Ideal Set Length

[TKennedy]

I'd like to tap the vast musical experience of you folks. For a sit down concert with a captive audience (over 40) what would you see as the ideal and maximum set length? (Figuring two sets with an intermission) I have my own feelings on this matter but I'll shut up and listen. Thanks!

[Russell Letson]

I have long preferred 45-minute sets--staying in any kind of auditorium seat for longer is not comfortable, even when I'm loving the music, as I did with recently at two very good concerts (Rani Arbo on Thursday and a two-band gypsy-jazz evening on Sunday). (I don't know how I'd last through a Mahler symphony.)

Oddly enough, I often play straight through our own two-hour gigs, seated, unless Mike finds that he needs a break--and if our third man is there, we'll often just keep going while Mike takes a stretch. Of course, our restaurant audiences (such as they are) are free to leave, talk among themselves, go to the can, or throw sandwich fragments, so it's not quite a concert setting.

[j]

If they are listening attentively, I wouldn't program more than 35-40 minutes of music per set. Things will inflate if you plan to talk between tunes, etc, so it can easily turn into 1-hour per set. I definitely would not go any longer than that—attention is going to drop and for some people it would be just plain uncomfortable.

You can expect some of the crowd to leave at intermission. It doesn't mean they don't like you, it's just the nature of the beast.

[Fingerplucked]

I've always played straight through - one hour sets for nursing homes and two to three hours in coffee houses, parties.

I don't take breaks. I play until the initial adrenaline rush depletes itself. Then I go home.

[billhammond]

For two sets and intermission, I would shoot for the first set being 40 mins, the second set 35, with 5 minutes available for an encore.

[Dub]

Forty-five minutes sounds about right to me.

We do anywhere from twenty-five minutes to a couple of hours depending on circumstances. The short sets are usually festivals where sets may run from twenty to forty minutes but there'll usually be another band right behind us so the audience might be there for three or four hours at a sitting.

We take care to mix up our program varying the keys, tempi, and trading off singers and harmony mixes. That way it doesn't seem like the same music for an entire set.

If it's just our show then we'll try to read the audience. For a smaller more intimate group we'll also talk more. For a large audience we'll try to move the show along as fast as possible. If we think the audience might not stick we may play through the night with no break just to keep the audience.

- Dub

[aquaduct]

We usually run the traditional 45 minutes on, 15 minutes off sets if the gig is normal (we restrict ourselves to 3 hour gigs anymore).

But that can change due to circumstances. At a festival where we're booked for a specific time slot with other things scheduled around us, we stick to the schedule. At the festival we did over the weekend where we were on a street corner with foot traffic passing and no real room to sit, we found running about 15-20 minutes with a half hour or so between to play and sell the CD about perfect.

FWIW anyways.

[mccoyblues]

In a club or restaurant atmosphere we always do three one hour sets, usually with a 30 minute break in between.

[Cornflake]

Echoing j, I think of 45 minutes as the maximum for a set. Thirty minutes is ideal. If you're doing two sets with an intermission, I'd incline to two half-hour sets. You do need to allow for talk, and there should be some, but by now I know how many songs I can fit in a set of either length and still have time for talking.

[Doug]

Captive audience 45 break 45

Other situations require different. For standard 3 hr gig I do 45-60 break 45 break 30-?

[TKennedy]

Thanks all. 45" including banter for a captive audience is my absolute max too. I'm in a Patsy Cline tribute band that's pretty active but the drummer who books the gigs and makes up the set list is always handing us two one hour sets and is pretty resistant to change. You can guess the average age of the audience. If they have not soiled themselves after one hour in a seat they certainly have a hard time standing up.

[millring]

I try playing for about five minutes. If I catch people leaving, I try to head them off at the door. I keep playing as I run.

[iamjohnne]

Oct 6, 2010 17:30:59 GMT -5 millring said:

I try playing for about five minutes. If I catch people leaving, I try to head them off at the door. I keep playing as I run.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[billhammond]

Oct 6, 2010 17:30:59 GMT -5 millring said:

I try playing for about five minutes. If I catch people leaving, I try to head them off at the door. I keep playing as I run.

is THAT why you run every day???

[paulschlimm]

But Bill, Freebird is 9:06 so how can you fit that into a five-minute encore??

[billhammond]

Oct 6, 2010 18:31:17 GMT -5 @paulschlimm said:

But Bill, Freebird is 9:06 so how can you fit that into a five-minute encore??

I do "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at twice the normal speed.


People dance. It's magical.

[Fingerplucked]

Oct 6, 2010 17:30:59 GMT -5 millring said:

I try playing for about five minutes. If I catch people leaving, I try to head them off at the door. I keep playing as I run.

You leave the door unlocked?

[Doug]

My system works better, no one runs faster than 900fps.

[Don Clark]

Oct 6, 2010 17:28:28 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

If they have not soiled themselves after one hour in a seat they certainly have a hard time standing up.

45 / 15 usually works for me or the duo. For pretty much the same reasons.

The only difference was back in the 70's with Craig. We had a special 15 minute set we used on occasion.....but only if we had a dead, unresponsive crowd, we were tired and wanted to go home. If we had that situation and it was after 10:00 p.m., we would turn the reverb up to 10 and play Moody Blues tunes. That would normally clear the place in 15 minutes.

[John B]

I just play every single song I know in the key of G, and pack up after everyone else has.




Speaking of TWOTEF ("The Wreck of..."), the local classic rock station played it the other night. They also play Beatles songs that aren't radio-played out, like "Eleanor Rigby." And for some reason (not that it's wrong), a shitload of Supertramp.