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Whats your setlist?

JRuben

Guest
Jun 9, 2015
37
20
29
New jersey
I formed a band recently and we mainly do classic rock covers. I'm trying to put together a setlist but my main problem is I don't know how long it should be. We wanna play at bars and make a bit of cash. Whats a good length for a setlist in this situation? Also I'm curious as to what your setlist are for reference.
This is mine currently and its about 50 minutes, Cliff is our only original so far. Please share your thoughts and be as critical as need be:
  • Lap of The Gods (intro) / Stone Cold Crazy
  • “Introduce”
  • Run to The Hills
  • Cliff
  • Paranoid
  • Freewill
  • Paint it Black / War Pigs
  • Somebody to Love
  • Guitar solo / Little Wing
  • YYZ / Limelight
  • Closer to The Heart
  • We Will Rock You (fast)
  • Having a Party
  • “Exit”
 
Modern country here- no particular order...

Pontoon
Good Girl
Kerosene
Two Black Cadillacs
Cowboy Casanova
Little Red Wagon
Red High Heels
Little Bit Gypsy
Here For The Party
Redneck Woman
Done
Automatic
God Fearing Women
Slow Me Down
This One's For The Girls
Turn On The Radio
Real Fine Place
Stupid
Step Off
Follow Your Arrow
Chainsaw
Day Drinking
 
When I was doing classic rock, 4 sets of about 12-13 songs was normal.

My current setlist however, I don't think will help you much.

Set 1
Hello hooray - segue into Serious
Department of youth
Eighteen
I wish I was born in Beverley hills
Go to hell
Welcome to my nightmare segue to Cold Ethyl
Elected
The awakening segue to From the inside
Wish you were here
Devils food
Be my lover

Set 2
Years ago
Billion dollar babies
Muscle of love
Only women bleed segue to I never cry segue to The Black widow
You and me
Sick things segue to Is it my body
Guilty
Poison
No more Mr nice guy
Under my wheels
Escape
Schools out
 
I formed a band recently and we mainly do classic rock covers. I'm trying to put together a setlist but my main problem is I don't know how long it should be. We wanna play at bars and make a bit of cash. Whats a good length for a setlist in this situation? Also I'm curious as to what your setlist are for reference.
This is mine currently and its about 50 minutes, Cliff is our only original so far. Please share your thoughts and be as critical as need be:
  • Lap of The Gods (intro) / Stone Cold Crazy
  • “Introduce”
  • Run to The Hills
  • Cliff
  • Paranoid
  • Freewill
  • Paint it Black / War Pigs
  • Somebody to Love
  • Guitar solo / Little Wing
  • YYZ / Limelight
  • Closer to The Heart
  • We Will Rock You (fast)
  • Having a Party
  • “Exit”

You're going to need a lot more, to start - cover gigs are normally three hour-long sets with 15 minute breaks between. That's fairly standard, anyway, varies a bit from venue to venue and different states and municipalities have different rules about last call times or noise ordinances. So that means 10-15 tunes per set depending on how long the tunes are and how much time you waste in between chatting and tuning.

Can you explain what's up with where you have / ? is that some kind of medley of two tunes? Or does it mean a choice between two songs?

You have four Rush songs there. My rule of thumb is not to plan on playing more than two tunes by any one artist. Otherwise you start morphing into a tribute band, which is different territory. It's fine to have more in the repertoire, and if people in the crowd start asking for more Rush (or anything else) be ready to play the others, but keep it to two in your planned list for the night.

What's "Having a Party?" I'm pulling a blank on that one, a search is giving me tunes by Luther Vandross, Sam Cooke, or the Osmonds. Doesn't seem to fit the rest of the list, but maybe you have your own way of doing it. Are "Introduce" and "Exit" tunes or just reminders to self?

Overall, it's a list of fairly heavy and older tunes and not a lot of opportunities to dance. I can see it going over with a middle-aged-and-older crowd that mostly wants to sit and drink - biker and trucker bars, legion halls, that kind of thing.

What's your singer's range? Can they pull off Geddy Lee in the original key and still sound good? If so, then to go with that list I would add some Zeppelin, probably some Cream, a Janis Joplin tune or two, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Bad Company, Deep Purple, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Grand Funk Railroad.
 
