Preparation for the Insanity: The Method of Release
Hello again,
As some of you may know, we will be playing every song on Insanity Reigns from start to finish at the Release Party. Some may question the necessity and audacity of our choosing to do that, but as always, there’s a method to our madness.
1. We were given the opportunity to do a show “based around us”. Something that hasn't come our way since Thanksgiving Throwdown. If you were given the chance to do a show based around your band and you had well over an EP’s worth of material, what would you do?
2. The set and every band’s set is 40 minutes. IR is 24 minutes.
3. Every Area 52 show is a different set.
4. To me, a release party without hearing the release is like having a birthday party without the cake.
With that said, I have not been to a “release show” where the entire album or EP has been played.
8/31/10: The first “release show” I had been to ever had no special emphasis on the album that was released other than the fact that it was the day the album came out and there were a few songs from that particular album in that band’s set. The band was Disturbed and the album was Asylum.
9/14/10: The first “proper” release show I went to was for Linkin Park’s fourth album, A Thousand Suns. It was their only show in North America for 2010, so they decided to hold it at The Best Buy Theatre in New York City and make tickets available only to LPU members. While the set was not ATS in its entirety, it was a special set that provided emphasis on ATS songs, many live debuts of those songs, and their first proper show since touring for Minutes to Midnight. That show set the bar for what I think an album release show should be, because although it wasn't the full album, it was a unique album-centered event that signified the first proper unveiling of ATS-era Linkin Park.
Other album release shows I’d attend over the next few years would include local bands Sky Came Burning and Remnants of Camulos (lol, lettuce), Stone Sour (they only played one song from “House of Gold and Bones Part 2”, so it barely counts as a “release show” in my opinion), Hydra Kyll (kindaaaaa, it was the first show where the album was available although it wouldn’t be released for another 3 weeks or so), and Adrenaline Mob (but it was a covers album, so ehhh…).
My point is, although it’s been done before, I have yet to go to an album release show where the entire album or EP is played, so we’ve decided to take it upon ourselves to do it on the 26th. It’ll be funny to play “Liberator” 3rd, as it’s been our set closer for 2 years. It’ll also be fun to play “Not My Forte”, as that song gets played maybe twice or three times a year. Not to mention, the songs we’ll play AFTER Insanity, but you’ll find that out at the show…
Insanity Reigns,
Trip