Squeeze in one more song

[JeezyMcNuggles]

We've been asked to warm up the last summer show for a weekly festival for the same main act for 3 years in a row. Great exposure, enough pay to cover posters and website fees for the year. Great Production provided. a 1 hour gig that plays to between 18 and 20 thousand people.

The issue, The BL wants to squeeze in as many songs as possible. Our set list is actually timed out to within a couple of seconds on each song and we usually are within a minute on an 1 hour set. BUT... I hear that "every week the warm up bands go over time", "it's not a big deal" and "we'll leave it in the set list and if we're running short we can play it". The reality, I bet if we leave it in, we'll play it and end out starting a song after we're supposed to be done. So what do I do, I can be a bit of a prick about time and am friends with guys in the main act.

Dont do it dude. Go over, and you're cutting into everyone else's time. Do a good job, make everyone happy, and it might be you headlining next time. Get off the stage quick too, because that also eats time. Up quick, play well, down quick, and they'll call you back.

 

[swafran]

It's about how you go over, not how many songs you get to cram in. I'd say go with the flow, if you feel pressure to end on time, end on time. You're getting exposure to a bigger band's crowd, and get a gig you didn't have to land... I like opening, don't mind being given a schedule.

 

[MCS4]

Never try to squeeze in one more song. It doesn't make any real difference to your set, and there is a very real chance that you will burn a bridge or two. Meanwhile, if the show is already running late (as they often do), you can sometimes score major brownie points if you can give back a few minutes by getting on and off the stage efficiently and keeping your time under the limit.

 

[HolmeBass]

Definitely don't go over. Not even a minute or two. It is rude and self-centered.

We played a small outdoor benefit for a radio station two Saturdays ago headlining a 4-band bill. The he first two bands were right on the money. The third band was a community African drum choir, so totally amateur hour.

Before they went on I asked how long they'd play and the person responded 45 minutes to an hour. Well, in one hour was when we were supposed to start.

With 3 minutes left to go an hour, they say this is our last song. But each song was well over 5 minutes long. Oh well. But then after they finished that, the head dude launched into a little speech that took 4 mins, *then he said, "This is our last song"*. They went a solid 15 mins over, and then they were very slow getting off stage. Totally amateurish and quite annoying. Our 2 one-hour sets got whittled down to one 90 minute set. They were annoyingly oblivious.

Don't be like them. Be considerate for when it's your turn to headline. As for this drum choir, they will never get a break, compliment, or anything from me. They blew it in a very self-absorbed and obnoxious way.

 

[SactoBass]

Going over in a situation like the one you're describing is the mark of an amateur.

Pros start on the dot and end on the dot if they're not a headliner.

Tell your bandleader to stop behaving like he's some hotshot wannabe going to a "battle of the bands.

Play to the best of your ability and end on time. If the promoters are impressed enough with the audience reaction - and they have some slack in the stage schedule to fill - they'll send you out for an encore number. But let that be THEIR call. (And don't hold your breath.)

^^^THIS.....THIS......and more THIS^^^

 

[SactoBass]

Definitely don't go over. Not even a minute or two. It is rude and self-centered.

Bada-bing!

 

[SactoBass]

(1) Know your place. (2) Don't pester anybody. (3) Speak only when spoken to.(4) Play, get off the stage, and then get lost.

Big +1

Sometimes it's difficult to get a BL to realize that the world is not quite as much in love with him as he is.

(To be clear, I'm not saying *ALL* BL's are that way. Good BL's have enough experience to know better. But I *AM* saying that I've worked with enough of them to know that some of them live in a self-centered ego-infested fantasy world, and life is way too short to put up with such crappola.)

 

[BAG]

I forgot to add something just in case your BL won't take notice of the overwhelming advice you have received here.......







DON'T GO OVERTIME!!!!

 

[cerrem]

Seriously.... answer me this ...
What difference is one extra song going to make ????
No difference if your a warm-up band....
Maybe the BL needs more ego stroking a bit longer.....
Trust me.... When you run "On-Time" nobody will say a word.... They are silently happy and appreciate it....
The minute you " run-over" time.....you may not hear anything, but there will be bitching by the crew and it will get back to the stage manager for the main act....and they will not appreciate it..
By the time it back to the band...it may be a bit too late....
Best to be professional and do your job then get the F$%K off the stage when your suppose to ....and don't ruin a good thing you got going.....

