Classic Rock & Blues band: Playing "danceable" music

[tothemax]

This has probably been brought up before, "danceable" being the indirect topic. Possibly defining the difference between a concert style cover band and a dance club band might be a better was to explain. I keep hearing the comment from our BL that if folks are up dancing, keep the song the going... Being married to a former 70's disco queen, I have a pretty decent idea of what's "danceable" and what is just rock and roll. When "folks" is one or two people swaying on the dance floor, or making a few "moves" for the band's sake... I get it, any response is good press. I bring this up when there are considerations for playing lodge style dances, when about 85% of our set is not really dance music. ABB, Steely Dan, Van Morrison, etc... a few of those could be considered danceable... but when I think dance music it's more like Mustang Sally, Get Ready, Love Shack, most Motown, Rock around the clock, solid beats... and we have a few of those just not very many in the play list. It's fun band, good musicians, good vocals...

Just wondering if I'm off bass here...

I did a Wikipedia search for dance-rock and this came up... not really any of these in our set.

Wiki Dance-Rock​

 

[tothemax]

I guess I missed this thread, but to my point...

Dance Band songs TB Post​

 

[drpepper]

I think more than certain songs being inherently “danceable”, it's about the crowd’s willingness to dance, which can vary from place to place and night to night. Every room falls somewhere on a spectrum from “they’ll dance to almost anything” (like they're out and they can't be stopped) to “they won’t dance at all and you can't make them,” with a middle ground being that the mood of the room where the willingness to dance can be shifted by the music.

At the extreme, I’ve notably (to me) seen full dance floors to Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times and another time to AC/DC - Get It Hot. Those people wanted to dance and song choice wasn’t going to stop them. Are those songs danceable? Well, technically, the evidence says they are. But by most definitions, that would be a "no".

Same songs, different room, different night, with a different crowd, and there would be no dancers.

We recently learned Billy Joel - Big Shot for a specific gig and just tossed it in on a regular bar gig last week earlier in the night, kind because it was freshly learned and people are less engaged. Turned out there were some “dance no matter what” folks and it was a bit painful watching them try to dance through the swing changes in that song but they did and were having fun...go figure.

 

[tothemax]

Gotcha...

A few weeks ago I went to an invite jam, where everyone submitted two songs and then an online sign up sheet to fill the slots. Ended up playing on a couple of songs that turned out to be the big sleepers of the day. One was the Rare Earth version of "Get Ready", and the other was Bill Withers "Use Me". I was familiar with both of them but had never really played them. I had signed up for Get Ready and was good to go, Use Me had an open bass slot so jumped in cold (after quick look at UG on my phone). Both of those I would consider very danceable.

 

[xiaoma]

It's a fascinating topic. While I agree with @drpepper that if folks are in the mood they will dance to almost anything, certain features definitely make it easier: decent tempo, predictability (four on the floor being the typical example, but also repetition in terms of song structure ) being the ones I reckon have the most impact. It has a lot to do with repertoire, I think it would be naive to think otherwise IMHO.

 

[pepj]

I agree, song choices are a very tricky subject.
Around here, many bands play the same set..pretty much, and they have definte upsides and downsides.
The upside is 'known entity' so bookers don't need to want to know much else.
The downside is many people would leave if the band cracks out Brightside, Dakota etc.

However, I tend to think that plenty of bands can get people dancing on plenty of songs if they play them with groove and energy. This might be harder work or need their own crowd but if the song is moving, then the audience will get moving.
And that is down to your rhythm section.

A number that never misses the mark..znd far from mainstream here...ie, never heard anyone else do it, is Bowie's Modern Love.

 

[PJorBoth]

In my experience if you can't jive to it, it ain't "danceable".

 

[IanStephenson]

I noticed in interesting trick related to this:

a "danceable" song must be instantly recognisable and catchy in the first bar.​

It doesn't how great the groove is, if it doesn't have a hook in the first bar, then it won't work as well.

What you're going for is the "I LOVE THIS SONG" reaction, which will get people out of their seats, but that only works in the first few seconds of the song. If they sit out the first verse, and only have that reaction when they get to the chorus, a minute later they'll say they love it, but they've missed the opportunity to get up - by the time they get to the dance floor the song is almost over so why bother.

If they have that same feeling when a new song starts they'll rush the dance floor. Best example I played recently "One and Only" (cheesy 1990's pop song - not your style. but works for us), starts with the sing along hook from the chorus, sung acapella. If anything the tempo is a little slower than is ideal, and the verse meanders a bit, and the only bit anyone remembers is that one line vocal hook, so its not the most danceable song in our set, but when that opening line goes out, they're knocking over tables and chairs to get to the dance floor.

 

[Nebadon2000]

I find it interesting that here any time Songs for set list or in this case Danceable almost always are from 50 to 60 years ago

I am 71 so played most of them when fairly new

Ther are a boatload of Danceable tunes in last 0 to 20 years and most of songs mentioned I liked but consider 'Dead Horse' songs now

If I were to Gig now would much prefer playing more modern music but know any Gig I would get will be full of Dead Horse tunes maybe I could get lucky and find band like I played with 2012 to 2015 did 80's New Wave also many 90's and 2k tunes

 

[MrWolf14]

Fully agree to what @IanStephenson just wrote.

