Typical Set - breaks during 3&4 hour gigs???

[two fingers]

I play with lots of bands. (I do mostly fill-ins these days.) They all do either 3-45s or 2-90s.

 

[Mystic Michael]

My band has just finished getting our set list together and starting to book shows. We have a little disagreement over what will be considered "acceptable" for a 3 hour or 4 hour gig as far as how many sets, break time and so on. We are a progressive metal band playing in smaller to medium sized clubs. Please pass along what you find to be the norm for your band and in your area.

The standard is 45 minutes of playing time + 15 minutes of break time per set. Three sets = three hours. Four sets = four hours. I've never visited - or performed in - a club when/where this was not the case.

Thanks to everyone who shares their thoughts!!! Looking forward to hearing lots of ideas here to see what's going on out there.

I don't see how any additional "ideas" are required. This is pretty cut & dried.

MM

 

[guy n. cognito]

The standard is 45 minutes of playing time + 15 minutes of break time per set. Three sets = three hours. Four sets = four hours. I've never visited - or performed in - a club when/where this was not the case.



I don't see how any additional "ideas" are required. This is pretty cut & dried.

MM

Here, it's 3 sets for 4 hours and 2 sets for 3 hours. Actually, that's pretty standard in every market I've ever played.

 

[BassyBill]

It would seem very odd to me to see a metal band play four 45 minute sets.

Our soul/funk band nearly always plays just two set of between 50 and 60 minutes with a break of at least 30 minutes in between. We gernerally try to make the first set shorter and the last set longer as that's when more people are up dancing. Very occasionally, we will play three 45 minute sets if that's asked for at the booking stage. The horn players couldn't really cope with any more.

 

[Munjibunga]

40 on, 20 off is the norm around here. Sometimes 45 / 15 but we'll push it.

One thing that IS a drag is gig that go from the top of the hour to the top of the hour like 9-1 you end up playing an hour set at some point to get the show to stop on the hour instead of 20 till'

On those gigs I like to run a "long hour" You play 45 then take 20 so the start time gets pushed 5 minutes each set and at the end of the night you start at quarter after and play to the hour.

There are a couple of bands around here that play non-stop but, they don't get a premium price or any booking advantage that I know of

I like to play the one-hour set either first or second so the fourth set is not the long one.

 

[Stone Soup]

We do three one hour sets with two half hour breaks. I think I want to change that. We used to do a 1 1/2 hour first set with a 1/2 hour break, then a 1 hour second set with a 20 minute break, then the third set would last about 40 minutes. I think the longer first set holds the crowd a bit better.

 

[steveksux]

Generally we do 40 on 20 off, or 60 on 30 off. Same ratio of break/playing. Or whatever the club expects...

extend sets here and there as necessary to end up at the right time when those sets don't line up with the start/end times.

I like the longer sets, seems to keep the crowd dancing, but the longer breaks can leak crowds on the other hand.

Randy

 

[Nephilymbass]

I can't imagine a band of that style playing that long. A radio rock cover band maybe. But wether its progressive metal or any other kind of heavy music your show will suffer the longer it is. Even when we were younger and all in pretty good shape at the same time the longest we played was an hour and 45 minutes. I'm not saying people can't play longer but I'm pretty sure it would make for a pretty boring performance.