...I think there's something in Shakespeare's notion of two hours' traffic. Although, now of course I'm thinking of two hours' Traffic.

Glasgow Barrowlands, 86. They started with a storming "Meet Me at the Station", fired off another couple then Mike Scott said "Hello Glasgow, it's going to be a long night!!". My heart sank. He fulfilled his prophecy. If that had been a 50 minute set, made up of the best songs from the setlist, it would have been a top ten gig. But it included an aimless, drifting "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" : I didn't need the first fiddle solo, and I certainly didn't need the second one. And loads of other mid-paced filler, with extended solos that did nothing, went nowhere.

I left after something like a couple of hours. I knew that they had lost me when I found myself looking at the twinkling lights on the Barrowland ceiling.

I think 50 minutes is a pretty good length - I saw Miles Davis do 50 minutes on his last tour, and if ant artist has got a back catalogue that is worth mining, it's Miles.

anything over 3 hours is heading into arduous territory especially when it is deafening

Wilco pushed it too at 3.5 hours in a show recorded for live internet broadcast -but it was of such sublime quality I wont grumble too much

Fela Kuti at the Brixton in the eighties dragged on though at around 3 hours nothing like the legendary shows at the Shrine in Lagos

The Sabri brothers ,also come to mind, but those Sufi musicians do tend to operate on a different time frame

In the 'old days', a live album was a double, the occasional triple (Yesshows, Lotus, Welcome Back My Friends...) was often regarded as an album too far.

Almost every Dead live album of the CD era has been a triple CD (occasionally a quad). That equates to a 6-record album. I realise this is stating the obvious but it had never struck me before.

Imagine the ruckus if an artist had released a 6-record live set - of a single gig - in 1975. I can't even recall a quad-record live album from that era (Springsteen's was more of a career overview than a document of a single gig/tour).

Not sure what my point is but I thought I'd share :-)

How often have you either stifled or given in to a yawn at a show?

Did it go on a bit?

A few years ago I had the misfortune to see EC at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Firstly we were up stairs in the cramped uncomfy vertiginous seats in the circle so in 20 minutes my legs were starting to ache having to sit sideways in my seat (you can't stand up up stairs not that you can dance to Ec anyway). I'd gone along as I've always liked his singles on the radio although not a major fan.

Anyway, wandering on he does 1:15 solo set which was ok except the crap seats and the vertigo. He then does an encore and brings on a band to the applause of the crowd. They go off after 20-30 mins relieved I get up but no he's back on with the Brodsky quartet and does another half hour plus. I should have left now but social ties keep me in my torture chamber of a seat. So too much intense string scrapping and emoting later EC ambles off again less applause this time only to come BACK on with the attractions. I can safely say now that the tedium of his voice, thinnest of the spread of his good songs and the deep vein thrombosis made this the most tedious gig I've ever seen and way too long by at least 2 hours.

I was delighted when a band went on for hours - good value for money and all that.

These days when my knee starts giving me gyp after standing up for too long, I've come to the conclusion that you'd better be exceptionally good if you think you can hold my attention solidly for longer than 1hr 20mins. Only Tom Waits, Metallica and Cardiacs have managed it in recent years.

The ultimate long-changer. Went to a performance of Gotterdamerung in Edinburgh a few years back. The show started mid-afternoon and there were generous breaks between Acts but by the time we were finally released we were rushing to catch the last train back to Glasgow. However, the real long-change experience is the full Ring cycle on four consecutive nights - for fanatics and masochists only...

The high priest of Funk didn't seem to be acquainted with the concept of 'less is more'. Instead we just got more. More and more tedious funkathons that seemed to last forever. After around 3 hours I found myself watching a guitarist wearing a nappy playing a 20 minute solo during Maggot Brain. Such was its utter tediousness that I decided that a few pints in the pub would be a more pleasant way to end the day. Who knows how long Mr Clinton parped on for... hours? days? weeks?

Poor.

... Royal Festival Hall, sometime in the early 90's, clocking in at around 3 and a half hours plus intervals, and proved too much for me I'm afraid, I gave up just after the 2-hour mark, though people were leaving at the rate of one every few minutes by then...

Marvellous music to be sure, but "enough is as good as a feast" and so on.

Liverpool, 2000 - 3hrs30mins. Unbearable.

I was living and working in nearby Lille. A French chum suggested a few of us go and, although I'm not a big Minds fan, this was around the time of Street Fighting Years which I think is a very good record indeed. Combine it with an opportunity to take along a few English colleagues over with us on a project - one of whom was a big fan - and it all seemed a Good Idea.

