Since Tom and Ed are thinking abour revamping their entire live show it would be interesting to pitch in ideas about how their new live show should look/sound/feel like. The current format and the choice of songs is too "exhaustive" as Ed mentioned and one can even say its too much awesomness packed into one punch. Don't think the movie is good yeah there is no denying but by the time tracks like believe and superflash came around I had enough of chemical brothers. Yes there is a thing called too much Chems. best believe that. I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one who felt this. There should be "quiter" moments between the songs and transitions could be longer. Nice and slow. Space the songs out a bit. I also would like to say that the current song selection needs to go. The reason why i didn't enjoy the movie as much as I would have liked to had to do with the fact that all the songs I had already heard and seen on youtube many many times. Like alot. I have every little beep boop in my head so when the movie started playing there were no suprises in for me. For someone not into chems that much the movie might have been an amazing time but for me it was just a good time that lasted not that long. The glint came and went pretty quickly. Maybe because a rave/party didn't break out in the middle of the movie like arclight. Everyone pretty much sat around like old farts and bopped their heads to the music. It was a sad scene in the theater, I wanted to take vids of the people watching the movie then the actual movie it was so sad. Everytime i would clap or try to get up and dance people would just stare at me like I was retarded. I know I know i shouldn't have even cared about the noses in the air and their crooked stares but I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb either. My sister certainly enjoyed the movie more than me...

So looking in the future what are some of your thoughts, complaints, negatives you noticed. I figure everyone pretty much says good thing about the chems but its us fans that really need to dig deeper and talk about hard shit. Shit just got real son. lol

LOL i had a feeling that quiter isn't a word and sure enough i looked it up and no results found.

quiter as in moments of less sound in between the chemical mayhem. Give it time to build up, even more than what chems already do.

Furthermore, I realize it might be too early to talk about the new chems live show but i want to get a discussion going.

Improvized stuff. Like, some really loosey goosey setlists. That would be cool.

It's complete perfection though. Seriously, it is.

Ofcourse the songs are perfect and the flow is the sickest it has ever been. There is absolutely no complaints on the quality of the audio and the visuals. Its the quantity. But yeah Tom and Ed could really improvize alot more.....throw in odd songs like Lost in K-hole or Hot acid rhythm what the hell who cares i'm pretty sure someone in the crowd will love that...they can afford to take a lot more chances live....throw in an accapella track likr just alive alone lyrics on a loop, it began in afrika ka ka ka sample for 20 minutes...bring in a marching band and let them play galvanize....

Just wanna quick reply to your first comment. You can hardly blame the chems for you wasting too much time on youtube. Come on, I can understand it to a certain degree, but it has been your choice (or mine, repectively) to incessantly watching them there. That's why I decided tonight to never watch any footage in prior of a concert again! Even though I didn't have these surprising moments either regarding tracks, I could more than appreciate the whole movie as what it intented itself to be: a compliment to what their live shows are about. Synths, sweat and people enjoying themselves through the music. Like I said, I do have some minor things I would criticize but not in terms of track selection. (except for OOC, which could rest for a while)

loooooool

Yes i should be more humble rather than wanting more from chems. I wanted this movie to be a new chem experience for me but it wasn't. And it is my fault. I saturated myself with chems music prior to the movie.

I'm certainly blessed to be able to watch them live twice cuz in some third world countries like malaysia some fans have not even seen them once. LOL jk....

Well, I was wise enough to avoid watching any Fuji videos

Try to think of it like this if that helps: you can now screw the messy clipping and crackling youshroob flicks and enjoy (hopefully soon) "them" as an entire high qual video. I personally like to revisit the singles DVD for live moments from time to time, too.

A clean superflash version is waiting to get blasted out loud in the neighborhood sometime soon

I had already seen this show 4 times live, well almost the same show, plus encore too, and still this movie was great. I went and saw it twice.

But I also don't listen the Chems all the time, and I try to avoid watching any live Chems on youtube, especially if I will be seeing it myself soon. I didn't watch more than a few seconds of the trailers for Don't Think either. I like to be surprised. As far as having too much Chems, not possible for me. I loved every moment of it.

As far as their live show in the future, Ed said they may scale it right back, which I would respect if they did, but I hope not, I want them to make it even bigger! Maybe get that 360 degree screen going? Whatever the Brothers do, they never disappoint me.

