a personal index of setlists & chronologies

While I’ve come around to the utility of the LiveNation-owned setlists.fm (which Marc Hogan articulated well!), I still prefer a loving fan-made chronology or setlist database. Though there’s certainly some wonderful stuff to be gleaned from a giant universal database of live events, setlists.fm’s publicly-available sorting/slicing abilities are piddling at best. In general, as with streaming services, I suspect most artists are better served by not trying to cram their live performances into the same metadata container as every other act, not to mention the pedantic internecine labeling battles that are inevitable when combined with open web 2.0 style collaboration. Idiosyncratic musicians deserve their own data representation.

Below is a list of the spread-out setlist databases and live chronologies I’ve returned to while researching, or perhaps just enjoyed (and a few I’ve made myself). There are surely oodles more of these, the below list representing only the subjective limits of my interests and tastes. Please leave your faves in the comments.

To roll your own chronology, I recommend building from live tapes in circulation listed in the etree database, Newspapers.com searches (subscription only, or through your local library), Independent Voices (if artist was active in the ’60s/’70s), and archive.org text contents search. Many states maintain free newspaper archives, such as NYS Historic Newspapers and the California Digital Newspaper Collection. College newspapers from an artist’s performing region(s) are also extremely useful, and often digitized.

Artists

If a chronology is spread across multiple pages, I have often only linked to the starting point. I’ve attempted to focus on lists that are complete about gigs or circulating tapes, which includes some but not all jazz sessionographies. One exception is for Willie Nelson, since many of his studio recordings are notoriously messy to date and I find myself returning to it often.

Allman Bros. (1969-1971)/Duane Allman: Duane Allman Chronology

The Band: History
The Beach Boys: Eric’s Beach Boys Setlist Archive

John Cale: On the Road
The Charlatans: The San Francisco Sound
Don Cherry: Christian Oestreicher
John Coltrane: JazzDisco
Chris Corsano: Cor-Sano
Elvis Costello: ElvisCostello.info
Creedence Clearwater Revival: The San Francisco Sound

Karen Dalton: Jesse Jarnow
Miles Davis: Miles Ahead
The dB’s : The dB’s Live Appearance Gigology
Eric Dolphy: Alan Saul
Bob Dylan: BobServe, Olof’s Files, BobLinks

Alice Cooper: Alice Cooper eChive

The Feelies: FeeliesWeb
The Fugs: Bruno Ceriotti

Jerry Garcia: JerryBase
Keith & Donna Godchaux: Lost Live Dead
Grateful Dead: JerryBase
post-Grateful Dead (1998-2023): OtherOnes.net
The Great Society: The San Francisco Sound

Hampton Grease Band: GreaseBase
Robyn Hitchcock/The Soft Boys: The Asking Tree
Hot Tuna: TunaBase
Robert Hunter: GDSets, Still Unsung
Hüsker Dü Hüsker Dü Database

Jefferson Airplane/Starship: JABase, The San Francisco Sound

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: KGLW.net

Ned Lagin: NedBase
Phil Lesh: PhilBase

MC5: Make My Day
Medeski, Martin, & Wood: MMW History
Moby Grape: Chicken On A Unicycle
Modern Lovers: Precise(r) Modern Order
Van Morrison: Vanomatic

Willie Nelson: Country Discography (studio only)
New Riders of the Purple Sage: NRPS.net, Hooterollin’ Around
Nico: Tapes

Charlie Parker: Miles Ahead
William Parker: Sessionography
Pearl Jam: Five Horizons
Phish: Phish.net
Prince: PrinceVault

Quicksilver Messenger Service: Family Tree/Shows List

Lou Reed: The Lou Reed Rock and Roll Animal Web Page, Lou Reed Gigography
R.E.M.: The R.E.M. Timeline
Rolling Stones: Rocks Off

Sonic Youth: Concert Chronology
Bruce Springsteen: BruceBase
The Stooges: Rock Prosopography 102
Billy Strings: BillyBase

Talking Heads: Concert History
Television/Tom Verlaine: The Wonder
They Might Be Giants: TMBG KnowledgeBase
The Turtles: Rock Prosopography 102

The Velvet Underground: Live Performances & Rehearsals

Bob Weir: GDSets (1974-1995), RatDog.org (1995-2023)

Yo La Tengo: Sunsquashed, Hanukkah & misc.
Neil Young: Sugar Mountain

Wilco: WilcoBase (through 2012 only)

Frank Zappa: Zappateers

Venues & Cities

Cafe Au Go Go: Bruno Ceriotti
Carousel Ballroom: Chicken On A Unicycle
Ebbets Field, Denver: QueenCityJamz
Fillmore Auditorium: Chicken On A Unicycle
Fillmore East: Chicken On A Unicycle
Fillmore West: Chicken On A Unicycle
Freight & Salvage: Chicken On A Unicycle
Gainesville, FL: Gainesville Shows
Keystone Berkeley: Chicken On A Unicycle
The Matrix: Chicken On A Unicycle
New Fillmore East/Village East: Jesse Jarnow
Village Theatre: Jesse Jarnow
Whisky A Go Go: Chicken On A Unicycle
Winterland: Chicken On A Unicycle

Promoters

Bill Graham Presents: Chicken On A Unicycle
Family Dog: Chicken On A Unicycle