Leaving aside the logistical nightmare of getting this lot rounded up, into 3 cars and into the hall via a pizza place while only losing 1 ticket that I had to replace via a French scalper, it was a horrible night. Simple Minds played for pushing 3 hours. It seemd like 3 days. After the 1st 20 minutes, I was convinced they'd gone back to the 1st song. Everything sounded very samey and there just wasn't much variation or dynamics to the show. And with Jim Kerr in full blown, arms outstretched, staring at the back of the hall, quasi-messiah mode, there was no stage presence either. Really, really turgid. But nigh on 3 hours of it.

The support band was Gun, from Scotland, and they were excellent - by far the best 25 minutes of the evening.

Always plays 90 minutes these days (not 50). Springsteen still regularly gets close to 3.5 hrs (without a break). One show in NJ I attended in 2008 finished at 12.50 am. If anything it was too short!

A band with a decent 40 min 'hits' set played a 3hr set when i saw them.

For it was the Blessed Richard Thompson at the RFH in 99. Had spent the afternoon at Twickenham with a mate, then on the beer and then straight to the gig, and after three hours she looked at me and said "Curry?" He hadn't even got onto the encores yet.

About 4 years ago my friend invited to me to go and see Einsturzende...I didn't know much about them except Blixa Bargeld used to be in the Bad Seeds. My friend is an accomplished musician and has impeccable taste in music [she's introduced me to all sorts of stuff through the years] so i thought it would be quite interesting if nothing else, and it was for about 40 mins, watching them use welding machines and huge self-made intsruments. After an hour and a half, i had had enough and Mr Bargeld thankfully announced that they were stopping the performance...To have an interval, that they would be back in 30 min to play for a further 1 hour 30, i feel my heart sink, and my friend looks and me and says 'i'm so sorry'.

Ive never been impressed by these tales of marathon springsteen sets. 90 mins should be the maximum. Leave em wanting more. I recall seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor. First hour was great, into the third hour it just became an endurance test. Nobody needs that much GSYBE. I havent listened to them since.

New Order used to be well known for brief sets, and had a habit of waiting 15-20 mins to do an encore and blast through a few Joy Division numbers with the House lights on and only the cleaners left in the building

On the tour he did to accompany Merseybeast, his show at the Shepherds Bush Empire was a licence bashing 3 hour festival. Finished at gone midnight and was superb.

I usually start getting bored at around the 1 hour mark. I've regularly left gigs early when I feel I've seen the essence of the show. I don't like the ritual of encores much; that may be something to do with it.

Maybe if I was in the habit of going to gigs with high ticket prices I might have a different attitude, but that's very rare.

I'm a big fan. Got all the albums. They don't make it to Sydney often. But in interviews before the last tour Robert said they were doing 3 hours shows and, having seen the Bloodflowers tour, I thought "Nah." The show on the back of the Wish album was excellent though.

I'm a big fan. Got all the albums. They don't make it to Sydney often. But in interviews before the last tour Robert said they were doing 3 hours shows and, having seen the Bloodflowers tour, I thought "Nah." The show on the back of the Wish album was excellent though.

I'm a big fan. Got all the albums. They don't make it to Sydney often. But in interviews before the last tour Robert said they were doing 3 hours shows and, having seen the Bloodflowers tour, I thought "Nah." The show on the back of the Wish album was excellent though.

Went to see Kiss at Wembley in 1996.

They were on for about an hour and a half.

Felt like a fucking fortnight.

I wandered away from a Springsteen concert in Helsinki a few years ago during the first encore, took a 3 kilometre walk home, poured a glass of wine and as the wind was favourable, listened to the final encore sitting on the balcony of my flat. In Prague some 15 years ago I had tickets to see John Cale. Although I reportedly napped a good part of the set, I still remember feeling bored after waking up towards the end of the show. In 2004 I went to see Tom Waits in Berlin for two nights back to back. After the first night I was involved in some serious partying and didn't get a chance to sleep for more than an hour perhaps. Unfortunately, Tom had included extended versions from songs like Get Behind the Mule and Sins of the Father into his set the second night and it was really really hard to stay awake, although even a mediocre TW concert in my mind beats many great sets by most other artists. I remember thinking that if they pick up one more slow song in the set I'm going to doze, but at the last minute they moved away from the "grand weepers" section and into the "grim reapers" portion of the set and I was saved.