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My 10 man big band "Billy and The Achy Breaky Heart Jam Band Club Society" only got one song on our set list which is of course Billy Ray Cyrus's - Achy Breaky Heart, which we do hours long avantgarde jams over. :bassist:

We have all let out hair grow long in the back and gathered it in a pony tail to get the look. :D

You would think that there wasn't an audience for such a thing, and that people would start to leave quickly, but we figured out that it's only a matter of how much we spike the free welcome drinks to get people to stay.
 
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We routinely play 45 songs during 3 hour(ish) long sets over a 4 hour period. We know ~70 songs and while we typically play the same 45 right now, we will substitute from the remaining songs if the mood strikes and/or the crowd requests something. Here is ours:

  1. You Wreck Me
  2. Soul For Every Cowboy
  3. I Wanna Drive the Zamboni
  4. Punk Folsom Prison Blues
  5. What I Got?
  6. Help Me Make It Through The Night
  7. Stupid Boy
  8. Aw Naw
  9. Can't You See
  10. Runaway Train
  11. Circle
  12. Runaway
  13. Little Sister
  14. Wonderful Tonight
  15. Casualties
  16. Mary Jane's Last Dance
  17. Blister in the Sun
  18. I Need To Know
  19. Bittersweet
  20. Last Kiss
  21. Broken Hearted Savior
  22. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?
  23. Swingin'
  24. Back 2 Good
  25. Green River
  26. My Kinda Party
  27. Rockin' In The Free World
  28. Alabama
  29. Sweet Home Alabama
  30. You Can't Always Get What You...
  31. 3AM
  32. Wolves
  33. Simple Man
  34. Roadhouse Blues
  35. She Talks To Angels
  36. Color Of Her Eyes
  37. Turn the Page
  38. I'm Eighteen
  39. Breakup Song
  40. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
  41. Wanna Rock & Roll
  42. Smoke
  43. Take A Little Ride
  44. Way Too Long
  45. American Girl
 
I'll bite... we are definitely 'Classic Rock'

Rocky Mountain Way – Joe Walsh
Hard Sun – Eddie Vedder
Blow at High Dough – Tragically Hip
Rain on the Scarecrow – John Mellancamp
Jumpin' Jack Flash – Rolling Stones
6th Avenue Heartache – The Wallflowers
High And Dry – Radiohead
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
Better Man – Eddie Vedder
Born on the Bayou – CCR
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynard Skynard
Honky Tonk Woman – Rolling Stones
The One I Love – REM
Mary Jane's Last Dance – Tom Petty
7 Nation Army – The White Stripes
Whiskey in the Jar – Gary Moore/Thin Lizzy
Lost Together – Blue Rodeo
My Old Friend the Blues – Steve Earle (acoustic)
Knockin' on Heaven's Door – Bob Dylan/G&R
Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Sweet Jane – Lou Reed
Susie Q – CCR
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me – Warren Zevon
Takin' Care of Business – BTO
Bad Moon Rising – CCR
The WeightThe Band
Time of Your Life – Green Day (acoustic)
The Wall – Pink Floyd
You Can't Always Get What You Want – Rolling Stones
 
You're going to need a lot more, to start - cover gigs are normally three hour-long sets with 15 minute breaks between. That's fairly standard, anyway, varies a bit from venue to venue and different states and municipalities have different rules about last call times or noise ordinances. So that means 10-15 tunes per set depending on how long the tunes are and how much time you waste in between chatting and tuning.

Can you explain what's up with where you have / ? is that some kind of medley of two tunes? Or does it mean a choice between two songs?

You have four Rush songs there. My rule of thumb is not to plan on playing more than two tunes by any one artist. Otherwise you start morphing into a tribute band, which is different territory. It's fine to have more in the repertoire, and if people in the crowd start asking for more Rush (or anything else) be ready to play the others, but keep it to two in your planned list for the night.

What's "Having a Party?" I'm pulling a blank on that one, a search is giving me tunes by Luther Vandross, Sam Cooke, or the Osmonds. Doesn't seem to fit the rest of the list, but maybe you have your own way of doing it. Are "Introduce" and "Exit" tunes or just reminders to self?

Overall, it's a list of fairly heavy and older tunes and not a lot of opportunities to dance. I can see it going over with a middle-aged-and-older crowd that mostly wants to sit and drink - biker and trucker bars, legion halls, that kind of thing.

What's your singer's range? Can they pull off Geddy Lee in the original key and still sound good? If so, then to go with that list I would add some Zeppelin, probably some Cream, a Janis Joplin tune or two, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Bad Company, Deep Purple, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Grand Funk Railroad.
The / is for a medley. And having a party is by southside johnny and the asbury jukes. Not his best song but a good ending song. Thank you for the advice, ill look into those other bands.
 
