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This weekend, my lovely wife Sarah and I will be going to the Radiohead concert here in DC. I'm new to the concert-going world, so I've had to learn some etiquette from Sarah. One thing I see her do (sometimes) is look up set lists from a band's current tour and try to guess what songs they will play at the concert she attends.
I decided to do this for Radiohead, but as always, I overcomplicated things and put my own nerdy, statistician(y) twist on it. I took each set list from the King of Limbs tour and calculated the frequency with which each unique song has been played. Then I made some pretty [informative] graphics.
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| The Frequency of Songs Played |
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| What Albums Are Played the Most? |
As you can see, yes, I'm a nerd. Second thing, some of the albums (the y-axis above) are made up names like "Secret," etc. I did my best to determine what songs came from which album, and that's what I got. Also note that Pablo Honey has not been played at all. Sad day.
Next, I sampled from the distribution of songs using the frequency/total concerts as the probability of being sampled to come up with a probable set list for DC's show this weekend.Observe:
- Pyramid Song
- Reckoner
- Bloom
- Morning Mr. Magpie
- Lotus Flower
- Feral
- Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
- Paranoid Android
- Airbag
- How to Disappear Completely
- Karma Police
- Staircase
- These are my Twisted Words
- Exit Music (for a Film)
- Everything in its Right Place
- Nude
- There There
- The Daily Mail
- Identikit
- Lucky
- Idioteque
- Myxomatosis
- Street Spirit (Fade Out)
I'd be VERY happy with that show! We'll see how close I come! And Mr. Yorke, if you're reading, it would be really sweet if you played just ONE song from Pablo Honey. Any song will do. Also, please play Fake Plastic Trees. And while I'm at it, I wouldn't mind hearing Talk Show Host, Last Flowers to the Hospital, Down is the New Up, and Punch Up at a Wedding. Thanks!
And thank you, reader, for reading! Love.
5 wisecrack(s):
What is this?! A new blog post from Mr. Bell?! Happy day!
This is a really interesting post!
I didn't know you could do that kind of thing with concerts.
I am also not very familiar with Radiohead's music, so I might need to use this post as a guide for my education.
Since when are you new to concerts? :)
@Robby: I just queried google search for 'Radiohead set list' and followed the first link. It's setlist.fm or something. Very cool to see what they have/have not played. Also, my favorite albums are OK Computer and In Rainbows (including the "disc 2"). Also The Bends. And Pablo Honey. AND... well you get the idea. I think you'll really like The Bends, and OK Computer is the best album in existence (followed closely by Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd...)).
@Geoffers: Since May 20, 2011. :)
Um, I distinctly remember a certain Styx concert for which you shaved steps into your head.
I recall that concert as well...and those steps.
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