Question gigs

[krth1985]

I'm having a hard time getting this across to a few people in the band, so hopefully some of you will share my views.

So as a band we have quite a lot of original material - we have 15 songs, plus another 4 that the lead guitarist is pushing for us to start going over. and another 6 or 7 songs that we do acoustically! all this from a band thats only been together 6 months.

We also do a a few covers. 2 oasis, two stereophonics, neil young, radiohead, and snow patrol. and also an endless supply of acoustic covers

Now my question is this:

We do both the paid gigs, 2 45min sets and so on, and the shorter gigs at places that host proper live music where people go to watch live bands.

Now it doesnt matter how good your songs are, 2 45 minutes sets of your own material is going to bore people. you need to throw covers in there right? But at what ratio? We usually do 6 covers out of 20 songs.

Do we have too many songs? How many original songs do you guys have? Are pushing ourselves too much? We rehearse every week, is that necessary?

[crez5150]

Maybe I'm outta touch with the kids nowadays but when I was doing the original circuit we only ever used to do 30-45mins for an original set..... 2 x 45 mins seems like a lot to me. We used to add two covers to our 45 mins set towards the end of the set

[Ian Savage]

In a situation like yours, what I'd be tempted to do in the longer gigs is play the first set all-acoustic playing predominently covers to 'hook' people (with the full backline already set up so they know what's coming), chucking a few of your own songs in there, and then make the second set maybe three-quarters original material to a quarter covers.

I might be talking out of my hole as I've never been in that kinda situation, but when I've been with originals bands even in a 45 minute set we've often felt obligated to throw in a cover or two to catch the ear of a 'casual' listener and I'd certainly agree that for your average punter 2x45 minutes of mostly originals isn't going to pull them in no matter how good your songs are - 'tis a sad fact that a lot of Joe Average music punters want to hear stuff they know on a night out!

[Cat Burrito]

[quote name='krth1985' post='1017952' date='Nov 9 2010, 06:47 PM']Now it doesnt matter how good your songs are, 2 45 minutes sets of your own material is going to bore people. you need to throw covers in there right? But at what ratio? We usually do 6 covers out of 20 songs.

Do we have too many songs? How many original songs do you guys have? Are pushing ourselves too much? We rehearse every week, is that necessary?[/quote]
I don't think 2 sets of original material is too much but I guess it depends on the band and how you have built it up. A lot of bands have followings so people will know your set. We've done those gigs a lot and they can work well. I think I prefer the shorter sets personally but I don't mind the bigger ones.

Rehearsals are as required. If you know your stuff and have no new material to rehearse then rehearsing is not essential. It depends on the musicians you are working with. It can be counter productive to never rehearse though.

And in answer to your other question I think we have about 2 45 minute sets of all original material plus one semi rehearsed cover. We need no more at this stage but new stuff will be added.

[krth1985]

We have a gig this sunday - 2 45 minutes set with about 6 covers - 4 of which are stereophonics and oasis Fingers crossed i wont be saying 'i told you so'