How do you buy time on stage?

[lat]

If you have a one-off song that requires retuning, you can put it at the end of a set, but another guitar is the ultimate solution.

 

[nomaj]

An old band I was in, did I say OLD, used to do "Toad" by Cream and leave the drummer to do his thing. He could go about 15-20 minutes. We would leave the stage...

And stagger back. ;-)

 

[overit]

Have the singer tell some jokes.

 

[Tnavis]

It really depends on what type of venue/music is being played. Ideally a guitar set up for just that tuning is gonna save the most time, but even for switching out guitars there needs to be something to fill dead air. I've really grown to dislike the whole "stage banter" or jokes bit; a lot of the time it can't be heard, and it while everyone thinks they're great at it they're really just... not. In previous bands I put various spoken word/movie dialogue/ambient sounds audio into a Loopstation (or you can have a drummer trigger it from a sample pad).

 

[EmuBass]

You play a little MM medley like this:
Brings you FOUR minutes.
People who don't like bass or MM can get a beer instead.

 

[micguy]

This may be the one situation where, dare I say it, robotuners make sense.

 

[HardNHeavy]

yep...2nd guitar or does someone know how to juggle, ventriloquist or magic tricks?

 

[5StringBlues]

 

[Highroler79]

You play a little MM medley like this:
Brings you FOUR minutes.
People who don't like bass or MM can get a beer instead.

Davie, is he on Talkbass?

 

[nickpc]

Do you have any examples of songs with long bass intros?

Any song with a long intro can work, where you can build in the different instruments until the guitarist is ready to come in. Basically every song on The Cure's Disintegration has long intros that would work. Depending on what other instruments you have in the band you can do a buildup on Fascination Street that could last 4-5 minutes (or even 45 minutes!) - let the guitarist retune and when they come in you can continue the song.

 

[chuck1073]

As has been said so many times already, if your guitarist can't have another instrument on hand to make the swap quickly and you're risking loosing your dance floor, drop the song. It's already hard enough to keep a crowd engaged. Shooting yourself in the foot for one song isn't worth it.

 

[thetragichero]

jokes from the band are pretty much anyways lame, sometimes highly inappropriate as they're inside jokes/originated at rehearsal
I've got a looper full of tv/movie samples to give a breather between songs without dead time

 

[Aidenn7]

solo's before break. solo to cover a solo. solo at end of show. past the cup for a charity or tips. thank you list.

 

[TrevorR]

It's the guitarist's fault, let them fix it.
Bring second guitar for that one song.
Learn to solo in standard tuning.
Cut the song.

If the band must fix the issue, learn a song that does not require the guitarist, have them Get a tuning pedal with mute and sit out for a song.

Well, those two options just about wrap up the thread, then...

 

[DavC]

Grand Funk ... play and sing it ..!! everybody can catch up later ... ' Some kind of Wonderful '


i like sharing some factoids about the next song coming up ... who wrote it , when , where it charted , etc ...

announce upcoming stuff going on at the venue , or drink specials , and --- tip ..!!

 

[fabubass]

DEFINITELY 3 Guitars on Stage, two in standard tuning as a back up if there is a string break and the 3rd guitar for that special Open C Tuning Song! Tuning, putting strings on in between songs would never fly on a Pro Gig!

 

[Blaze Barlow]

Hello folks,
I don’t like noodling around between songs but there are situations where you might have to “buy time” on stage for other band members (re-tuning, broken strings, fired the drummer and need to find a replacement, etc.). In our actual set list, our guitarist does a solo song in Open C tuning and needs time to retune his guitar after. I would love to hear ideas, favourites songs or techniques that you guys use it to fill up time with bass only while waiting for the rest of the band.

I saw a very good and upcoming band..and they had this technique where they never had dead air between songs..in between songs..a member of the band would play a few repetitive notes...that would lead right into the next song..and each song it was a different member taking the lead..I thought it was very good..kept the action going..and made the band look and sound very professional in my opinion...........the show was extremely tight..and the crowd liked the action..

 

[BassBrass]

Everyone love a good HAMBONE

 

[MCS4]

One of our guitarists has some interlude music and audio clips stored in a JamMan pedal. Anyone who has been to a bunch of rock/metal shows has probably seen acts that use clips of synths, other music, or random audio samples as intros to some of their songs or even during their songs (sometimes queued up with a JamMan or similar pedal), so if we need to buy a short amount of time he'll kick one of those on and as far as the audience can tell the sound clip is an intentional lead-in to the next tune.

 

[foal30]

I regale the audience with my deeply personal long standing health issues