When did cover gigs balloon to 3 hours?

[Altitude]

My experience goes back to 1985 and it’s been three sets as normal the whole time. Not always, but normal.

Not sure I understand the logic of 3 cover bands splitting a night. That is a lot of setup and tear down to hear a different band play Uptown Funk.

Unless the venue thinks three bands’ following for an hour each buy more drinks than people hanging out all night in front of one band. Or maybe the venue’s revenue model is based on cover charge, like an 18+ place would be, so the audience churn serves a purpose.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Is it just me………….
But it seems most of the people really like music but they are giving a hard time to musicians in terms of logistics and $ wanting them to do everything and "almost" don’t get paid ?
(Just thinking out load)……..

 

[portpc]

My band does (1) hour gigs for Veterans and Seniors (1.5-2) hours for libraries and concerts (3) hours is the norm for most bar /restaurants/majority of private parties (4) is the norm for Wineries as they want music all afternoon when the tour busses arrive.

 

[bobbybass85]

Coming into the cover world, I was shocked by the set lengths. I was used to original band sets where 2hrs was a MASSIVE set. But once I moved to Nashville that all shifted. 4hr sets on broadway are the standard and there are no breaks in them. Maybe the singer takes an acoustic solo song and lets everyone hit the boys room, but otherwise, you're in it for the long haul. You get used to it quicker than you think.

 

[60bass]

When I was doing straight club gigs on the road. 4 sets a night was the norm. One band (yours) and you'd better be able to not only play music but be able to be "entertainers" as well. Your primary job was to make people drink, dance, be happy, and make customers hang around. The music was secondary to that. That's what the club owners wanted and if you could do that on a consistent basis week after week in a different location and a different town you could have a very successful career as a musician. You will notice I used the word "career". Because when I did that, it was my only job for years. I can actually say I made my living as a musician.

Also there were times we had to do 5 or sometimes even 6 sets a night. That was due to the fact that some of the clubs we played at were able to still have patrons inside the club for after hours as long as no one was selling alcohol after the official time when they were supposed to stop. So those clubs would have their last call at 30 minutes prior to alcohol sales cut off time, and everybody would stock up and have their drinks paid for and brought to the table. However, the patrons were allowed to stay and finish their drinks but once they left the club they could not come back in. Of course the local cops knew that and would hang out waiting to see and catch anyone who was too drunk to drive. As well they should. The locals called it running the gauntlet.

 

[Frankie Fender]

3(+) hrs has always been the norm around here fo cover bands. Original bands play 1 hr sets and sometimes pay to play.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

So, I've been doing the church gig stuff for years, so I've been out of the loop. When did the cover band set expand to 3 hours? It used to be an hour and have two or three bands. I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently, because I've got two different bands with two different three hour sets, playing lead guitar on one and bass on the other.

The bass gig they eventually want me playing upright on a few of the songs, and thankfully the keyboardist owns one he'll let me borrow. But I've only screwed around on one that happened to be around, no real performance experience there.

I've got my work cut out for me. Oh, yeah, full time job, kids, and all the accoutrements that come along with that, too.

When I was touring with a nightclub group 1971-1973, we played 4 hours per night with three 15-minute breaks (Musician's Union gigs). We played those 4-hour gigs 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year for that 3-years I toured with them. I had a lot of fun, made really good $$ and had no trouble doing that at all. Of course that was in my early 20's and we typically played for two-weeks at each venue before packing up and driving to the next one. Now, in my early 70's, a 4-hour gig just about does me in. I ache everywhere can barely walk at the end of gig after loading everything back up. If I think about it ahead of time, I'll take four 200mg Ibuprofen before the last set, which helps a lot with how I'm doing at the end of the night.

From about 2016 when I started gigging in Washington state (moved her from Virginia in 2015) "normal" gigs were 4-hours long. In addition to that, one of the groups I played with hosted open-mic nights every Friday at a nearby brew pub from 7PM to 10PM. Did that at over 40 Friday nights per year. We'd play for an hour to start; then call up the sign-ups; and if we ran out of folks before about 9:30, we'd get back up to play again. Made a few bucks, got a free meal and beer out of it and was a great place to break in new songs. Also really helped the us get tight on the music. We got to know the regulars real well and a good number of them would follow us to our 4-hour gigs at other locations on Saturday nights.

