set list or wing it?

[pounce]

so do you use a set list, wing it, or have some other system where you have a general set list but vary it a little?

[Swafford]

I go both ways ( :grin: ).
Set list for a club venue where we are either headlining or supporting another act. Tight spaces between songs, everyone is required to be ready to go and are not lighting a cigarette or needing a bathroom break or making a bartender request or chatting up thier best friends girlfriend or adjuting thier underwear.

For bar gigs, winging it is what I like to do. That's where I discover new song combinations that work well together and song combinations to always stay away from (did we just play the same song twice?), try out new stories, create long and usually boring non sequitars....you know, practice in public and get paid for it.

[Droolbucket]

We use a set list, and everybody has a copy. However, if we play a song that immediately packs the dance floor, we'll try to do a few more in that same vein to keep the momentum going. And, as always, if a well-endowed woman has a request, we'll do our best (and sometimes our worst!).
Droolbucket

[Swafford]

Here's a tip that's always worked great for us on requests. We're not a cover band, we do some, but they tend to be obscure for most folks, so whne someone makes a request, we almost never know it. On occasion we get the Can you do (insert song here) by (insert band here). My stock response is "Gosh, don't know that one, but I have a tape I made of (insert band here) playing live on (Insert radio station here) from (insert appropriate date here) and here's a song from that show that's never been commercially released." Then play one of yours. Makes them feel very special. Had a Texas frat boy cry tears of unexplained joy once. True story. Swear on a bible. Cried right in the bar after we played a Willy song he'd never heard before. He was drunk. Bought us a round. We all raised a glass to little white lies and karmic fraud.

Cheers!

[Droolbucket]

Swaffie, my respect for you is growing by leaps and bounds!
I will sometimes say, "We don't do that song, but here's a song that ________________ did right before he quit _______________ to pursue a solo career!" And then we do whatever song is next on the list. You'd be surprised how many people don't know Hank Williams Jr. started out in Lynyrd Skynrd, or that Michael Bolton used to be in the Cars.:lol:
Once, when a drunk got REALLY obnoxious, I finally said (loudly over the mike), "Sir, we're flattered, but we're all straight. Maybe you'd have better luck at the gay bar down the street." He didn't have any requests after that.
Droolbucket

[Swafford]

Ah yes, nothing more a 'real man' hates then being called a queer. Try blowing him a kiss. He'll leave soon after.

Micheal Bolton wasn't in the Cars?

[Tim Armstrong]

I play in a summer beach town bar band, and from May-September we play 4-6 gigs a week. We started out using a setlist, but it didn't take us long to toss it. Instead, we have a 100-song songlist, laminated, that we put out on the tables, and we kick off with one or two songs and then solicit requests. It works really well for us, gets the audience involved, and everybody is happy.

And the tip jar fills!

Cheers, Tim

[mousdrvr]

This is a great thread!

I'm usually something of a dick about everybody taking time to at least go over the set list so we don't get up there and forget shit. This happens more than I'd like to admit with new shit cause as itching as ya might be to play it, once your IN the set you can just forget the additions cause you haven't played them out 20 times yet.

Re the list itself I like the chinese menu approach. We group shit together in little Triptychs. that work well together. Like 3 drop D tunings together followed by a story song that I can introduce for 30 seconds while the guys get tuned back up. This way we might have a few different effective ways to open or close depending on the energy in room. I think that's really important you have to respect and play to the energy of the room. I've found that a relatively sparse room ( no I won't front all our gigs are packed :lol: ) sometimes prefers down tempo stuff regardless of the absolute number of folks. Whereas a crowded room wants as much energy as you can give it. I've come to look at the room as a discrete entity, sure it is comprised of the people in it but it also has it's own vibe and the end result is some kind of organic whole. I now think that keeping that beast fed whatever it is, is job one and it pays to be flexible.

And yeah, Swafford, classic with the Bootleg thing, may I file that for future use?

Tim,

That's an awesome idea as well. Oh and on a tangent,
ah,........OK . ............. you're right Santa Cruz smokes Taylor. Ya happy now? Just where am I supposed to come up with another couple grand? Think about that next time ya burst a brother's bubble OK? :lol:



-mous

[jerryskid]

We ALWAYS make a setlist the problem is, we NEVER
follow it...but it does have our songs all listed out so at least we know what we're doing that night.....

[Tim Armstrong]

Tim,

That's an awesome idea as well. Oh and on a tangent,
ah,........OK . ............. you're right Santa Cruz smokes Taylor. Ya happy now? Just where am I supposed to come up with another couple grand? Think about that next time ya burst a brother's bubble OK? :lol:



-mous

While I surely would love a Santa Cruz, I actually play an $800 Larrivee D-03 that also smokes any Taylor I've played...

