Longest Set you've played - Page 2

Phalex · #21 12-05-2012, 11:59 AM

Professional paid gig? 90 minutes.

The party tent at a crazy outdoor drunkfest? 4 or 5 hours probably. People just kind of drop out and walk into the woods to pee, but the band keeps playing.........

scottbass · #22 12-05-2012, 12:01 PM

Longest single set: about 2-1/2 hours

Longest day of playing with one short break: La Crosse Oktoberfest Parade. When I was in high school I marched this parade playing a brass (not fiberglass) sousaphone. That was about 3 hours of non-stop playing. Then a few of us hopped in a car to race back to the start of the parade. This gave me a 10 minute break before I hopped on the flatbed truck and played the parade again with our Dixieland band. This time I got to sit as I played tuba for another 3 hours. It took quite a few cold cans of, uh, beverage to mitigate the swelling of my lips.

Longest day of playing with longer breaks: There's a motorcycle run along the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi river basically from St. Paul to La Crosse. I was playing in a biker bar band (aka "classic rock"). We hauled our gear (including PA), unloaded, set up and played an outdoors afternoon gig at a bar along the route. That was 4 hours of playing with two 15-minute breaks. Then we tore down, loaded up and drove to another bar about 30 minutes away. We unloaded, set up (including PA and lights), took about an hour for dinner, then played an evening gig which was 4-1/2 hours of playing with two 15-minute breaks. Then we tore down, loaded up and drove home - which was about a 3-hour drive for me. No, I didn't unload when I got home! That was 7-1/2 hours of playing, 4 hours of setting up and tearing down and loading and unloading, 6-1/2 hours of driving, and 2 hours of down time (set breaks and dinner) for a grand total of a 20-hour day. Plus I initially loaded my gear at home the evening before and unloaded at home the day after.

seang15 · #23 12-05-2012, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by levonrocks

The longest set I ever played was at a private festival that was deep in the middle of the woods. I was 19 years old and I had been released from the county jail earlier that day. I was arrested on some bogus pot charges, and as a result I was kept away from my bass and my band. The show was a joyous reunion.
It was the first time I got to play the bass in two months, and I can't even begin to describe how fantastic it felt! We started around 9:00PM and then played until the sun began to rise around 5:00AM. We played only one set, and it was around 8 hours long. The only reason we stopped is because the cops came. Good times.

Lol you made the cops come not 24 hours after getting released from jail?? You are badass, dude!!

chewy teeth · #24 12-05-2012, 12:21 PM

Our band has 2 hours worth of tunes. All our gigs are 2 hours unless we are the openers or in a lineup of bands.

Stewie26 · #25 12-05-2012, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by musicianary

Mine was in Cincinnati, OH, in January 2008. We played a function in the US Bank Arena, and the band I was in was on stage for no less than 5 1/2 hours. Had lots of others in the 3-4 hour range, too.

Wow...5-1/2 hours. At some point I would have had to hit the bathroom to go pee.

plankspanker13 · #26 12-05-2012, 12:55 PM

1:50, as Mike Dirnt, in a Green Day tribute act.

Big Brother · #27 12-06-2012, 12:08 AM

Playing four hour shows with just small breaks was pretty regular thing for my last cover band. We pushed five hours a few times and I was always aching, my hands were OK but not my shoulder and lower back. Even 4 hours was hard, I leaned on something whenever I could get away with it for anything longer than that.

Hard not to zone out and drift off when you do play that long, especially in the basic songs. I once fell asleep onstage while playing roots on 'What's Going On' I am not kidding. And I didn't miss a beat of that boring song, literally played it in my sleep.

LiquidMidnight · #28 12-06-2012, 09:56 AM

I used to do a regular gig every 5 weeks or so at this place that only ran bands on Sundays. I'm from PA, and anyone from PA knows that the Steelers are pretty much a religion. Anytime we'd play this place during football season, it was a PITA. We'd set up behind giant screens in front of the stage. The sound engineer would hurry and get levels during commercials sometimes.

