I remember Between the Buried and Me becoming a pretty big deal around 2005 when Alaska was released, namely with their song "Selkies: The Endless Obsession." So it definitely sucks to hear the band most likely won't be playing anything pre-Colors anymore.
Guitarist Paul Waggoner explained in an interview with Heavy Blog Is Heavy that it doesn't make much sense for the play to play the old stuff because they feel like most fans came on board with Colors.
"'Yeah, nothing pre-Colors,' Paul nods his head. 'We’re doing a couple of songs off of Colors, I guess one off of Great Misdirect, and a couple of new ones as well. 2007-era BTBAM is the oldest we go but we’re trying to mix it up.'
No 'Naked by the Computer,' I kid him.
'You will probably never hear anything off of the self-titled, unless something weird happens, you’ll probably never hear that old stuff (live).'
Some of us love that old stuff, I insist.
'Yeah it has a special place in my heart as well but the reality is that most of our fans came on board with Colors or maybe Alaska so we have to cater to that, unfortunately. We would like to play some old stuff but the fact of the matter is that most people have never heard it, don’t care, and don’t know what it is.'"
Update: Waggonor was talking specifically about this Meshuggah tour not featuring anything pre-Colors. The band have issued a new statement clarifying they will bust out old favorites from time to time on headlining runs.
If you're a fan and you haven't heard Alaska yet, get on that right now and then let the band know you want to hear some "Autodidact" and "The Primer" live! You're missing out huge if you're not listening to that and The Silent Circus. At the same time, with their new proggier direction, with longer songs, it only leaves so much room in the setlist, and some of the older material is probably not as fun for them to play anymore.
