Set List ?

[dmccombe7]

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Who sorts out the running order for your set list ?

With us its the guitarist mainly because he needs to change between acoustic and electric guitars and likes to keep the acoustic songs together  to save a lot of change-overs and wasted time between songs. He also has a better overall idea of how the band sounds. 

He starts it and passes it around the band for approval or possible changes

Dave

 

Edited December 3, 2019 by dmccombe7

[Cuzzie]

Me

[upside downer]

Also me. 

[BrunoBass]

We all have input.

[Dad3353]

Mutual agreement between the five of us, with privilege given to my need to have a couple of less up-beat numbers between the raucous ones (it's a stamina thing, coupled with advancing years...). We also group guitar changes and drop tunings, if they fit the previous priority, and try not to have all the Radiohead stuff clumped together. S'been working well for the last twenty-odd tears, and is not likely to change any time soon. 

[Ed_S]

Absolutely not me! I stay well out of it as I’m happy to play any of our songs in any order. I also have no idea what note most of them finish (..or start) on so I don’t have much to add to discussions about what works nicely together in that sense. The lead guitarist deals with the musical details and then the drummer has a veto if those particular three songs in a row might actually cause his Fitbit to call an ambulance. The biggest problem we have is that most of our songs are about 6 minutes long and most of our sets are half an hour, so we have to pick set lists based on the likelihood of playing everything a bit fast and keeping the banter to an absolute minimum in the time that we’ve saved! We’re actually just in the process of deliberately writing a 3ish minute song to use as padding.

[DJpullchord]

I don’t even know what we’re playing till I hear the first bar.

[dmccombe7]

Just now, DJpullchord said:

I don’t even know what we’re playing till I hear the first bar.

That's a bummer if the bass starts it 

[DJpullchord]

Sometimes it does! Psycho killer for one...

[dmccombe7]

You're goosed then 

[Lozz196]

We all have input but I’ll figure out some bits of it, such as ‘no those songs have similar starts, space them out’ and the singer will have input on ‘those two are b’stards to sing, space them apart’.

The drummer will just hit things in time.

[FinnDave]

Ours are one by consensus, the main aim is to avoid repeating ourselves - never play any of the same material at a repeat gig at the same venue, though with quite a few coming up next year in one place, we'll just have to spread them out.

 

[ezbass]

It has become my task as I seem to have produced the most balanced in the past. I always send them round for editing, especially by the keyboard player (patch loading) and lead singer (potential vocal strain), but they tend to come back unaltered these days.

[dmccombe7]

25 minutes ago, ezbass said:

It has become my task as I seem to have produced the most balanced in the past. I always send them round for editing, especially by the keyboard player (patch loading) and lead singer (potential vocal strain), but they tend to come back unaltered these days.

That's more or less how ours works with guitarist sending out the initial draft.

[Happy Jack]

Me.

[dave_bass5]

12 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

That's a bummer if the bass starts it 

Worse if my drummer starts it, i then have to wait for the guitar to come in before i can identify the song 🤣Same goes for the drummer.....🤣

Edited December 4, 2019 by dave_bass5

[cetera]

Me and the drummer.

We were founding members of the band and had the idea for our 'product'. We structure it to allow for song sharing between our male and female vocalists, starting/ending with big tunes and looking for complimentary keys where song ending/starts go together well or can flow naturally...

[BigRedX]

For both bands it's by consensus.

However I always think that the flow of the set should be dictated as far as possible by the songs rather than any practical considerations. If two songs are hard to sing/play back to back then you just need to practice some more IMO. Similarly starting with something easy to "warm up". Do your warming up somewhere off stage and come on ready to give it your all with your second-best song (the best one should be saved for the end) rather than compromising the set so you can have an easier time.

[Nicko]

I used to do it in my last band, but the guitarist in my current band took ownership.  We all have a bit of input and if it works don't try to fix it.

[Rich]

It's generally a collaborative effort with both my bands. The vocalists have some input so we try to keep big lungbusters separate, and obvs the horns are delicate little flowers so we keep the biggest blows a} apart from each other and b} away from the very end of the set. We've given up asking the drummer for input; every time we gave him the set list to look at, it came back with drool and shreds of raw meat on it.

[Monkey Steve]

depends on the band

the last lot I was with liked to have a specific list of songs for the gig(s) which was hammered into a set list quite early on.  The BL led this in the studio, and anybody could pitch in at the time, or come back to it if they thought the flow of songs wasn't working.  Rehearsals ahead of the gigs stuck to the set list in order, and it worked really well in terms of musical muscle memory

In previous bands it's tended to work on the basis of "who's turn is it this time?", again with the option for other band members to pitch in if they thought changes could help the flow of songs, which ones should be saved for the encore, or in one drummers' case, which songs should be put before the end of the set because he needed a breather after them.  This worked pretty well when the band had a load of songs to choose from, especially covers bands, so if your favourite wasn't being played this week, that's OK, you can put it back in next time.

Did depend on the individual band members not having a hissy fit when their favourite song wasn't included - usually a guitarist who wanted the one song he wrote, or the song where he plays the longest solo to be included, regardless of whether the previous outings of the song had sent the audience to the bar or the bog.  In one band we sacked a guitarist, and he pleaded with the BL to be allowed to play one final gig as it was already booked and he was expecting friends to be there, and for us to play a song which he'd written but had been dropped for some time due to dullness...sadly we gave in and played it.  The audience did not go wild.

That usually then became "who can be bothered this time?" and nine times out of ten it was me, as I tended to be the only one who was both fussed about the order of the songs and organised enough to put it all together, print off set lists, etc.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Monkey Steve

[Dubs]

21st June 2014, the last time we let our guitarist choose the set...

Edited December 4, 2019 by Dubs
sp

[Rich]

7 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

as I tended to be the only one who was both fussed about the order of the songs and organised enough to put it all together, print off set lists, etc.

I'm usually the one doing the printing off, as I work in a large office with an already colossal print/paper budget and my manager doesn't mind me using a few dozen sheets of A4 every so often.

[mrtcat]

Singer does it. None of the rest of us mind what goes where and none of us could be arsed with the whole committee decision making thing. 

[Angelus]

Normally the guitarist, as he has a coo stick guitar that he needs to change and sings almost all the songs, so wants to start easy and warm his voice up. It’s never, ever been a problem though, so never thought about changing anything.