Meshuggah’s Set List Numbers: Even More Intriguing than the Numbers on Lost

Heavy Blog is Heavy snapped the below photo of Meshuggah’s set list from a show in Philly last week. And what one immediately notices about said set list — besides a serious dearth of “Future Breed Machine” — are the numbers listed on either side of each song.

What do they mean? The best guess I’ve seen thus far comes from a Metal Injection junkie Matt Haycroft, who proposes that “The left may be a tone patch, while the right may be an effect patch for different sections of the song for an 8 button multi pedal.” Another junkie, Rene Smo., speculates “It’s numbers to help remember how many times parts are.” Some people seem to think they might have something to do with the lighting, although why Meshuggah would need to have the lighting cues onstage, I dunno.

So are they notes on patches and effects? Reminders about song structures? Do they need to be typed into a computer every 108 minutes, lest the world come to an end? Speculate in the comments section below.