This is what we played at our most recent show

Set 1
I kissed a girl (Jazzy intro)
Impression that I get
Take me out
Superstition
Play that funky music
Long train running
Send me on my way
Ants marching
All of these things I've done
Sugar
Heartbeat song
Shake it off
Hey ya
All about that bass
Get lucky
Locked out of heaven

Set 2
Shut up and dance
Crazy in love
Uptown funk
Give me everything
Dj got us falling in love
Timber
Dynamite
Just dance
Billy Jean
Moves like jagger
Treasure
Blurred lines
Baby got back
Push it
It's tricky
Jump around

Set 3
Run around sue
Twist N Shout
Do you love me
Shout
Blister in the sun
Laid
Forget you
Semi charmed life
FlagPole Sitta
Bye bye bye
Everybody
Summer 69
Your love
Build me up buttercup
American Girl
Sweet Caroline
 
I cant find an electronic copy of my Classic Rock/Dance band.

My duo is very busy. We do oldies, beach music, country, classic rock. I sing everything in the duo.

Aint No Sunshine
All My Exes
Barometer Soup
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Brown Eyed Girl
Change the World
Changes in Latitude
Driving My Life Away
Escape
Every Breath You Take
Everybodys Talkin At Me
Fields of Gold
Folsom Prison Blues
For What It's Worth
Get Together
Gimme Some Lovin'
Gravity
Green River
Groovin
Handle Me with Care
Hello
I Love A Rainy Night
I'm Your Puppet
Let Em' In
Listen to the Music
Little Sister
Lodi
Looking For Love
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Lowrider
Margaritaville
More of Your Love
Must Be Doing Something Right
Neon Moon
Octopus' Garden
On and On
One Night at a Time
Pink Cadillac
Pretty Good at Drinkin Beer
Some Kind of Wonderful
Southern Nights
Stormy
Stuck on You
Taking Care of Business
Tequila Sunrise
The Chair
There's a Kind of Hush
Toes
Tulsa Time
Under the Boardwalk
Wave On Wave
Wonderful Tonight
You Don't Mess Around With Jim
You May Be Right

The end of the month I get to play at the House of Rock for a private party. Here is the 2 hour set list. I will only be playing bass.

All Along the Watchtower
All Right Now
American Band
Born On The Bayou
Brain Stew
Crazy Bitch
Crazy Train
Cumbersome
Hard to Handle
I Smell a Rat
Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Kryptonite
Mary Jane's Last Dance
Rock and Roll All Night
Roll the Dice
Sharp Dressed Man
Shine
Simple Man
Superstition
Sweet Child of Mine
Sweet Home Alabama
Tush
Walk This Way
War Pigs
You May Be Right
 
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This is my current band's list - definitely a classic-rock outfit:

Set 1
Rockin’ All Over The World (Status Quo, via John Fogerty)
Down On The Corner (CCR)
Keep Your Hands To Yourself (Georgia Satellites)
Gimme Some Lovin' (Spencer Davis)
Black Magic Woman (Santana, via Fleetwood Mac)
White Room (Cream)
Cocaine (Clapton)
Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett)
With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker, via Beatles)
Pinball Wizard (Who)
Baba O’Riley (Who)
Wonderful Tonight (Clapton)
Take It To The Limit (Eagles)

Set 2
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones)
I Fought The Law (Clash, via Bobby Fuller)
Brother Louie (Stories)
The Thrill Is Gone (BB King)
Can't Get Enough (Bad Company)
Hey Joe (Hendrix)
Foxy Lady (Hendrix)
Last Train To Clarksville (Monkees)
I’m A Believer (Monkees)
Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf)
Some Kind of Wonderful (Grand Funk)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)

Set 3
Takin’ Care Of Business (BTO)/Dance To The Music (Sly and The Family Stone)
The Shape I’m In (Band)
Up On Cripple Creek (Band)
Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys)
Ice Cream Man (Van Halen, via John Brim)/You Really Got Me (Van Halen, via The Kinks)
(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone (Monkees)
Time Has Come Today (Chambers Brothers)
Fire (Springsteen)
The Weight (Band)
House of The Rising Sun (Animals)
Just What I Needed (Cars)
Sunshine of Your Love (Cream)
My Generation/See Me Feel Me (Who)
 