I saw Monsters of Folk at the Troxy. They played a 30 song set despite the fact that only have one album to their name. This was of course due to the fact that they played a healthy smattering of Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, M. Ward and other solo stuff.

It probably didn't help that the Troxy is a terrible venue (unless you get there early and manage to get in the 'pit' section at the front) as its all on one level and it has a low stage - much like Shepherds Bush Empire - which means constant craning of the neck... A nightmare after 2 and a half hours.

Years ago, with Buddy Miller in the band, in The Barrowlands. After about an hour, it seemed like a very good gig; unfortunately, I was getting a lift home (to Edinburgh), so had to wait till the following 2 hours or so were also played. Bored rigid by the end, despite Buddy's presence.

These days I very rarely stay for a full gig. Maybe an hour...maybe 90 minutes, if the gig is REALLY good. Less is more, innit!

In the States they have Phish.

Hours and hours of tedium punctuated by sudden moments of boredom.

I'm going to stop thinking about this now, I'll never get that 3 hours back....

Have seen Elvis Costello around 15 times and have witnessed the best and the worst along with some sublime performances. I am something of an EC anorak and when he was touring with Allen Toussaint I routinely checked the setlists. He was regularly playing around 30 songs.I had tickets to see him at Tower of London and because he came on late and there was a curfew we got about 24 songs. I felt particularly short changed.
Another time at Birmingham Symphony hall he added another half a dozen songs to the number he usually played and to be frank I was yearning to go.I guess you cant please all of the people all of the time.

Some time ago, but as I remember;

Cliche after tired cliche, "we need your help on this song" each song ending with prolonged crescendos of every instrument being whacked with increasing urgency. About 3 hours in Greg Dull invites ladies who aren't satisfied by their men backstage after the show. Nearly ended my relationship with the FPO when I just sat down on the floor, space in the auditorium was increasing as we headed to the 3 1/2 hour mark you understand. Audience response which had been bouncy turned to indifference and from my new, knee level vantage point I could see a great many of the punters were also "resting their legs"

truly, truly awful. To this day, just the sight of their sleeves in the itunes library rankles.

A one hour guitar solo from Mr.Moore whilst in support of Curved Air at the A.B.C. Chester back in the early seventies springs to mind.
His response to being requested none too politely to desist by the audience was to tell us all to fu*k off. Wanker.

I saw him play at the Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh last year. This is a tiny club with a rudimentary stage and no backstage area as such. Therefore, were he to leave the stage to allow a suitable time to pass before re-emerging to play an encore, he would still be clearly visible to most of the crowd, standing around in the shadows at the back.

Therefore, he invited the audience to imagine that he had left the stage for some minutes during which the crowd would loudly demand an encore. He then stood solemnly at the edge of the stage for 10 seconds or so, then launched into the encore comprising the obvious favourites not yet played. This seems an entirely sensible approach to me that could be applied in any venue.

Back in the mid 90's Dweezil Zappa's band (complete with brother Ahmet and various FZ sidemen) played a gig in Newcastle Riverside that lasted around 2h45.

I wouldn't say we were long changed but they got off at just the time that it might have got that way. When we told a guitarist mate who couldn't go, he was gutted; his then girlfriend had dragged him to see Little Angels at City Hall.

3 singer/songwriters taking turns to play their songs. 2& 1/2hours was great. 45 minute encore too much. I remember Roy Harper at the Half Moon who kept playing in the dark after the management had cut the electricity.

does anyone understand when and whom I supposed to clap? There seems to a very codified and frankly archaic convention on clapping performers, not clapping at the good bits and "stagey" calls for encores at the end is there guide somewhere?

That Jerry Dammers thing... About half of it was good stuff, but they played for two bloody hours or more (probably more I think), and there's only so much free jazz one can take. I was well up for leaving by the end, but the best part came out the end outside in the foyer when they had an improv-jam with themselves and oher musicians there. That was the best part! I had to wait over two hours for that! Although I suppose that's not too bad really, had it been Sea Power (or similar) (oh no wait, there's no one as good as sea power), I would have loved it.

paly for, like, 3 days back in the day? And wasn't the second day a John Bonham drum solo?

I really liked Rockferry, but her 60 minutes in pouring rain last summer in Stockholm was at least 45 minutes too long. I felt sorry for those half naked back up singers as well. I was dressed as an eskimo and still couldn´t feel my toes.

Looking back, I can think of only two shows I definitely wanted more of.

Springsteen, first Villa Park gig, ’88. But I was at the front (photo in the Coventry Telegraph shows me looking impossibly young) and, perhaps more importantly, didn’t drink. Also, standing didn’t bother the 17 year old me so much.

