How does your band choose repertoire?

[kartiste]

In my band, a song has a much better chance of getting in if the guy proposing it is also planning on singing it.

 

[Obese Chess]

very carefully

 

[brianrost]

I've never been in a band with ballots and votes and other such "rules". People just bring songs in, we start learning them and if they feel and sound good we keep them.

 

[fhm555]

"I couldn't find a decent recording of it, man."

"I could only find the live version."

"I must have spelled it wrong."

"I thought you were joking."

"Is there even a bassline in that song?"

"That sucks"

"You are joking, right?"

"Sorry, i don't have a fiver."

"So when are we playing the old folks home?"

"The drummer said he's quitting if we have to do this one."

 

[socialleper]

We have never had a set time long enough to play one of our albums all the way through, so we always have to pick and chose. We think about the venue and the bands we are playing with, then try to pick songs that will fit the vibe of the night. Then we do the math. If we only have 30 minutes, we have to chose shorter songs so we can get the most in.

 

[Korladis]

We have never had a set time long enough to play one of our albums all the way through, so we always have to pick and chose. We think about the venue and the bands we are playing with, then try to pick songs that will fit the vibe of the night. Then we do the math. If we only have 30 minutes, we have to chose shorter songs so we can get the most in.

When we only had the one 40 minute long song, at our earliest shows, we specifically asked to open so that we could start a little early to fit it all on.

 

[electracoyote]

I once joined a garage rock band that had about 6-8 songs each on the master playlist by The Beatles, The Stones, and Elvis. At least 1/3 of the list, the most well-known and loved titles, and then some. We didn't play them all at every show, but I thought we had those three artists pretty well covered. We had gigs on the books, we sounded good, so I went with the flow and learned the playlist and sang about 80% of the leads.

At one band meeting, the BL says, "I have a few more Beatles, Stones, and Elvis tunes we should learn." I looked at him like he had two heads. Of all the great popular crowd-pleasing garage rock songs out there that we still hadn't added, the last thing we needed was more of those three artists.

I didn't last much longer in that project. I'm way too audience-centered to cater to one musician's pet songs and fantasies--not even my own.

 

[PauFerro]

I have found the reaction above is very common. There seems to be a threshold of about 3 songs per artist/group, beyond which the band balks at any more from that artist. The exception seems to be in jazz where they will play Miles Davis, Coltrane and Parker for days on end.

 

[tmdazed]

it usually comes down to what will make panties moistest

 

[Miker27607]

I have two bands. The first one is solely driven by what is popular. We pick tunes that our singer can deliver. Lots of Motown, and swinging Rock and Roll songs. My other band does songs we have chosen because we love them, Iron Maiden, Jeff Beck, classical music that we rock out on, Hendrix, show tunes we've turned into instrumental rockers, whatever turns us on. I love having both bands because they each fulfill different artistic needs.

 

[Miker27607]

the first time i was in a band that played covers, i remember it going like this:

me: i want to do toucha toucha toucha touch me from the rocky horror picture show.
rob: okay. sounds like fun. let's do a song from hair.
me: how about air?
rob: how does that song go?
me: sings a little of it.
rob: perfect!
michael: i think we should do i wanna be your dog from iggy pop.
us: okay, let's go for it!

and so on. to be fair, that was years ago, but our audiences seemed to have a blast, and we tried to keep the songs danceable.

I think I would love your band!

 

[Guiseppe]

How does your band select which new songs you're going to prepare for gigs? I'm looking for ideas and what works best for others.

Our band members each bring forward five candidate songs then secret ballots are cast and the top five make the cut. The voting process is online and managed by our lead guitarist. I'm looking for selection methods that 1) work well for others, and 2) hopefully provide better transparency.

And yeah, a little part of me wants to know who picked "Wagon Wheel" over "Jim Dandy" or "Hey Bartender".

I think the secret vote sounds like a good idea.

 

[mstillman]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a band performing a 40-minute song.

Or 18 minutes.

Basically, anything beyond, say, 5 minutes.

 

[Indexed]

Lots of good ideas here. We have another selection coming up, I'm gonna throw "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror into the mix.

 

[Korladis]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a band performing a 40-minute song.

Or 18 minutes.

Basically, anything beyond, say, 5 minutes.

Start playing, and 40 minutes later, stop playing.

In my genre, 18 minute songs are not that unusual.