I have rehearsal with all the band on Tue and Weds. The set list will be finalized at that time. I went to a couple of there shows and sat in with them on a couple of cuts. They usually extend most of the songs to around 7 minutes.

Tony is correct - at 7 min per song, that number would be quite a bit different. I posted this earlier, but we have close to 90 altogether. Probably about 20 stay in the set list every night but in a different order. We rotate the rest so if you come out 2 or 3 nights in a row, you'll get a different show. We leave as little time between songs as possible - not more than 5-10 seconds, typically 2-4 seconds, some we don't stop at all - the drummer's playing the beat for the next song while we're still holding out the ending chord. This keeps the dance floor full.

We do around 30-35 songs per night, divided in 2 sets (and a 15-20min break between sets). Various mix of classic rock songs, ranging from pretty short ones like "I know a little" to songs like "With a little help form my friends" or ....*ducks*... "Freebird"

I think that 7 minutes per song is going to be a bit optimistic unless you're giving everyone a solo each tune (not recommended), or someone is taking extended solos each tune (again, unless Stevie Ray is on the stand, I wouldn't recommend that, either). Someone else said to minimize chatter between songs and I would have to say +20 on that.
Songs in commercial form are usually less than 3:30. I think that they edit them to the bare minimum given the short attention span of the listening public, but much longer than that and you're running the risk of "musical masturbation" as others have said (first time I've seen that term but it's perfect). 5 minutes per tune is, I think, about the longest you should budget.
Songs, time between songs, and form (who solos when, how long, repeated choruses, etc.) will tighten up after several shows, so that's a long term thing. Do the set lists ahead of time and email them out. You don't have to absolutely adhere to them, but if you steal from the third set because the blonde with the nice rack wants to hear "Brick House" know that you'll need to make up for that later.
I think that you'll need at least 30 tunes before you head out. You can supplement your list with some blues (KC Blues, Mustang Sally...) or even an instrumental blues. Hell, play Nat's version of Route 66 and please the retro-swing folks.
In my book, repeating tunes simply because you've run out is a mortal sin. The ever-popular "what song do you guys want to play now?" ranks second on that list. If you read what the more experienced guys here are saying, they have enough material for a two night stand without repeating a tune (not that you ever do that).

No need to duck over "FreeBird". We have it in our arsenal especialy when there's some guy that thinks he's being funny and screams out "FREEBIRD!!!". Playing the song, and absolutely smoking it shuts them up real fast.

We'll play La Grange, and enjoy it. Although we kinda sunk very low last night. We'll play anything, even if we've never tried it before as a band. We had a patron yell out "Old Time Rock-n-roll". My immediate thought was "Do We Have To?"

Had an interesting request tonight that made me think about this thread.

We were doing our normal three 1-hr sets, two 1/2-hr breaks. It was a really good crowd all night - the dance floor stayed packed. We went on our 2nd break at 11:30, so our last set would be 12-1. The manager asked us not to go back on until 12:15 and still play til 1am. So 45 min break, 45 min last set. The reason? People buy more drinks when we're on break. When we're playing they're all out dancing and don't drink as much. So we did, and the place was still packed until we were done. I don't know what it actually did for their drink sales, but hey, fine with me - we get paid the same either way.

Or maybe more in the future if you negotiate again, as you've taught us in the other thread?

Actually, we already booked next year with them at a 25% price increase - he made a point to give me a little friendly trouble about it at the end of the night.

Yeah, we have those guys over here too! And it's actually the only time I enjoy playing Freebird, shutting someone up is so satisfying Ok, I like doing the solo on Freebird too, those chord changes are pretty sweet for endless pentatonic runs and rich chords OTher than that, it's pretty boring, especially when the guitar player goes frenzy. Good thing we only have it in our arsenal, we don't do it every time. Maybe every 10th time.

As someone already mentioned, you have to have at least 30 songs in your arsenal, and repeating songs is a mortal sin. I couldn't agree more. We have around 60 well practiced songs, and probably 40-50 semi-forgotten ones. 30 songs will probably be enough for 2-3h of play time (depending on the lenght of the songs), but you really have to have more ready. You never know when the audience will demand an encore, or when will the owner ask you to play for another hour (happened to me recently). Yo have to be ready for situations like that.

That reminds me, once I had a gig where we were going to alternate sets with a DJ. It was an extremely well payed gig, with lots of celebrities. The deal was to do 3 sets, 1h each. Long story short, the DJ canceled, and we had to entertain the guests for 6h. We did our planned 3 sets, we did an acoustic set,and then we did another hour of backup songs and eventually called out some of the present celebrities to sing with us (songs on demand/their own choce). At the end we still had a few songs we didn't play, but it was one hell of a long gig, but very fun. IT was 4 years ago, and we managed to get all gigs the organisers of that event were doing since then. My point is, if you play your cards well it will be noticed.

I went to see the remnants of Lynyrd Skynyrd (sp?) a few years back. At the concert I remarked to my friend that this was the one time when yelling "FREEBIRD!!!" would be appropriate.

Or you could learn the Reverend Billy C Wirtz calssic, "Stairway to Freebird"

Playing in cover bands makes me shudder every time I think of songs like Freebird, Celebrate, etc. There are a million of them, and they all make me retch. Like, if I was going to do a Don McClean song, it would be something like Vincent, not The Day The Music Died. I like to dig just a little deeper into the archives, not to get obscure, just to get away from the same old songs that everybody else plays.

Thankfully I haven't played in a cover band in many many years, and the last time that I did, it was all Rockpile, Joe Jackson, Tom Petty, and stuff like that.

Well, songs like Freebird, Sweet HOme Alabama, Suspicious MInds etc make me shudder as well, but it seems the audience digs those songs way more than slightly obscure but still known ones. YOu just have to make a compromise and do a number of "hits" and blend them together with the songs you actually enjoy doing.

Unless you don't give a fuck about the audience and the owner, and you play only for your own pleasure. But then, you could do that in the garage/studio, without the hassle of going to the venue.

Bob Schneider has a band called The Scabs. They put out an album called Freebird. For all I know, the cover is their response when anyone yells out "Freebird" at a show.

"Unless you don't give a fuck about the audience and the owner, and you play only for your own pleasure. "

Nahhh... most bands have enough hits that you don't HAVE to play their one great big signature song.