 

[markoc]

Most venues here in California have a hard shut down time due to noise ordinances, alcohol sales etc. I'm playing a festival this weekend with nine bands playing the main stage. If everyone plays over their time slot even ten minutes, the last band will be playing well over an hour late and / or someone is going to get bumped.
Get set up as quickly as possible and they may let you start a few minutes early. To me the only thing worse than playing long is taking your time to get off the stage when you're done.

 

[Rebel Rocker]

I'd say if at all possible, don't go over.

If you play a great set, that last song isn't going to make or break your impression on the crowd.

However, it will risk hurting your rep with the venue & headliners. Probably not a huge deal if you start a song with 4 minutes left and you go a minute over, but starting a song after your time is up is definitely a no no, w/o express permission from the production team. Shows disrespect to all other parties involved, and just looks unprofessional.

I know it's rock and roll, but given the chance, the venue will hire the band that puts on a great show & respects their rules every time over a great band who already think they're rockstars.

Just my 2 cents, but I don't think it's worth the risk.

Just your 2 cents worth is very good advice. I agree with everything you said. It's about respect.

 

[cerrem]

Most venues here in California have a hard shut down time due to noise ordinances, alcohol sales etc. I'm playing a festival this weekend with nine bands playing the main stage. If everyone plays over their time slot even ten minutes, the last band will be playing well over an hour late and / or someone is going to get bumped.
Get set up as quickly as possible and they may let you start a few minutes early. To me the only thing worse than playing long is taking your time to get off the stage when you're done.

Hey...thats funny you mention that.... since your from North County San Diego...like me from RB.......This past Saturday night I played at Brick-by-Brick with 5 other bands.... All the bands were helping each other load an un-load... It was great ... All the bands started and stopped on time... The change-over was 15 minutes for the band to clear off and next band on ready to play.... The point is that when bands help each other things go way better....

 

[Verb the Noun]

My very first gig ever we acted like clowns. I think I was 18 yo and had no clue what the heck we were doing. During my sound check I roared into the mic. Funny how feed back from my friends afterwards was "We couldn't really hear you". Second to last song sound guy walks to foot of stage and gives me the throat cut motion. We finish song, drummer starts four count for our finale. Got maybe a bar or two into intro before lights went down and power was cut. We never played there again.

This coming month my band is opening for Dead Daisies on the 13th. Bet yer arse I'll be respectful during sound check and we will be doing everything in our power to impress the promoter and headlining act. I second what has been said repeatedly in this thread, time your set to end a bit early. Your overall act will be more relaxed if you aren't trying to cram songs and you will never have to cut your finale.

 

[Verb the Noun]

This past Saturday night I played at Brick-by-Brick

Super weird you were typing that post at the same time I was typing mine. That is the venue of my up-coming gig. =P

 

[TheReceder]

View attachment 3130203



irrelevant!

To me it's relevant. The last thing I want to do is look unprofessional in front of a very talented friend.

 

[TheReceder]

I just want to say thanks for the responses, admittedly the majority support how I feel. The only question left is will the BL listen to what a couple hundred bassists say any more than they'd listen to one.

I'll do a follow up after the show.

 

[TheReceder]

Perhaps you and the OP are coming from a bigger league, but the headliner bands we're playing WITH are just a notch or two above us (and often in bars or smaller clubs they prefer to play the sweet spot ~ 2nd of 3 bands.)

The OP didn't say if this is a festival with a popular local talent being the headliner, but yea... i agree in this case that size does matter. You're not likely to get within 50 feet of Dave Grohl with the Foo Fighters, but Krist Novaselic sure was nice and made it a point to talk to us before and after we opened for them with their recently started band Giants In The Trees. And good luck getting anywhere near that Kurt Cobain feller in this lifetime

We're no where near big league, it's more a case that the event planners have gotten VERY good at putting on a quality show by bringing in good local main acts. We're a small step above most of the local bar bands but far from being something that would be considered exceptional. More a case of our being in the right place and knowing the right people at the right time.

 

[Nevada Pete]

I will usually talk to the stage manager before the set, and request a 10 minute warning signal to which we will both agree on.

