PERFORMANCES

PERFORMANCES returns the per-show history of a single song. Use it to find every time a song was played, filter by date, or sort to find the oldest or most recent performances.

Synopsis#

PERFORMANCES OF "Song Name" [ FROM date_or_range ] [ WITH LENGTH length_condition ] [ ORDER BY sort_spec ] [ LIMIT n ];

OF "Song Name" is required. Everything else is optional.

How it works#

PERFORMANCES joins the song catalog with the performance log to return one row per time the song was played. Each row carries the date, venue, set number, and position.

Duration data is sourced from archive.org recordings via Relisten. About 48% of performances have duration — coverage is best for 1970s shows.

Clauses#

Examples#

Every performance of a song#

PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star";
PERFORMANCES OF "Scarlet Begonias";
PERFORMANCES OF "Eyes of the World";

Constrain to a date range#

PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star" FROM 1972;  -- single year
PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star" FROM 1972-1974;  -- year range
PERFORMANCES OF "Eyes of the World" FROM 1974-1977;

Sort and limit#

PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star" ORDER BY DATE LIMIT 10;
PERFORMANCES OF "Scarlet Begonias" FROM 77-79 ORDER BY DATE DESC LIMIT 20;

Longest performances#

-- The longest Dark Stars
PERFORMANCES OF "Dark Star" ORDER BY LENGTH DESC LIMIT 10;

-- Playing in the Band jams over 15 minutes
PERFORMANCES OF "Playing in the Band" WITH LENGTH > 15min;

-- Short Morning Dews (under 8 minutes)
PERFORMANCES OF "Morning Dew" WITH LENGTH < 8min ORDER BY LENGTH LIMIT 10;

Find the oldest#

PERFORMANCES OF "Help on the Way" ORDER BY DATE LIMIT 1;

(For oldest/newest there’s also the simpler FIRST and LAST shortcuts.)

Tips#

• Duration coverage is ~48%. Not every performance has length data — it depends on what’s available on archive.org. Results with ORDER BY LENGTH will only include performances that have durations.
• Use LIMIT aggressively when browsing — the top 10 or 20 is almost always what you want.
• Looking for shows that played a song, not the performances themselves? Use SHOWS WHERE PLAYED "Song" instead.

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