Making the gig

[Strat 94]

I just got back together with one of my old bands and I wanted a refresher on how to set up a gig.

stuff like # of songs, # of sets, length.

Thanks for the help,

 

Strat

[Marzuki Grinage]

What type of gigs are you planning to do?

The venue should be able to tell you how long your set should be, then it's a matter of timing your songs so you can fill up the show.

 

Peace,

[Fingerstyle_Jim]

It's been a few years since I went into solo-fingerstyle but the standard was: 3 40 minute sets, 40 songs ready to play on demand(minimum).

 

Jim

[DC]

We've done a lot of 4 hour nights. 45 minute sets with 20 minute breaks works out alright. Or you can do 3 one hour sets with half hour breaks.

 

Number of songs depends on how long your songs are. We normally do around 10 or 12 songs a set for the 45 minutes.

[Tedster]

What DC said is generally what we do. We don't usually time our sets too rigidly, though, because we usually play longer. We'll play for an hour or so, take 15 or 20, whatever..the next set might be 45. When we played the American Bandstand in Overland Park though, they wanted everything timed out to the T. They had an automated DJ that would play on breaks, and the owner would say "The last break song is such and such", meaning when we heard it we should be ready to kick in when that song ended. Only place I've ever had that happen before.

 

I would shy away from breaks much longer than 20 minutes, though, as people may start losing interest and leaving. Just my take, mind you. Over in Canada in the old day, the bands would play three 45 minute sets with a, get this, 45 minute break. That was way too long for a break.

 

That said, you can always ask da man what works best for his club.