Zamboni

I'm sure this is an issue on many bandleader's minds, and I intend to answer it with this thread.

If you're wondering what order you should play your certain styles of songs in, be it fast-paced ones, ballads, or other such genres, continue reading:

• The First Song
  
  You should always try to start your set with a relatively up-beat song. This serves two purposes: It allows you to release some of your pent-up, pre-show energy, as well as getting the crowd into it right from the get-go.

• The Middle of Your Set
  
  Here you have a bit of leeway. You can choose to continue with the up-beat songs, or vary it and throw in a slower-paced song or even a ballad here and there. A good rule of thumb to follow is to end the middle of your set with a relatively slower song. This calms your crowd down a bit and lets them settle into a groove where they're not constantly rocking out, but also just chilling.

• The End of Your Set
  
  OK, now we're wrapping up your set. You always want to end off on a high note, and this is done by following the pattern of your first songs and playing something fun, fast, and preferably memorable. Covers work well in these situations. You can lead up to your last song with a slower one, but definitely leave the crowd on a high by playing something up-beat.

• Your Encore
  
  Assuming the crowd enjoyed your set, you may be asked for an encore. In contrast to your first and last songs, an encore generally demands a ballad or slower-type song. This is especially effective if you are the last band to play. This, once again, calms the crowd down and seems to complete the concert for them.
  
  edit: Alternatively, kick their ass and rock out even harder to play yourselves out.

Take from these guidlines what you will, and hopefully your next show will be a great one.

-Mike

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FenderStrat1337

sticky?

Great advice btw

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SomeEvilDude

Good ideas laid out there. Good job on that.

One thing I would change though, is I like to end the set on a memorable song; it doesn't have to be fast or up-beat or anything. Something memorable in the performance of it, or just the song itself - be it a cover or an original - as long as it's memorable, that's what counts.

Other than that though, I agree with everything you said, good job.

Zamboni

^Good idea, *edited*

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raph8r

great idea, i would also add that your last song or your encore whichever one should be some sort of jam song where it goes on for awhile and each group member can kind of improvise (assuming they can) some sort of solo or something...i dunno just my 2 cents

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socialtool

I don't completely agree, for some bands a song can go on for far too long, so if you are talented enought o jam, then you can try it, but I really think it's bettter if you stick with some a bit rehearsd because you have less of a chance of screwing up and you don't want that to be thing everyone remembers.

I agree that generally it needs to be a song that is hard hitting. It needs to have a sense of closure, you want the crowd to have an emotional orgasm wth you. It's just like sex. (Now I know many of you don't have much experience in this but after a good set, you can get some more lol)

Only end with a cover if you do a good- make that great- job. I mean I saw a band that was a good band, and then they ended with an attrocity of Bohemian Rhapsody and for the first few weeks every time someone asked me about them, I was like they suck! Even though most of the set was good, that last song stuck out in my mind.

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Zamboni

Hey Joshy, a sticky would be nice.

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KENZI

a jam would be good in a set if the band can jam and improvise well, but i think the jam section would be better placed in the middle of the show and then brought back to something familiar that people know and recognise. Like some of Led Zeppelin's live music.

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SilentDeftone

A little expanding would be nice too Maybe cover more than just this one subject? I don't know that much about gigs etc. so I wouldn't be a great choice for writing a FAQ.

-SD

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SomeEvilDude

General Gigging Tips


1) Stage Prescence: Until you make it big and famous - and even then - this is one of the most important things whilst gigging. Move around the stage when you can, make sure you can feel the music and groove to it and, most importantly, enjoy yourself. Performing is a two-way system; the audience feeds off of the bands' energy and the band in return gets a confidence boost from the audience who are feeling the music and grooving to it. If a band is not - or at least does not seem to be - enjoying themselves on stage, then the audience, generally speaking, will feel the tension and won't get into the music as much as you'd like them to.
It is also important, because, as much as music is an audio experience, it is also a visual experience. An audience - as much as the musicians may like them to - will not just listen to the music, but watch the music. This can be traced back to the pyschadelic-era in particular, when light shows were a prominent feature during bands' performance. However, seeing as this isn't the late 60s/early 70s anymore, and not many people (if any) use light shows and - albeit to a lesser extent - smoke machines and shadows and whatnot, the band become the visual experience of the music. However great the music may be, if the band just stand around like a bunch of lemons, it will end up being quite an unenjoyable experience. Whereas, to see a band headbanging, or if the music doesn't suit, just grooving about or moving around the stage and interacting with other band members and using elevated areas and whatnot, then the band becomes a more enjoyable visual experience.

