Opening Number

[blue]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1475929950' post='3149844']
Two good examples of thought would be Good Souls and Come together. This former is a powerhouse with the right band and says the band means business and the latter is a well known tune which you sound check too.

I don't think you need 'popular' as such as long as the opening number is a statement... if only to say to people, stick around, the band is worth watching and listening to.
[/quote]

We always play Get Back and Come Together back to back. The BL decides when and where we'll play them. She won't call them at all at some gigs.

Blue

[blue]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1475923504' post='3149774']
Upbeat and popular is a must for 1St song for me. Even better would be a lively medley.
[/quote]

What if the place is more than half empty, wouldn't you want to save all the upbeat popular stuff for when the room is full.

If the room never fills I guess it doesn't matter.

Blue

[TimR]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475947391' post='3150020']


What if the place is more than half empty, wouldn't you want to save all the upbeat popular stuff for when the room is full.

If the room never fills I guess it doesn't matter.

Blue
[/quote]

We've been known to play the same song twice.

Only ever had one person comment. And they liked it.

[JTUK]

I've started with Moondance many a time, but it is generally a throwaway number unless the band can really do something with it.
I'd call it a jazzer which may or may not have its place... it definitely depends what you are trying to do... or if you have even thought it thru..!!

[TrevorR]

We always started with Brown Eyed Girl. Punters love it and it's more pacey.

Doing weddings we'd do the bride and groom's opening dance and by the end, the obligatory number of reluctant dancers had been coaxed onto the dance floor. By the time we'd said "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mike and Debbie... Mr and Mrs Bloggs" and led a round of applause half of them were usually sloping off already. Then we would launch right into BEG. By the time we'd finished the intro they had pretty much all done a 180 and we're happily jigging away, singing along.

Always found it a good gig starter.

[NancyJohnson]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475946837' post='3150016']
What works for famous pro bands usually does not work for local unknown bands playing small clubs and pubs.

Blue
[/quote]

Ack, you have it all wrong. It's the [i]attitude [/i]of these famous pro-bands that you need to adopt. I don't give a toot for celebrity or fame (I have neither, go figure) and we're all just flesh and blood after all; it's just that some people get popular, the majority of the rest don't. We generally pull in 30-40 people, sure these people don't necessarily want to see us, but they do want to see, listen, embrace and support live music. They clap and pogo. The rest of the population stay home and watch TV. Their loss. The main thing is that it shouldn't matter if you're playing to ten or a thousand, you get up and you play your guts out. Simple.

[blue]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1475952014' post='3150070']


We've been known to play the same song twice.

Only ever had one person comment. And they liked it.
[/quote]

Our BL would never call the same song twice.

Blue

[FinnDave]

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1475927398' post='3149824']
I have opened numerous sets with some Michael Moorcock or Robert Calvert space poetry
[/quote]

Hah, brilliant! I'd definitely go and see a band that does that! Any chance of you playing west of London?

[Kev]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475962853' post='3150169']
Our BL would never call the same song twice.

Blue
[/quote]
Your gigs must be quite a feat. Surely you will run out of different songs eventually??

[blue]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1475957129' post='3150131']


Ack, you have it all wrong. It's the [i]attitude [/i]of these famous pro-bands that you need to adopt. I don't give a toot for celebrity or fame (I have neither, go figure) and we're all just flesh and blood after all; it's just that some people get popular, the majority of the rest don't. We generally pull in 30-40 people, sure these people don't necessarily want to see us, but they do want to see, listen, embrace and support live music. They clap and pogo. The rest of the population stay home and watch TV. Their loss. The main thing is that it shouldn't matter if you're playing to ten or a thousand, you get up and you play your guts out. Simple.
[/quote]

That's a different discussion and I don't necessarily disagree with your point.

Here's my point;

What works for famous acts playing large venues doesn't work for local unknowns playing small clubs.

Here's an example,many famous big name acts use video and walk on music.

IMO, if a local unknown band uses walk on music in a small pub it's would come off as weird and pretentious.

Blue

Edited October 8, 2016 by blue

[12stringbassist]

Caroline followed by Roll over lay down.
Make 'em have it.

Edited October 8, 2016 by 12stringbassist

[NickRiffed]

I've recently started playing with two bands after moving out into the sticks.
One is a classic rock band and we are still getting the set together, the other is a Country band in the truest sense, definitely no Country Rock.
They tend to open with 'I recall a Gypsy Woman.'
Makes me want to open a vein everytime.

[Hobbayne]

We always start with a loud 'Good Evening!' and then launch straight in to the opening riff of 'Pretty Vacant' That grabs them from the off.
We dont play the same song twice, although as an encore we will sometimes pull a song from the first set when the place was quieter.
The folks who came in later wont have heard it first time round, and the ones who were, dont mind hearing it again.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Hobbayne

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475963511' post='3150179']
Here's an example,many famous big name acts use video and walk on music.

IMO, if a local unknown band uses walk on music in a small pub it's would come off as weird and pretentious.

