Album of the Year Tour

The Album of the Year Tour was a concert tour by San Francisco band Faith No More, in support of their 1997 release Album of the Year. It was Faith No More's final tour before their original breakup in April 1998. Only 32 of the dates were in their native North America, due to the band's greater popularity overseas at the time.^[1]

The tour covered several continents, lasting from April 1997 to December 1997.^[2] During April 1998, the band reconvened for three festival dates in Spain and Portugal.^[1] These would end up being their last shows in over 10 years, as they announced their split later that month.

When Album of the Year was released in June 1997, Mike Bordin was called in to perform with Ozzy Osbourne for that year's edition of Ozzfest, which ran from May 24 to July 1.^[3] This resulted in Robin Guy (of the band Rachel Stamp) filling in on drums for Bordin during a UK Top of the Pops performance on May 30, as well as an absence of any Faith No More shows during the month of June. Shortly after he returned from Ozzfest, the band had to cancel four July dates in Europe, so Bordin could attend the birth of his first daughter in San Francisco.^[4]

La gira Album of the Year es notable por presentar a Limp Bizkit , una banda de nu metal / rap metal muy influenciada por Faith No More, como teloneros en varias fechas de 1997 en Estados Unidos. Fueron abucheados frecuentemente por los fans de Faith No More, incluso durante un concierto en septiembre de 1997 en el Electric Factory de Filadelfia , donde el público los abucheó hasta que se bajaron del escenario. ^{[ 5 ]} En una entrevista de 2013, Roddy Bottum reflexionó sobre los conciertos con Limp Bizkit, recordando: "Me resistí en ese momento. Tuve que presionar mucho para que un par de bandas que me gustaban entraran al cartel en Portland y Seattle en esa parte de la gira. No tenía ningún interés en el sonido de Limp Bizkit. No era como quería que me representaran en absoluto. Sin ánimo de ser arrogante, pero ese tipo, Fred Durst, tenía una actitud realmente mala. Era un poco imbécil". ^{[ 6 ]} Bottum también recordó un incidente en el que Durst "llamó maricas al público en un concierto cuando lo abuchearon". ^{[ 6 ]} Durst se disculpó con él después de este concierto, ya que no sabía que Bottum había salido del armario como gay a principios de los 90. ^{[ 7 ]} El guitarrista de Limp Bizkit, Wes Borland, afirmó más tarde que su banda estaba entusiasmada con la posibilidad de salir de gira con Faith No More, declarando: "La idea era genial [pero] una vez que llegamos allí, era un público muy difícil. Tienen un público muy difícil de complacer, que expresa abiertamente su desagrado. Fuimos teloneros de Faith No More y Primus en el mismo año, y la gira de Primus fue mucho mejor que la de Faith No More". ^{[ 8 ]} Borland añadió que no conoció a Mike Patton personalmente hasta varios años después. ^{[ 8 ]}

During the tour, they would cover various songs, both in full and as snippets, such as the Aqua song "Barbie Girl",^[9] "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, Will Smith's "Men in Black", Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love with You" and the R. Kelly songs "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Gotham City". An intro tape was used at the beginning of shows, which contained "Also sprach Zarathustra", followed by an Elvis-style fanfare clip announcing Faith No More as being from Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.^[2] The band's setlists for the tour mainly consisted of their 1990s material, with songs from Introduce Yourself and The Real Thing being played less frequently than before.^[2] However, the track "As the Worm Turns" (from 1985's We Care a Lot) began to appear more often this tour,^[2] having been mostly absent throughout the 1995 King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime tour.^[2] All songs from Album of the Year were played during the tour, with the sole exception of "She Loves Me Not", which still remains one of the only studio album songs Faith No More has never performed live.^[2] The two b-sides "The Big Kahuna" and "Light Up & Let Go" were also not played, and have remained unperformed to this day.^[2] "Helpless" was only performed a single time on the tour, during the October 26, 1997 show at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia.^[2]

On the European legs, Faith No More performed in Croatia and Luxembourg, two countries they had never previously visited.^[10]