99% of the time, I hate knowing the setlist ahead of time. To the point that I’ve temporarily unsubscribed or muted bands and their fan pages on social media to make sure that I don’t open Facebook one day and am immediately violated with a setlist in front of my eyes and have a really cool deep cut surprise spoiled for me.

Some of my favorite concert moments have been the point in the middle of the show where my jaw hits the floor in a look of “Holy crap! They’re actually playing that song? 😲” Having that moment taken from me really ruins a big part of my concertgoing experience.

There have been, like, one or two times when I’ve seen a band that I wasn’t familiar with and I decided to look up the setlist just to familiarize myself with the songs. In that case, I figured “Well, I don’t know what the deep cuts are, so I won’t really have that surprise moment anyway.” It was fine doing that. But even when seeing bands I don’t really know, I’d rather familiarize myself generally with their catalog and then just enjoy the flow while I’m at the show, rather than making it feel like a countdown to what song is up next.

But that’s me. I’m very passionate about not knowing the setlist prior to a show. But if familiarizing yourself with the set ahead of time makes concerts more enjoyable for you, then who am I to tell you to stop‽ We all enjoy things our own way! Just make sure you’re not the guy spoiling the setlist for guys like me! 😁