Blue
[/quote]

To a certain extent, this - again - depends on context. One Chicago-style R&B band I was in we'd play a background music mix tape of laid-back 1930's blues stuff over the PA for an hour or so before went on. The audiences (being greying old blues fans) liked the songs and it warmed them up but not so much it would 'compete' with our more uptempo set. We'd walk on just before the end of the last song on the tape.

Another band, we used walk-on music but very much in a piss-taking sense. Sometimes it would be cheesy TV show themes (The Sweeney, Crossroads, Blankety-Blank). Other times it would be short clips of ludicrously heavy classical stuff; the finale of Mussorgsky's 'Great Gate Of Kiev' was a particular favourite of mine. Most uplifting.

Edited October 9, 2016 by skankdelvar

[oldmanrock]

[quote name='grumpyguts' timestamp='1475925310' post='3149793']
And.. The whole two set thing doesn't make sense. Get the punters warmed up, disappear for 1/2 hour and start all over again. Why not stick with it for 2 hours?
[/quote]

Agreed. You come back and half of them have gone!

[Geek99]

[quote name='NickRiffed' timestamp='1476011080' post='3150379']
I've recently started playing with two bands after moving out into the sticks.
One is a classic rock band and we are still getting the set together, the other is a Country band in the truest sense, definitely no Country Rock.
They tend to open with 'I recall a Gypsy Woman.'
Makes me want to open a vein everytime.
[/quote]
I quite fancy trying a country band actually, as long as the outfits weren't stupid

[Lord Sausage]

We do this and it kills everytime!

[media]http://youtu.be/JgffRW1fKDk[/media]

Edited October 9, 2016 by Lord Sausage

[blue]

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1475963097' post='3150175']
Your gigs must be quite a feat. Surely you will run out of different songs eventually??
[/quote]

We are US Bar Band, we play 4 hour gigs. Just the opposite, a lot of our good stuff never gets played because we can't fit them in. Bar bands have to have a minimum of 40 good songs to gig proper. We probably are closer to 60, not including "Lay Down Sally", "The Weight" and Further On Up The Road" which we recently added. They're not quite gig ready yet.

Blue

Edited October 9, 2016 by blue

[blue]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1476023896' post='3150498']
To a certain extent, this - again - depends on context. One Chicago-style R&B band I was in we'd play a background music mix tape of laid-back 1930's blues stuff over the PA for an hour or so before went on. The audiences (being greying old blues fans) liked the songs and it warmed them up but not so much it would 'compete' with our more uptempo set. We'd walk on just before the end of the last song on the tape.

Another band, we used walk-on music but very much in a piss-taking sense. Sometimes it would be cheesy TV show themes (The Sweeney, Crossroads, Blankety-Blank). Other times it would be short clips of ludicrously heavy classical stuff; the finale of Mussorgsky's 'Great Gate Of Kiev' was a particular favourite of mine. Most uplifting.
[/quote]

Some bands can pull it off we can't, not sure why.

We stream progressive blues and rock before we start and in between sets but we don't walk on to it.

Blue

[blue]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1476054432' post='3150934']
Ah, I would love to be in a band that would be willing to play The Weight.
[/quote]

We haven't gigged it yet, the vocals were a bit of a challenge. I'm thinking it might work for some gigs and not for others. If it doesn't seem to click our BL won't call it .

Me, I'm completely committed to my vocal harmonies and bass lines.

But yeah, I'm like you, in that I really think it's an awesome song.

Blue

[BrunoBass]

We've been opening lately with Psycho, the Muse song. Big impact, grabs everyone straightaway. It's also our only Drop D song so it gets the retuning over and done with nice and early.

[NancyJohnson]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475963511' post='3150179']
That's a different discussion and I don't necessarily disagree with your point.

Here's my point;

What works for famous acts playing large venues doesn't work for local unknowns playing small clubs.

Here's an example,many famous big name acts use video and walk on music.

IMO, if a local unknown band uses walk on music in a small pub it's would come off as weird and pretentious.

Blue
[/quote]

It's weird that the conversation has moved from opening number choices to walk on music. How did that happen?

To move with your point, intro music would be seen as a little pretentious in a little club, yes. Assume Green Day play a big arena, I'd assume they would use something to walk on to. [Edit: I suspect intro music transcends musical gentres.] I'd assume if they fired up the Foxboro Hot Tubs thing and play somewhere small, the intro music doesn't work. I dont know where the crowd size cutoff is.

Edited October 10, 2016 by NancyJohnson

[Happy Jack]

We have different walk on music for every gig we play.

It all depends on what the landlord is playing when we shout "could you turn the house music down now, please!".

[ead]

We start with a short medley, Django/Just Got Paid/Cocaine, seems to go down pretty well and builds nicely.

[NancyJohnson]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1476080189' post='3150966']
We have different walk on music for every gig we play.

It all depends on what the landlord is playing when we shout "could you turn the house music down now, please!".
[/quote]

Bwahaha