Gig Pacing

[basscentric]

Hi everyone.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for pacing a set at a bar. We playing 8:30-9:45pm set on a Friday. Our last few gigs have gone well but I'd love to hear from your experiences. I'm thinking about suggesting that we start off slow and trippy and work are way into more fast funkier tunes.
What do you all think?

 

[McHaven]

Well my band likes to get people's attention. When we set up we don't make alot of noise and try to go unnoticed. Once we're ready, guitarist hits a giant, loud A5 and people definetly start listening.

We usually play the catchiest, most liked songs first and then our weaker songs in the middle and then end with a bang.

If you ever get worried about time and thinking you're ending too soon just jam out a song. People seem to love a "Sunshine of your love" jam.

 

[Indi86]

I think Nettor hit it right on the money. We like to start out fast and loud, bring it down for the middle, get new material out in the 3rd quarter, and end with a favorite. It seems to work well enough.

 

[Peter Squire]

Yeah, with only a 45 minute set, you could really just fire all the way.

Pacing is interesting, though.

One trick I have learned down the years is to lay it back a bit after playing some dancey, upbeat songs. The crowd will be dancing, and then they get tired and THIRSTY!! Thats exactly what the bar owner wants, and why he pays you in the first place.

Give the audience time to go to the bar and watch how many more gigs you will get booked!

Good luck!

 

[baba]

That's a pretty short window, so I'd suggest firing with all cannons from start to finish. Open fast and funky and then keep them grooving. Unless the crowd is full of stoned hippies, leave out the slow and trippy stuff. Your average bar go-er wants up beat party music....and so do most owners because it sells more alcohol.

 

[basscentric]

Thanks for everyone's input. I myself am a big supporter of starting off strong and upbeat putting the slower stuff in the middle and finishing up really strong.

With earlier start times, however, the bar isn't starting to really to fill up until we have been on stage for 20 mins. We have recently stacked our best strong stuff to the end of the show and that has worked well. I was thinking maybe of starting with some slower trippier stuff that's still captivating and working are way up to more upbeat and funkier songs. We do a prettty interesting version of Wayne SHorter's footprints which i have been thinking about as a first song. Last time we started with "Spoonful" and it worked really well. I just like to vary the setlists a little bit (for the 6 fans who regularly go...lol!). What do you all think?

We have an audio file of footprints on our website. Link Removed.

 

[Ethon]

Unless the crowd is full of stoned hippies, leave out the slow and trippy stuff.

That's what most of our draw is lol

 

[baba]

That's what most of our draw is lol

That's definitely a large part of our audience as well.