff from that.

I'm mostly just pressed she didn't so In My Feelings, considering thats my favorite song of hers and that's really cool how she has that connection to Glasgow, at least we're pretty much guaranteed that she will come here unlike a certain someone who skipped out on us this year

[heda97 2,399]

I still havent had a chance to watch her live, so idc if she charges me 200 for half a song at this point 

[gagaisitalian 3,573]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

 

I saw her during her Paradise tour and while I can't remember all the songs she sang, she sang more than 14, for sure. And she only had one album and a re-release back then. So, I expected something similar. Not too much focus on previous work, especially Honeymoon, but the same length of show as last time. So, I was a bit put out.

 

Ugh, you're lucky. She never brought The Paradise Tour to America so I sadly didn't get to see it. We got a watered down version right after West Coast was released but before Ultraviolence came out. The show that I saw really had no specific album it was catering to and was like, exactly 14 or 15 songs I think. That's why I referred to it as a promo tour, because it seemed to purely just be promo for her brand, and not a tour to celebrate Paradise, Born to Die, or Ultraviolence specifically.

You never know what to expect with her.

[StrawberryBlond 14,916]

1 hour ago, Venusfly said:

I'm mostly just pressed she didn't so In My Feelings, considering thats my favorite song of hers and that's really cool how she has that connection to Glasgow, at least we're pretty much guaranteed that she will come here unlike a certain someone who skipped out on us this year

Yeah, I wanted her to do In My Feelings too. And yeah, too right I'm annoyed that Gaga didn't come here this time, although maybe her stage wouldn't have worked? I notice she's only doing the biggest arenas and stadiums available so maybe the 13k capacity Hydro just wasn't feasible?

13 minutes ago, LDR said:

Ugh, you're lucky. She never brought The Paradise Tour to America so I sadly didn't get to see it. We got a watered down version right after West Coast was released but before Ultraviolence came out. The show that I saw really had no specific album it was catering to and was like, exactly 14 or 15 songs I think. That's why I referred to it as a promo tour, because it seemed to purely just be promo for her brand, and not a tour to celebrate Paradise, Born to Die, or Ultraviolence specifically.

You never know what to expect with her.

Yeah, America didn't really get the tour treatment, she focused much more on Europe. Likely because America was so harsh on her after the SNL thing, so she feared that they didn't really want to see her live. I don't think it can be underestimated how much that moment tarnished her career. She's worked her way back somewhat but to think, if it hadn't happened, America might have had a bit more respect for her initially.

[venusfly 17,885]

5 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Yeah, I wanted her to do In My Feelings too. And yeah, too right I'm annoyed that Gaga didn't come here this time, although maybe her stage wouldn't have worked? I notice she's only doing the biggest arenas and stadiums available so maybe the 13k capacity Hydro just wasn't feasible?

I actually forgot about the weird tilted ceiling in the Hydro, that's probably it. a shame