Hmmm... Too soon?

Since there is a sort of herd mentality with any type of gathering, I could see how the lack of enthusiasm in the theater might have been a real downer. Nobody got up and danced this past Wednesday when I saw the film locally and the theater crowd was modest in general - very much a different experience than what I saw at Arclight. So if all I had to go by was this past Wednesday I suppose I might have been a little let down. More by the audience than the actual film. On the other hand, the 2nd time around there were no distractions so I was happy to be ble to take it all in and just zone out and trip on the movie.

You brought up a point that explains so perfectly why I held out on watching youtube clips. Personally I avoided the youtube videos for the most part until I got to see the Chems live for myself. I didn't want spoilers and really didn't want to live someone else's memories. I wanted to be surprised! I'd watch and listen after I got a chance to see Tom and Ed and would spend my days in the afterglow going through clips online. I can see clinging onto these youtube videos if that's all there is and you aren't going to get a chance to see Tom and Ed live. I get that. But again, personally, I've never been the type to dissect nuance in every youtube clip and bootleg - doing that is too much of a science, I guess I'm not that hardcore, lol. I know what's floating around on youtube and mixingbowl and ftp is for the taking, and I'll give a listen but I do firmly believe there is such a thing as burn out. And I'd be totally bummed if I burned out on the Chems. So that's my personal take on the whole youtube/bootleg matter. It's not the right way to go about it for everyone but it's the right way for me.

Anyway. Chemical Brothers shows are totally exhausting and overwhelming. Merciless is how they are meant to be, with briefly sweet moments of breathing space to get your second wind in preparation for the next musical onslaught. Their shows ebb and flow like their albums with their peaks and valleys. But the exhaustion isn't just the flow of music and the visually soul throttling way it is presented. The crowd (at least when I've seen the Chems) should get due props, as they in themselves are exhausting. The energy I feel at their shows from the crowd response to the music makes me feel like I've been hit by a freight train after a gig. Every single time. I love that feeling. It is one of... fatigued satisfaction. It's a bit like working out and feeling the warm ache in your muscles the next day. That said I'm not sure if I'm ready for the format of their show to change. And who am I to tell them they have to do things differently. But as long as I'm being honest, I am getting older and it's harder for me to dance for an hour and a half straight without feeling like I'm about to bust a freakin hip.

There was some pretty deep discussion here not too long ago talking about the parallels between The Chemical Brothers and Pink Floyd. And recently the Chems retweeted something a twitter user said about The Chems are to us what Pink Floyd was to our fathers. To me that's a weighty comparison and there's some merit in that. Not just in a trippy psychedelic music sense, but in a live sense as well. Ever since seeing Don't Think, I've been thinking a lot about going back and watching Pink Floyd's Pulse. Visuals and music to trip out on. It's been ages since I've seen it and I was super blessed to have had the chance to see Pink Floyd during that tour. It was one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen, and the Chems live show reminds me so much of my memory of seeing Pink Floyd. Both experiences are on the same planes of awesomeness yet vastly different - and not just because they are different types of music. Because at the Chems you're losing yourself in a dancing crowd. And at Pink Floyd you're sitting down just zoning out and taking the experience into your own head. Just because you aren't dancing like a loon doesn't mean you're not groovin. I'm not sure where any of my babble is going here... and I'm not suggesting the Chems take a Pink Floyd approach to things - but I guess what I'm trying to do is connect with what you (chemicalreaction) are saying when you mention your desire for the quieter moments during a Chems show. I wouldn't mind that at all. Taking in the long beautiful builds the Chems are capable of, and stretching them out into kairos time...

I would enjoy (and im sure many of you would too) a B-sides tour.
It would be nice to experience

• No Need
• H.I.A.
• Let Me In Mate
• Scale (as an interlude perhaps or before the final track)
• Snooprah
• Swiper
• Giant
• Spring
• Enjoyed (even tho this is just a re-edit of Out Of Control but i prefer this)
• Power Move
• These Beats Are Made For Breaking
• (The Best Part Of) Breaking Up
• Buzz Tracks
• If You Kling to me Ill Klong To You
• Keep My Composure (they would probably take out the vocals which i would greatly appreciate i wanted to hear instrumentals of this for so long!)
• Don't Think (of course)
• Pourquoi
• The Rock Drill
• Otter Rock
• Delik

Im sure i missed many (like Dust Brothers releases) but these stand out in my mind!
Also some Hanna tracks and remixes they done thrown into the mix would be great too.
Swastika Eyes LIVE!?
Basically an entire tour of them preforming none album tracks.