Many stages with festival action usually have a large clock somewhere on the stage and you are supposed to know what time you are supposed to be OFF the stage.

Again, I will check with the stage manager and verify that those times are correct, especially if other bands are going over their times.

on a fest I did this summer with my surf band, the stage manager was upset with other bands for blowing the schedule out of whack. I offered to cut our set from 1 hr down to 45 min to help things flow along. Dude said, "You do that and next year you will be direct support."

So we cut two songs, shortened the jam parts a little and now have a good relationship with someone who is deeply connected to this festival.

This!!!!

 

[Chango Malo]

an old band I played with back east used to do the local TV morning show several times a year. You've seen the deal, local morning show has a popular local band on to play the bumpers and fade outs, plus a brief 2-3 minute tune a couple times during the 1.5 hour show. One of our buds outside the band was a camera operator for the station and passed along some advice before the first time we were on: When they say 20 seconds, they mean 20 seconds, don't run it up to 25. 30 seconds means 30 seconds. If they want 2:30 give em exactly that. Smile. Don't try to be funny or get cute with racy lines. Don't wear solid black or tiny patterns that the cameras can't reproduce well. Green is a bad color at a TV station in front of cameras. And since Barry was a super nice guy, we took his advice. We went in with a handful of 20 and 30 second bumpers and gave the producer a list and let him pick what he wanted where. We had all our instruments down to DI's with no speaker cabs. The station staff was blown away that our 20 and 30 second bumpers were all exactly 20 or 30 seconds long and out 2:30 second tune was 2:30 seconds long. The producer and his assistant both came down to the studio several times that morning to remark on how easy it was to work with us and how it was really making the show flow into and out of commercials easy. And what a pain in the ass every other band that they had in there on Friday mornings was to deal with. No one could ever nail the bumpers and they always had to cut the band off where we actually nailed an ending and smiled for the cameras as we played. Well, our bass player made the face, but he had a pocket that went down to his shoes so he got a pass. So he booked us for 6 weeks later. When we did it the next time the band was invited to use the staff green room and was even given access to the donuts, bagels, and beverage services. The camera guys were all glad to see us and the on air folks said they were glad that we were back and had been looking forward to this friday's show for weeks. We played that morning show nearly every month for the next three years because we could tell time.

 

[BAG]

an old band I played with back east used to do the local TV morning show several times a year. You've seen the deal, local morning show has a popular local band on to play the bumpers and fade outs, plus a brief 2-3 minute tune a couple times during the 1.5 hour show. One of our buds outside the band was a camera operator for the station and passed along some advice before the first time we were on: When they say 20 seconds, they mean 20 seconds, don't run it up to 25. 30 seconds means 30 seconds. If they want 2:30 give em exactly that. Smile. Don't try to be funny or get cute with racy lines. Don't wear solid black or tiny patterns that the cameras can't reproduce well. Green is a bad color at a TV station in front of cameras. And since Barry was a super nice guy, we took his advice. We went in with a handful of 20 and 30 second bumpers and gave the producer a list and let him pick what he wanted where. We had all our instruments down to DI's with no speaker cabs. The station staff was blown away that our 20 and 30 second bumpers were all exactly 20 or 30 seconds long and out 2:30 second tune was 2:30 seconds long. The producer and his assistant both came down to the studio several times that morning to remark on how easy it was to work with us and how it was really making the show flow into and out of commercials easy. And what a pain in the ass every other band that they had in there on Friday mornings was to deal with. No one could ever nail the bumpers and they always had to cut the band off where we actually nailed an ending and smiled for the cameras as we played. Well, our bass player made the face, but he had a pocket that went down to his shoes so he got a pass. So he booked us for 6 weeks later. When we did it the next time the band was invited to use the staff green room and was even given access to the donuts, bagels, and beverage services. The camera guys were all glad to see us and the on air folks said they were glad that we were back and had been looking forward to this friday's show for weeks. We played that morning show nearly every month for the next three years because we could tell time.

THIS ^^^ is what being professional is all about.
If you'd been two seconds longer with a bumper the last big note would not have made it to air. Make the crew's life easy and they'll be the ones telling the powers-that-be to re-hire you.