Did Disturbed’s Label Write Their Setlists?

While seeing Disturbed in an “intimate setting” is nearly the least appealing idea I’ve heard all day, a recent Rolling Stone blog post brought up an odd topic for conversation–is their label keeping them from performing new material?

Disturbed’s new album (and it hurts my fingers to even type that) Indestructible arrives in stores June 3, and the band hits the road with the Rock Star Mayhem tour this summer. But until then, according to lead singer Dave Draiman, they can’t play any of the unheard material from their new album.

David Draiman and the rest of his Disturbed band mates are eager to play songs from their recently completed fourth album Indestructible to live audiences. Unfortunately, they can’t, as contractual obligations are preventing the band from playing the majority of their new material live before the album’s June 3rd release date. “Isn’t that horrible, how things have become,” Draiman tells Rock Daily from his home in Chicago, just hours before Disturbed piled into a tour bus for the long ride down to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the tour opening show. “It would really nice to see how a crowd reacts to the new songs early on, but there’s too much dependency on that first week sales number and you can’t sacrifice any of the impact of that.”

This might be my own ignorance, but this seems to be a relatively new phenomenon in the leaked music era. However, besides keeping Disturbed fans from realizing how poor their new material must be, it’s hard to see an upside for the label here. No one would possibly skip purchasing an album due to having poorly recorded live tracks in hand, would they? Verve fans are already atwitter over the two new tracks played at Coachella, and generally when a band has performed new material at a concert I’ve attended, it’s resulted in some anticipation for the subsequent recorded version. So, what gives, Warner Brothers?

Tour Preview: Disturbed Promise New Songs on Intimate Tour Before “Mayhem” [Rock Daily]