How many songs in a 45 minute set?

[DanOwens]

DB in a Blues/Country/RnR trio here. Around 13 songs for us; most have a solo over a 12 bar, but they're relatively short songs... that is until Rob decides to play all 1127 verses of 'Casey Jones'

[HazBeen]

10-12 in pretty much all my bands... 3:30-4:00 songs on average. If the singer shuts up that is...

[fleabag]

You'll only need 1 x 30 min set if you play the Red Lion In Cropredy, assuming its still the same landlord

[FinnDave]

20 minutes ago, fleabag said:

You'll only need 1 x 30 min set if you play the Red Lion In Cropredy, assuming its still the same landlord

My old band used to do at least two hours at the Brasenose, different pub but same village!

[fleabag]

Maybe we should have played there instead. Our drummist had to issue a threat to the Red Lion landlord, and over the phone too, cos he snuck off out of the pub like the coward he was, and called from a safe distance. Actually, he was probably right. Our drummist had a temper you could photograph

[Billy Apple]

7 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Unless you are playing popular covers, or as an originals band have at least an album's worth of well known material, or have a wildly entertain stage show, 45 minutes is too long.

😂 Cobblers

Edited April 18, 2019 by Billy Apple

[steantval]

5 hours ago, peteb said:

It depends on what the gig is. If you are playing original rock music to a new audience, you may want to play a short set packed with your best material to make the maximum impact and finish before you outstay your welcome. If you are playing to a blues crowd you might want to extend the songs and play a bit longer. A typical covers pub gig to a crowd that have come to see a band is generally 2x45 plus an encore, whereas a venue with a constantly changing clientele moving from one bat to another may want three one-hour sets.

The gig venues around our way want you to start playing at 9.00 and be finished by 12.00 plus some encores.

That is a three hour slot to fill with breaks between sets, 2 x 45’s leaves a massive break between sets, we have opted to always do 2 x 45 and a 50 minute sets with just 15 minute breaks between sets, we would sooner be up playing than sitting on our butts half of the night.

Venues definitely get good value when they book our band or maybe we are daft.

Edited April 18, 2019 by steantval

[peteb]

Round here they want you to start at 9.30, have a decent length break then finish at midnight (including encores). The break is to give punters chance to chat and buy more beer, with the band coming back on before they start to think about moving on.

Generally the curfew for live music is 12.00 and they want you to play up to then so people haven't got time to go elsewhere for last orders.

[KevB]

I once saw Frank Marino as part of a multi act evening and he managed 3 songs in his 40 minute set. I'm going along with the 10-12 scenario, my current band usually does 12 in set 1 and 10 in set 2 (because one of them is War Pigs 😃) plus encores, it usually runs to over 45 min though.

[charic]

Well... I play in a Doom band at the moment.

The current set is 45minutes... about 6 songs

[dmccombe7]

Depending on music style i generally think 4 mins for average cover song and 5mins for rock covers.

45min set i would be looking at somewhere between 10-12 average songs allowing for a little banter now and again.

Dave

[Twigman]

7 or 8 for us in 45min

 

Our sets generally 1 3/4 - 2 hrs 16-20 songs

[thebrig]

My new band that plays old school r&b (think Dr Feelgood) and have 18 songs in the first set, and 19 songs in the second set, mind you, some are as short as 1.45 seconds but its great fun playing these no-nonsense, in-yer-face, pub rock songs 😃

[Vinny]

It depends who does the intros, all the guitards I know have a habit of starting every song like they need a wee.

[Lozz196]

15 songs in a 45 min set for us. Gives space for chat and tuning up.

[arthurhenry]

One.

[BassTractor]

42.
I learn it from a book.

Seriously though, anything from 1 to 15, but the type of band I'd typically be a member of would have at least one long song (I remember a specific 20 minute one) and then try and make it diverse from that, like maybe three seven-minute songs and a funny two-minute ditty, or any other combination that does not involve 25 one-minute songs.
 

[josie]

Thanks for all the replies - interesting and helpful. 

[FinnDave]

We thought we had it just right at 11 songs for the hour and half second set last saturday, but we ended up skipping three of them, and just scraped in before the 11pm curfew!

[bazzbass]

kind of an ambiguous question, depends on how long your songs are.

 

we have 6:30 songs, and a 2:30 song with many in between. we have 28 songs , all original. We plan our sets accordingly.

We have 2 songwriters so we try and alternate between them as they sing their own songs.

Got some 3 band shows coming which I love, we do one set of 45 mins, easy peasy,we switch songs regularly according to loudness of gig. We go from all acoustic to rock band mode.

 

Opps. forgot to say, 10 songs for a 45er

Edited April 21, 2019 by bazzbass

[ead]

On 18/04/2019 at 14:03, peteb said:

Round here they want you to start at 9.30, have a decent length break then finish at midnight (including encores). The break is to give punters chance to chat and buy more beer, with the band coming back on before they start to think about moving on.

Generally the curfew for live music is 12.00 and they want you to play up to then so people haven't got time to go elsewhere for last orders.

This is certainly my expereice in the covers band playing in clubs around Preston.  First set is around 60 mins and the second a bit longer.  In one particular venue we rearely do less than 2 1/2 hours due to requests for encores (which is very kind).

[bartelby]

On 18/04/2019 at 11:49, Crusoe said:

So few? "You Suffer" is 3 seconds long, so they could probably squeeze in about 700 songs if they eke them out a bit.

3 seconds?

It's closer to 3/4 of a second...

 

A punk originals band I was in got 28 songs into a 40 minute set, including some between song banter...

 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, ead said:

This is certainly my expereice in the covers band playing in clubs around Preston.  First set is around 60 mins and the second a bit longer.  In one particular venue we rearely do less than 2 1/2 hours due to requests for encores (which is very kind).

Similar in the south. Although my last group did 2 x 45 or 2 x 1hr, my current band generally does the 9/9:30 to 12:00 ish (often going on a bit) with a 15-25 minute break. There are a few places that dont pay well that we do a 2x1hr, our regular haunt does 9:15 -> just past 12. We do an outdoor afternoon gig, 3:00 to 6:00 with a 20 minute break. 

[NancyJohnson]

A 45 minute set would have been 15+ songs with the Johnsons.  Singer wasn't big on talking between songs.  

[SH73]

Empire if the Clouds 18:01

Rime of the Ancient Mariner 13:39

Alexander the Great 08:37

Phantom of the Opera 07:20

Slightly over 45 minutes.