This particular game was a late game. I think it ended at like 11:30 or something like that. We usually started at 10:30 at this place. We just ended up playing the entire gig in one set. I think we played something like a two and a half hour set of a high energy rock.

musicianary · #29 12-08-2012, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewie26

Wow...5-1/2 hours. At some point I would have had to hit the bathroom to go pee.

Yeah, it was crazy. I was playing a Warwick, too, so you can imagine how my shoulder felt that evening..

dbase · #30 12-08-2012, 06:36 AM

I played an after hours club from 11:30pm till 5:00am. The place was called "The Dunes".. We shared the stage with another band but the owner got smart and put shudders on the windows so the sun wouldn't shine in... Then we had to play till 8am... for the same money... but it was fun.

musicianary · #31 12-08-2012, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbase

I played an after hours club from 11:30pm till 5:00am. The place was called "The Dunes".. We shared the stage with another band but the owner got smart and put shudders on the windows so the sun wouldn't shine in... Then we had to play till 8am... for the same money... but it was fun.

Gotta love shutters. They're a light saver.

lowfreq33 · #32 12-08-2012, 02:00 PM

Gigs downtown are generally 4 hours, and it's not unusual to do a 6-10 then a 10-2 down the street.

I did a New Year's gig in Wisconsin, where they don't have to close on dec 31. Played from 9 pm to 6:30 am, but we did take breaks. 45 on, 15 off. Was NOT worth the money.

denhou1974 · #33 12-20-2012, 01:03 PM

A funk/RB/Dance band that I used to play with would do a 45-50 minute medley, basically the entire second set. I loved it.

We did 6 45-minute sets last St Patricks day. Money was good but we were worn out.

nicopiano · #34 12-20-2012, 01:06 PM

Sometime, when I play piano at a restaurant and the tip is good, i play a big 3 hours set.

But usually, I prefer to play no more than 90 min per set.

rtslinger · #35 12-20-2012, 01:09 PM

We did a 3 hour out door show no breaks

emblymouse · #36 12-20-2012, 01:17 PM

When I started professionally our agent booked us into a circuit of clubs. These were all 6 nights a week, 6 sets a night. Usually 9-3. We did this kind of stuff for about 3 years and I got a whole lot of hours playing in that time. By the time I was 21 I was able to cover a lot of ground.
I actually prefer a long set to taking breaks. It's harder for me to get back up to speed stopping and starting.

OriginalSnub · #37 12-20-2012, 01:18 PM

Just got done with a three month set playing 129600'33''

Joking aside, the longest set was probably just over an hour. The longest show is somewhere around 2 1/2 hours.
Definitely nothing record breaking, but it was with an original band so it was outside the norm.

groooooove · #38 12-20-2012, 01:26 PM

i've done one set without a break for 4 hours. it's pretty rough, especially with a heavy bass.

cirrusb2002 · #39 12-20-2012, 01:27 PM

Back in the early '80's, playing with a band of Canadian military guys doing a mainly country/pop gig while stationed in Germany, actually the day before I was posted back to Canada. Beer tent special, military & German civilians, despite being falling down drunk the dancers never crossed the monitor line, while the gig went straight through from 1 to 8 PM. The last hour they passed the hat to have us continue the party, after which we cried uncle. Good thing the paperwork was done because my hands wouldn't function for about 24 hours! Great gig though.

**speak2planets** · #40 12-20-2012, 02:39 PM

I was in a jam band that had 2 guitars, Hammond organ, bass, drums and percussion. We played a Saturday festival show that had us go on at approximately 1pm and we were only supposed to play between 1 and 1 1/2 hours. No big deal. Well, the two bands that were to play after us for some reason never showed. The promoter came to us at the end of our set and asked if we could keep going. He had no idea what he was in for. We ended up playing until around 8pm and none of us really wanted to stop then. We took some jams WAAAAAYYY out there and switched up instruments at one point and just did some improv. The crowd (who were really lit by the time we were finishing) went nuts when we told them we had to wrap it up because it was time for a band that showed up to go on. We were thanked left and right for the rest of the night for keeping the festival going.