Bruce Springsteen will be playing the last concerts to be held at Giants Stadium before it is demolished. (The full article can be found at Rolling Stone.)
The choice of The Boss as the last artist to play Giants Stadium is fitting, if predictable. However, the interesting part of this article is that evidently Springsteen will be playing several full albums during these concerts. This seems to be a trend in rock concerts lately; I’ve remarked on it before.
The great thing about artists playing entire albums live is that for the fans at least, it’s a treat. Most fans will attend a lot of concerts by their favorite artists; playing whole albums gives the fans a chance to hear songs that they have heard played live infrequently at best.
Of course, that also is a problem. People attending the concert who are only casual fans, or who are attending with friends, are more likely to feel left out if it’s an album concert. A more standard “greatest hits” type concert will tend to be a better experience for people who aren’t big fans. I think that’s why I don’t really like the concept of album concerts; while they do cater to the fanbase, they don’t grow the fanbase at all.
However, with the iconic status of the albums that Bruce has chosen for these concerts, this should be less of a problem. An album like Born in the U.S.A. works much better for this concept, as the songs are going to be much more familiar to a wide range of people.