:D

Tim

[mousdrvr]

Pounce,

Sorry about the Hijack bro. Bad form :Sad:

It was an old feud and I lost :lol:

I'll take this to PM with Tim.


-mous

[Spock]

Like others said, a bigger gig, one set, we make a list and we run it down. Bars we still have a list and try to follow it, at least the starting and ending songs. If we get a request for something, and we know it, will try to slip it in.

Some nights things just get real mesed up, and some nights, we end up playing the list top to bottom.

[Johnny]

Back in the bar band days we'd make a list and pretty much stick to it, with the understanding that we'd call certain faves if people were dancing or there were requests. We never rehearsed so we'd put the new songs for the week (and there were new ones every week) in the first set and maybe bring them back in the last if they went over well.

We used to handle requests this way: sliding tip scale depending on the song. You'd have to tip a heck of a lot to get one of the songs we hated. We were so up front about it people thought it was funny. "Will you play 'Brown Eyed Girl?'" "For 50 bucks, yes, we will!" They'd usually do it.

[Swafford]

I play in a summer beach town bar band, and from May-September we play 4-6 gigs a week.

This is my fantasy gig. Every year my daughter and I go to the Outer banks and camp at Frisco. Every year I dream of the time when she's 20 something and the younger ones 18 something and we have a little cottage we rent for the summer and we make our rent playing the bars from Duck to Buxton. I've even collected some floral Fenders (Tele and a Strat, just need a P bass) for our 'look' and considered how I'm going to keep the beach dudes away from them. Jesus, in 12 years I'm either going to be really tickled or have some decent gutiars to cash in.

Where do you guys play - Ocean City? Eastern shore?

[Tim Armstrong]

Where do you guys play - Ocean City? Eastern shore?

Yep, Ocean City, Maryland. Next summer will be my fifth summer playing down here. It has its good points and bad points like the gigs at the marina where we set up on the pier to play to folks about 50 feet away and up on the second floor deck. Who mostly ignore us. Or their other location, where it's the same except we're on the roof of a houseboat tied to the dock...

The bar owner loves us though, and keeps booking us anyway. I think next year we may gracefully decline playing those places!

Cheers, Tim

[ella]

Generally speaking we would have a master list of songs that we would pick from depending on what the room is doing. We played them all soooo many times that we'd often play them in different styles or do extended versions or, if the floor is packed and unrelenting, jam a bunch together non-stop until people get tired. For entertainment (ours and theirs) we would often make up bullshit stories... like the time that Randy Bachman went sailing and got tossed by a storm and washed up on an island and was nursed back to health by Rasafari's, then do a reggae version of 'Takin Care of Randy' or something silly like that;

"If you ever go a sailin
When dem winds be a wailin
Tru de islands of the Carribean

If you no good at boatin
You may find yourself a floatin
And they ain't no land you gonna be seein"

etc. etc. Drunk people like that sorta ting, mon.

[rockdart]

ever had someone create a set list and when you looked at it you noticed that all the songs in "A" were lumped together and all the songs in "E" were lumped together, etc?

I don't like to do that... things can start to drone on after a while if you don't change it up more.

Funny thing though - it's my bass player who did it and it was completely by accident. Each time.

[Azraphael]

We use a set list that we stick to for pretty much every gig. As an all original band, though, it might be a bit different for us. We rarely have to deal with requests, for example. :)

For us, we typically create the set list from our current crop of performance ready songs at the jam before the show. That gives us a chance to run thoguh it, see how it feels, without doing it to death. Though we have our favourites for openers, transitions and closers, we try to change it up as much as possible. We find it makes it more interesting for us, as well as our audience.

Also, there are few things more irritating for me than when I have to watch a band discuss what song their doing next all night. It really kills the momentum of the show.

Again, maybe it's different for a treated-as-background-music cover band... but we're typically playing club shows where people have come for the primary purpose of watching live music, not to play darts and drink beer. Creates a bit of a different mindset, I think.

Cheers,

Dave

[micguy]

Most of the time, set list. Forethought is usually the best plan, unless you get into a "Bob's Country Bunker" scenario. We did have a guy in one band that, at one practice talked about how we might "jam" more, but we reached no conclusion on the topic. A few weeks later (we had multiple gigs every weekend), without warning, he launches into something that sounded a little like like a couple of our tunes, but wasn't either exactly - he was "jamming" without warning. The rest of us were stunned a bit, but then launched...into both tunes - half one way, half the other!

Not our best moment. then again, the Greatful Dead did make a living with no plan - what do I know?

[volthause]

As an all original band, we always have a setlist. Usually it's written out during practice before the show. All songs tie seamlessly to the next. After a few songs there is a rehearsed break for the singer to bullshit with the crowd. This is where we tune if needed. Rinse and repeat to the end of show. We always break before the last song to thank the club, the bartenders, the soundman and all the acts there that night.

Make a plan, stick with the plan.