I'm not going to tell these bands what to do, obviously, as these play-the-classic-album tours probably bring in revenue. But, hat tip to friends for the following terms, the whole trend of these entire-album tours feels like a spectrum of 90s rock touring museums.

I don't want to go to rock show and feel like I'm at a fucking museum. A reunion show is one thing, as it allows some level of surprise and/or innovation to be exhibited, even if all the songs performed are old. But when you already know exactly what songs are going to be performed, in the exact order, there's even less room for surprise. At least in actual museums, there's a sense of seeing a piece before your very eyes that you don't get to experience every day. But you can listen to a band's album every day several times a day if you wish. In brief: NEW IDEAS PLEASE.

I know I'm in the Andy Rooney-esque minority in feeling a bit put out by this trend. And I'll be surprised if this touring-the-album thing will last beyond 2009.

When a young Ben Weasel wrote a snivelling article in Maximum Rock N Roll in the late 80s about how many arty college rock groups were just metaphors for 70s AOR (which, to Ben, was a really awful thing), I laughed my ass off -- at Ben. I still do, but now that his metaphor is proving to be quite accurate, it's even more saddening.