Blue Nile, RAH, ’97. I cried a couple of times at that one.

If you take out the comfort/seat/venue issues, all of which can have an effect on the experience, I think far too many artists have no idea how to shape a set. Costello can be terrible for this. Take the EC/Nieve shows. Seen two of them, both pushing 3 hours. One was great: he was on form. The other seemed endless. But surely he should have enough experience to craft a set list that works even if he’s not at the top of his game?

Then there are the likes of Grizzly Bear. They can make beautiful music, but no one will claim that it has a huge range. Slow and gorgeous; slightly faster and gorgeous; gorgeous and gets noisy near the end—most tracks will fall under one of those headings. And a third of their songs aren’t that good anyway. They didn’t play as long as I’d feared (about 80 minutes) but what was a decent concert would have been fabulous at an hour.

Mind you, I think that the art of crafting albums has disappeared as well.

30 mins for the first one, 10 minute change over because the second act didn't just use the same back line, she used the same bass player and drummer as well. 45 mins then off.

Headline act on after a 15 minute change over, did an hour and we were back on our way home at 11pm. If only all gigs were run like this.

once said on one of his now legendary GLR morning shows that he went to see yes at Wembley Arena and when the band came on stage Jon Anderson went up to the mic and said....tonight we are going to play Tales of the Topographic Oceans..........at that the guy sitting next to him got up and shouted...What! All of it!
An anecdote that is never too far away when either the subject of Yes or boring gigs comes up.

Saw Spiritualized at Hammersmith after missing the chance of seeing them at Royal Albert Hall. Didn't think for a moment that any minute was wasted or unnecessary. They played well and continuously for I think 2 hrs and maybe a little more added on the end. Brass, strings, choir and timpani filled out the stage.
Saw them again with the now wife at Brixton and was pleased to have attended. Then we saw them again more recently at the roundhouse and the set was shorter, the band smaller. I wasn't as keen on the new material and the sound was surprisingly awful. I was disappointed, wife grateful to leave.
What is more interesting by comparison was the venue situation. The hammersmith gig saw the bar close as the lights went down and entry to the venue was completely free of any security checks. You probably could leave, buy a bottle of vodka and bring it back in without confrontation. The Roundhouse delayed our entry for ages, the bar was separate to the venue space and had rotation background music playing during the performance time.
I felt that the hammersmith audience all really wanted to be there and expected a long night, the roundhouse audience much less so, and the venue did little to help the band kick into gear or those watching who were short of attention span.

My overarching feeling is that this "long change" thing is down to personnel changes. My roundhouse example here and pretty much every over-long gig cited above is an established act of repute which is no longer running the original/proper line up.
Thereby any deviation or extension of the recorded or 'classic' version will feel like a dragging rehearsal with the involvement of (perhaps overly skilled) replacement musicians but might be happily indulged by the audience if the original line up where to pull out an old favourite and try it on for size every few gigs. A simple well-planned segue can surprise and charm.
Also with an established 'legend' plus newer acolytes there can be a palpable 'I'm in charge' or baton-twirling feel to proceedings which can grate and lead to a complete loss of 'moment'. (not so with Spaceman I should add).
However I concede I was sitting at hammersmith and standing at the roundhouse, for those complaining of aches and strains.
Also I do occasionally listen to my funkadelic albums but I have no wish to live through their live recital at any stage of my life. I'd just really rather not.

I'm a big Prince fan but he went on and on. Most people had had enough and his concert like his prodigious output could have done with an edit.

At the annual Supergrass (RIP) Christmas bash in Oxford (cunningly entitled Santagrass) I bought a "souvenir" mug - paid with a tenner, got change from a £20.

Dilemma... own up or another round..... the booze won.

Perhaps it the losses they made from their merch stand that forced their demise...?

Freshers week, Aberystwyth University 1975. Because I didn't know any better I sat through 2 and half hours of noodling and tweeting and parping by Soft Machine. Can I leave it at that because the memory is just too painful and traumatic to contemplate?

I am not sure if this counts, but nonetheless, about 7 years ago I went to see Spiritualised, they were dreadful, I was really looking forward to seeing them, & I really wanted them to be good, but they were awful, slow, ponderous, no audience acknowledgements.I walked out after 4 songs.

Easily the most boring gig I have ever been to. When I read the overwhelming positive reviews, heard Radcliffe & Maconie raving about them a few weeks ago, I couldnt believe they were talking about the same band.

Total pants.