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One hour show at the fairgrounds...July 4th
Dreams
Jackson
Baggage Claim
Country Girl (Shake It for Me)
Redneck Woman
Everything I Shouldn't Be Thinking About
Wagon Wheel (3 Part Harmony)
Who Says You Can't Go Home
American Girl
Gypsy
Folsom Prison Blues
Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not
Proud Mary
Mary Jane's Last Dance (3 Part Harmony)
Done
American Saturday Night

Possible Ballads:
Crazy
Blue Bayou
 
Here are set list for my 2 bands:


Foot Tappers (The Shadows tribute band):


Apache
Theme for young lovers
Dance On
Foot Tapper
Sleep Walk
Genie With The Light Brown Lamp
Kon-Tiki
Chattanooga Choo Choo
The Rise And Fall of Flingel Bunt
F.B.I.
SHINDIG
Atlantis
In the Mood
Ghost rider in the sky
Man Of Mystery
Peace Pipe
Cosy
Wonderful Land
Albatross
The Frightened City

The Sound Chamber (pop-rock-funk)

The chamber
Give in to me
Bad love
Angie
Long train running
Road to hell
Eye of a tiger
Fly away
My favourite game
Left outside alone
Lonely boy
Proud Mary
Cocain
Black velvet
Hold the line
Hedonism
Get lucky
Run to you
 
This is what we played at our most recent show

Set 1
I kissed a girl (Jazzy intro)
Impression that I get
Take me out
Superstition
Play that funky music
Long train running
Send me on my way
Ants marching
All of these things I've done
Sugar
Heartbeat song
Shake it off
Hey ya
All about that bass
Get lucky
Locked out of heaven

Set 2
Shut up and dance
Crazy in love
Uptown funk
Give me everything
Dj got us falling in love
Timber
Dynamite
Just dance
Billy Jean
Moves like jagger
Treasure
Blurred lines
Baby got back
Push it
It's tricky
Jump around

Set 3
Run around sue
Twist N Shout
Do you love me
Shout
Blister in the sun
Laid
Forget you
Semi charmed life
FlagPole Sitta
Bye bye bye
Everybody
Summer 69
Your love
Build me up buttercup
American Girl
Sweet Caroline


wow pretty good modern/oldies mixed setup..im taking note here !
 
This is what we played at our most recent show

Set 1
I kissed a girl (Jazzy intro)
Impression that I get
Take me out
Superstition
Play that funky music
Long train running
Send me on my way
Ants marching
All of these things I've done
Sugar
Heartbeat song
Shake it off
Hey ya
All about that bass
Get lucky
Locked out of heaven

Set 2
Shut up and dance
Crazy in love
Uptown funk
Give me everything
Dj got us falling in love
Timber
Dynamite
Just dance
Billy Jean
Moves like jagger
Treasure
Blurred lines
Baby got back
Push it
It's tricky
Jump around

Set 3
Run around sue
Twist N Shout
Do you love me
Shout
Blister in the sun
Laid
Forget you
Semi charmed life
FlagPole Sitta
Bye bye bye
Everybody
Summer 69
Your love
Build me up buttercup
American Girl
Sweet Caroline


Your band knows what’s up. Excellent set list.


OP - figure 2-3 sets per night, a total of 45-50 songs if you are keeping breaks between songs to an absolute minimum (which you should be - seriously this is really really important )
 
Re: Performance duration and breaks - Ask. The. Venue!!!!!
I've done gigs with one x one hour set, right up to 5 12 song sets, it depends on what they want (and are paying for!).

Re: the list...either look up what similar local bands are playing and steal their lists, or take a punt on your own list, following your gut on what might work, and gauging the reaction from the venue/people as you gig out, adjusting to suit, because again every venue/crowd is a bit different.

Good luck.
 
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Just got the preliminary set list for out next show. Just 2 sets for this show:

Set List Turning Point - March 9, 2019.jpg
 
Not really

Then I love your list so far. But it definitely is going to appeal more to people like me who are not going to be getting up and dancing except under the most dire of circumstances.

This our next setlist for private party next weekend, hence it's a bit more Grateful dead heavy than we normal do.
upload_2019-2-28_12-0-12.png

How do you do, Trouble, ez on the mayo, adelina and Pass the tray are all originals.
The medley at end of first set goes Hunger strike into Dear Mr. Fantasy into Rastaman Vibration and back out, but we are probably going to just do the marley tune separate. Govt Mule does a great hunger strike/ Mr. Fantasy medley if you want to see how it comes off.