I once heard an interview with Steve Stevens (Billy Idol's guitarist): and he said he was always looking for a "special thing" which made the song recognizable from the get-going.
Example: we play "White Wedding" and as soon as we get the "dist-guitar-harmonics-sweep" intro, everybody stands up.
Most of the audience doesn't know the song title yet, but their "Pavlovian Response" to that sound is "PARTY"

Further examples in my experience: Take on me, Under-Pressure, there are plenty - you get the point

YMMV of course, but in general these are the songs that are the easiest to make them work.

 

[LowActionHero]

I think more than certain songs being inherently “danceable”, it's about the crowd’s willingness to dance, which can vary from place to place and night to night. Every room falls somewhere on a spectrum from “they’ll dance to almost anything” (like they're out and they can't be stopped) to “they won’t dance at all and you can't make them,” with a middle ground being that the mood of the room where the willingness to dance can be shifted by the music.

At the extreme, I’ve notably (to me) seen full dance floors to Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times and another time to AC/DC - Get It Hot. Those people wanted to dance and song choice wasn’t going to stop them. Are those songs danceable? Well, technically, the evidence says they are. But by most definitions, that would be a "no".

Same songs, different room, different night, with a different crowd, and there would be no dancers.

We recently learned Billy Joel - Big Shot for a specific gig and just tossed it in on a regular bar gig last week earlier in the night, kind because it was freshly learned and people are less engaged. Turned out there were some “dance no matter what” folks and it was a bit painful watching them try to dance through the swing changes in that song but they did and were having fun...go figure.

It was always funny watching people try to dance to the intro of Whipping Post.

 

[pepj]

Imv, it defintely matters how great the groove is and whether the band can play one.
Some bands just play dull..even hits like Sledgehammer which would always qualify as hooky... they can make it sound like listening to paint dry.
(had recent experience on this when went see a mates band who are regarded as pretty popular)

This is why bands go for bangers...if the song wasn't so 'popular' they'd never get a reaction otherwise.
But if the band can play great grooves, the actual song choice doesn't matter...conversley, a band that can't will only have one card left to play.

 

[JazznFunk]

And, as in the aforementioned previous thread on this same topic, the demographics of the audience in question will guide you toward the 'danceable' songs.

 

[Runnerman]

Try playing the groove for Billie Jean or Beat It and they will run to the dance floor.
Many many more songs like that. We don't always like to play them as bass players, but they work.
You must have the old stuff in there to be considered a "dance" band.
You must have a few of the newer danceable tunes like "The Middle" and "Hard to handle" as well.

That said, you can get the Gen Xers moving to slow grunge songs like Shine, Man in the Box and Plush....which has me scratching my head sometimes.

Read the room, be ready to alter your set list, play what you don't like, and have enough content in your repertoire to actually do it.

 

[Nuisance]

Just wondering if I'm off bass here...

I see what you did there....

 

[WI Short Scaler]

What they will and what they won't is pretty hard to guess. @drpepper summed it up pretty well.

Every room falls somewhere on a spectrum from “they’ll dance to almost anything” (like they're out and they can't be stopped) to “they won’t dance at all and you can't make them,” with a middle ground being that the mood of the room where the willingness to dance can be shifted by the music.

Love Shack in one place fills the floor, the next it gets nothing. One venue we played often Ringo's No No Song filled the dance floor. There is no set formula I can find.

We just added Go All the Way and Second Hand News to our setlist which are both very fun to play. The last gig we played them for the first time back to back. It was a fundraiser Casino Night gig that we've done for several years. It's a little more than wallpaper music because we can see people singing along and clapping while playing black jack and roulette etc. But no one ever dances, until we decided to play those late in the evening back to back just because we wanted to. Bunch of folks took to the floor.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

It was always funny watching people try to dance to the intro of Whipping Post.

I always enjoyed watching dancers try to navigate "White Room".

BBB

 

[Nebadon2000]

It was always funny watching people try to dance to the intro of Whipping Post.

Just jerk head and body forward on the 1

 

[tothemax]

Good stuff,
When I started the thread, it was checking myself to see this might be a topic for next practice. The "Whipping Post" response sealed the deal, nope, keeping my thoughts to myself. Just be the bass player...

About Whipping Post, it is in our set and when I first learned it a couple of band mates kept showing me how to count out the 11/8 timing. Can I play it? Yep, can I count it out properly? Nope... maybe someday, might even come up with custom dance step...

 

[Solipsistik]

About Whipping Post, it is in our set and when I first learned it a couple of band mates kept showing me how to count out the 11/8 timing. Can I play it? Yep, can I count it out properly? Nope... maybe someday, might even come up with custom dance step...

Love the song, played it in a band a few years ago. Terrible bar song unless you have the right crowd. It was a band dictatorship, on the list also were Aqualung and Space Truckin' to name but two other questionable covers. That two octave run after the bridge is cool as hell, and both Whipping Post and Space Truckin' have one, in roughly the same spot. Bass & guitar combo runs were kind of his thing.

We get a great response from Radar Love and Twilight Zone, two long rythm-centric songs with a long bridge, both dancing and listening. My only concern is that sometimes a few people drop off from the length of the song.