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How do you buy time on stage?

#141
Anthony Lap said:
Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding but my question wasn’t only about that one song or C tuning, it was more asking for an “everyday tool”, something that you can use at a given time to fill up time, regardless of the reasons why.
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I've never experienced the need to fill in time. Gaps in performance are not usually enjoyed by the audience. Always thought it unprofessional. However, I've been watching Vulfpeck concerts recently and they do it all the time. Have a look.
 
#143
Our singer was pretty good at filling gaps between songs and interacting with the crowd. I was his backup when he would need a break, or there was a longer tech pause, etc. I have done a lot of theater and a bit of stand-up comedy, so it is in my wheelhouse. I would come to the gigs with a half dozen jokes or funny anecdotes from the the news etc. I had a "reminder sheet" that would get taped to the stage, right next to the song list. These were just phrases to bump my memory. I needed this because despite all the prep, with stage adrenaline going, it was easy to forget a couple.

I had to correct the singer one night. Guitar player was fussing with issues, and he says, "hey, tell the crowd a joke". That's not how comedy works. Start like that and you are already doomed to half the laughs you would have gotten with some genuine surprise. "Hey, talk to the crowd" is a better cue.
 
#145
Make the next song "My City Was Gone", and extend the bass/drum intro as long as necessary. You'll please both Pretenders fans and Rush Limbaugh fans (it's his theme song), which in itself would be quite a feat.
 
#147
Robby Sturgis said:
The only legitimate fill-space intro is Ramble On by Zed Zeppelin from their second LP. Listen underneath the acoustic guitar into: a fabulous bass riff and some flat-palm percussion setting the mood and waiting for a lyric as find as the first paragraph in a classic literary work: “the leaves are falling all around, it was time I was on my way. Thanks to you I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay. But now it’s time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way. And now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it’s headed my way.”

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Really? The ONLY legit one?
 
#148
Anthony Lap said:
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.
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Do you have a keyboardist, or any other non-guitar instruments? Aside from just doing a song where the guitar(or at least what that particular guitarist is playing)is not a focal
point, what about extended keyboard(or whatever)intros, like the(second)Jeff Beck Group’s cover of “Goin’ Down”, the live piano intro of “Free Bird”(yeah, I know), Tull’s “Locomotive Breath”, the Stone’s “Sympathy For The Devil”, not necessarily those songs, but tunes of that ilk.
 

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