This year has been an exciting time in live music as the concert-going experience has returned to its somewhat normal state after tours and concerts were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this brand new era of live music, artists are taking the stage after several years with new music and new surprises for their fans. One of these includes "surprise songs" that artists add to their set lists each night of their tour.
Although this phenomenon is nothing new to the world of live music, as artists constantly update and add to their setlist each tour rotation, the concept has grown in popularity over the past few months. Some credit Taylor Swift for this reemergence with her "Eras Tour," where she performs one or two surprise tracks each night of the tour. These surprise songs range from b-sides deep within her discography to songs never played live.
Once Swifties got wind of this trend, they started paying much more attention to the concerts they couldn’t attend. If they couldn't go to a show, they would watch Instagram or TikTok live streams or stalk other social media accounts, awaiting the moment when she unveiled the track(s) of the night. You might have noticed a trend on your TikTok For You Page of videos where fans would share their reactions to the surprise songs where they would scream, cry or fall completely in shock. It was a sweet moment to watch fans experience their favorite non-mainstream tracks in front of thousands of people.
In the following months, the "surprise track" trend continued with bands like Fall Out Boy and 5 Seconds of Summer. On their tour, "So Much For (Tour)dust," Fall Out Boy performed surprise tracks during their "Magic 8 Ball" bit toward the end of each show. Like Swift, surprise tracks ranged from songs the band hadn't played in years to tracks they had never played live before. Most notably, Fall Out Boy ended their first U.S. leg of the tour in Camden, NJ, playing a hidden bonus track, "Pavlove," which isn't available on any streaming service.
"The 5 Seconds of Summer Show" tour incorporates a massive, inflatable six-sided dice with different 5SOS b-sides on it like "English Love Affair" and "Voodoo Doll." The dice get tossed into the crowd for them to throw around. Eventually, the dice lands on a song, which the band proceeds to play (even if they have stated how much they hate certain songs). Even if the surprise songs are pre-determined and albeit limited, the crowd participation to "pick" the song adds a new sense of excitement to the track's reveal.
This ritual shows that these surprise tracks are meaningful for long-time, hardcore fans. They can leave the venue feeling like the artists haven't "forgotten" them by only playing their hits and pandering to their general audience. Even if a person in attendance isn't a fan of these artists, they can still revel in the fact that they attended a concert with a unique setlist and performance. Moreover, it's a call for fans to come out to a show and experience something that may never happen again.
Including "surprise songs" in an artist's setlist can be extremely exciting, especially for hardcore fans, as each show differentiates from the last. I hope this trend continues for artists with a wide array of songs across their discography that have never seen the light of day. Let me know what artists you would love to see include surprise songs in their live performances on my Instagram and Email linked down below!