From the other end of it, outside of a music festival situation, we never played at a place in either group where there were three bands playing one hour each. That's a pain to organize, the time to pull one band's gear off stage and put the next band's gear up is usually much longer than a 15-minute break, and the venue has to pay three different groups. We did play a "Berrystock" Festival each year that was a festival put on by a local berry farm and they usually had 4 or 5 different groups playing with everyone dressed up in 1969 "Woodstock era" attire. As you might guess a lot of those attending were of Woodstock age.

Here's a shot of me at that Berrystock Festival where I'm doing my best imitation of Jerry Garcia playing bass.

 

[HolmeBass]

Around here it’s usually 3 hr gigs where they expect around 2.5 hrs of music. So two longer sets or three shorter sets.

 

[Carl Hillman]

So, I've been doing the church gig stuff for years, so I've been out of the loop. When did the cover band set expand to 3 hours? It used to be an hour and have two or three bands. I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently, because I've got two different bands with two different three hour sets, playing lead guitar on one and bass on the other.

The bass gig they eventually want me playing upright on a few of the songs, and thankfully the keyboardist owns one he'll let me borrow. But I've only screwed around on one that happened to be around, no real performance experience there.

I've got my work cut out for me. Oh, yeah, full time job, kids, and all the accoutrements that come along with that, too.

Time for me to pull up my pants around my chest and go get a Luby's Early Bird Special.

Back in my day (I'm pathetic ha ha), the cover band I was in did 3 hour-long dance sets and 2 hour-and-fifteen minute show sets backing an Elvis impersonator. This was 6 nights a week for 4 months at a hotel bar, and those weren't really uncommon hours for bands.

 

[Trevorus]

Well, shoot. My age catching up with me. I suppose when I was gigging regularly, it was an originals band. I wasn't doing the main writing, so I treated it much the same learning songs and performing. That was usually 60-90 minutes.

A kids entertainment group I played for that did fair gigs, it was 45 minutes, and 4-5 sets in a day.

 

[J Wilson]

Coming up in Texas in the 70's/80's, it was 5 sets a night, and I had one gig that was 8 sets.

3 would only get us warmed up.

 

[N4860]

3 hours seems pretty standard to me for a cover gig. Why would anyone want to do a cover band gig for 1 hour sets with 2 or 3 other bands? What's even the point of bringing in multiple bands if they're only going to do covers?

 

[HolmeBass]

Coming into the cover world, I was shocked by the set lengths. I was used to original band sets where 2hrs was a MASSIVE set. But once I moved to Nashville that all shifted. 4hr sets on broadway are the standard and there are no breaks in them. Maybe the singer takes an acoustic solo song and lets everyone hit the boys room, but otherwise, you're in it for the long haul. You get used to it quicker than you think.

Damn! I lose focus around the 1:45 to 2 hour mark. I need a little sit down and some water to stay on top of it.

 

[Killing Floor]

Since I started sneaking into clubs underage as long back as I remember cover bands always do 3-4 sets for a full night.

When to you believe that wasn’t the case?

 

[backin82]

Seems like 1.5-2.0 hrs is fairly standard around here. I've played one 3-hr set, but most have been less.

 

[funkinbottom]

Like many have posted, when I started gigging (early '70s) typical bar/club gigs were 9:00 (9:30) to 1:30. Now days seems to be standard for 3 hours. The problem being, bar owners etc still pay the same, or less than they did back then. But that's a whole different story.

 

[Trevorus]

Like many have posted, when I started gigging (early '70s) typical bar/club gigs were 9:00 (9:30) to 1:30. Now days seems to be standard for 3 hours. The problem being, bar owners etc still pay the same, or less than they did back then. But that's a whole different story.

I was going to ask, what's the going rate these days in your locale? Same question for anyone here...

 

[MasterG]

10 to 2 was the norm for me in the bar band days.

 

[newwavefrank]

I've been playing cover gigs for 40 years. 4 hours and 1 band has been pretty standard the whole time. Sometimes 3 hours. In my whole career I have only played a handful of cover gigs with more than 1 band

 

[gln1955]

I was going to ask, what's the going rate these days in your locale? Same question for anyone here...

Varies a lot, but overall bad. If you think about it on a per hour basis it will make you either laugh or cry.