Ditching all album tracks? Nah. But I Think I'm In Love remix live would be immaculate. The closest they've ever come is a effect in the intro to Nude Night in a couple of shows in the WATN tour.

And regarding "quiet" moments, what about the bit before Escape Velocity? That's pretty beautiful right there.

Where to start...for the Chems to redo the whole show....

1) At least 3 songs from the 'new' album (one will be the first single, one will be their 'bassy' track, and the other will be a 'let's try it out live and see what happens) will be on the next live show....

2) ....which means some tracks will have to be sacrificed (scary)

3) New visuals....DUH!

4) New rig design!

5) Would like to have Ed more in the center than instead of always being on the right of the stage!

6) Superflash, Dont think, EV, HBHG, Horsepower are immune from being deleted from the setlist! All others (IMO) might be cut or shortened!

7) like WN said....more improv....no 2 sets alike!

8) just like birdie down beats, more snippets of 'classic' Chem tracks in the show during transitions!

9) that 360 thing that Sneak posted

10) show love is all....then show american flag!

11) Bring back CWU!

Tracks I must hear live by album

Exit Planet Dust

• Song To The Siren
• Alive Alone

Dig Your Own Hole

• Elektrobank
• Piku
• It Doesnt Matter
• Dont Stop The Rock
• The Private Psychedelic Reel

Surrender

• Orange Wedge
• The Sunshine Underground

Come With Us

• Come With Us
• It Began In Afrika
• Denmark
• Pioneer Skies
• The Test

Push The Button

• The Big Jump
• Hold Tight London
• Surface To Air

We Are The Night

• Das Spiegel
• A Modern Midnight Conversation
• The Pills Wont Help You Now

Further

• Snow
• Wonders Of The Deep

Any of these songs live would make me jizz my pants or cry (both)

inchemwetrust, on 04 February 2012 - 8:28 PM, said:

Or a longer set

wow...so many requests for a 120min show!

inchemwetrust, on 04 February 2012 - 9:28 PM, said:

I'm wondering whether is it possible when it comes to such a complex show which includes audio, visuals and lights synchronised to each other...

Well, they could at least say: "let's have 12 bars of improvisation in between those two songs"

They already do a good bit of improv. No two sets are alike, while the tracklisting is always the same, what is done with the songs always differs from set to set. Even the visuals will change, from colors and beyond (Leave Home had 3 different sets of visuals this tour). Their current set is incredibly complex and there isn't room to say, let's do a whole new track this time, like they could do with the 2007/2008 tour (Nude Night, It Began In Afrika, Come With Us, Hoops, and so many other deviations).

Ed said that maybe they'll cut it back to just the instruments. With a set up like that, it opens up the door to a lot of improvization with the tracklisting. Now, we wouldn't want a visualless Chemical Brothers concert, but something adaptable to a set in flux would be excellent. This would be quite something to see!

My only criticism of Don't Think and actually quite a few of last years gigs was that they left out Surface to Air, which not only is a fantastically euphoric track but it also acts as a more mellow less full on moment in the middle of the set when its used. When they did it with the Snow intro it really made it extra special.

Real, real shame this wasn't in Don't Think http://www.youtube.c...h?v=WCFqfLrbUGc

For my opinions on setlist additions see this post (though I'd now replace Pills with that awesome live version of The Boxer and put It Began In Afrika where the "bleep jam" currently is after Setting Sun).
As for other elements of the show it seems like they want to try something really different when they next return to the stage... I really like the Stargate though! Whatever they could do to top that would absolutely stun me!
I agree that the pacing of the newest setlist is a little go-go-go... you've got to keep in mind though that the Don't Think film nixed the encore, and with it went the 12 minutes of pure bliss that was Snow/Surface To Air, which balances things out a bit. On the standards of their entire career, though, I think the latter stages of the We Are The Night tour had the best balance between their energetic songs and their more peaceful ones; I absolutely loved Das Spiegel-Sunshine Underground as an encore, and I hope to see the former in the encore again some day (the latter I'd prefer as a euphoric mid-set high a la the Come With Us tour!).