2) Crowd Interaction: If you're playing a set with three or more songs, crowd interaction becomes quite important. Introducing the group, the individual members of the band and the names of the songs before/after you play them are the basics. This at least lets the crowd have some connection to the band. To indulge further, a singer could do a crowd dive (incredibly egotistical and not always well-recieved, but fun if it works), the guitarist (leads permitting) could wander out into the crowd whilst playing a solo or even just rhythm parts etc. Slightly less on the extreme side, perhaps a story behind a song, or a bit of banter with the crowd - usually jokes or telling them how great the venue/town is are good - or letting the crowd sings parts of a well-known song, or possibly a call and response type thing with the crowd.

3) Keep ego's in check: One of the single most important things to remember whilst playing a gig. Unless your guitarist can run around stage, and backflip, and play with his teeth or behind his neck or something that's very interesting to watch, don't let him or her solo for hours - people will get bored of it. This mainly applies to the lead guitarist, but lead vocalists can get can pretty full of themselves too. Try and make sure that everyone is included as equally as possible, and while in some instances it's a good thing to show off a particular talent within the group, be sure not to let that one thing overshadow the rest of the band.

4) Keep the set interesting: Again, important. Make sure to try and play a diversity of songs, but try and keep it within a set range. It would be very weird if you opened with a death metal song, and then went straight into a powerful blues piece. But, if you were to start with a relatively slow-paced rock song, and then play a blues song, it wouldn't be too much of a shock to the system. Make sure to splice your set up with originals and covers - but, importantly, make sure the covers are relatively well known and whatever happens, play them as perfectly as you possibly can! One of worst things you can do is to mess up a cover song.
Along with diversity with songs, crowd interaction comes into keeping a set interesting. See above for some breif advice on this.

5) Set-up: Make sure everybody knows what they need and what they're doing beforehand. Then make sure all cables, batteries, amps, strings, guitars etc. are in tune and working properly, or at least working the way you want/need them to. I suppose this is a good place to include this: rehearse as much as physically possible. You can never over-learn material, so practice as much as you can before you go to play the gig; it can only be beneficial.

6) Roboticism: Comes into the whole stage prescence thing, but anywho. Don't be a bunch of robots. Don't just play through the stuff robotically; enjoy it, and - not too much, but enough to keep it different and interesting - try to improvise when and where it's possible. If you can improvise well, this will be almost second nature anyway, and to those who can't improvise really well, then even some basic improvising will make your part - and the set as a whole - seem so much more interesting.

Choosing which songs to perform:



Happy gigging folks.

redteamleader

the only thing i could possibly add: practice

before your gig be sure and run your set for time- make sure you're within the set time you've been given. further, the pre-gig rehearsal is a good time to make sure all the sticky bits and tricky parts are coming off smoothly.

more than anything make sure you're prepared. your band's act isn't going to matter much if your songs aren't polished and ready to be played for people- no amount of stage presence is going to make up for a ****ty set. better to play a short, tight set than a long, sloppy, ill-prepared one.

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KENZI

no way!

its al about balencing between technique and tightness and stage presence. you need both for an excellent gig. if either one fails then its not going to go as well as it could, of course maxing out both is the ideal solution but neither should be lacking.

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rathmusbass

from playing a few shows i learned something. a good idea is to always play to a crowd that likes your genre. it sucks playing nu-metal in front of old grannies or playing death metal to a bunch of teens that have hardcore boners for amy lee

also some more tips for your set list....

dont play songs back-to-back that are in the same key or have very similar rhythms.

Usually if you start out with an easy song it makes the entire set flow better, because by the end of that you will have a feel of the show already.

if your entire band does not have everything down for every song then do not play the songs that you all can not play well, or dont play a gig until then.

=-p =-)

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mangablade

i never thought id do this but...



what about greenday? ****ty band imo, but you have to admit, wether or not the music is good, at concerts they can get the crowd goin (i watched 10 mins of a live show) and they interact with the audience and everything. Do i think they're smart/good musicians? no. (exception of maybe dirnt) Do i think theyre a smart/good band? yes i do. they know that their stage presence will get them pretty dam far to make up for their otherwise crappy music.

MY 2 cents. pssh

socialtool

I'm sorry but I have to say, yes they have awesome stage precence but also the sold out concerts are full of people who enjoy their music, myself included,. Would I call them great musicians, no. But I would call good musicians, they have the ability to right catchy fun music, that they enjoy and obviously lots of other people

A lot of people here confuse good music artfully, and good music for enertainment, most people don't wnat to listen to a 10 minute guitar solo regardless of how good you are,most people enjoy the parts of the music they can sing along with, they like music they can bob their head too.

I could care less about stage precence if I didn't like the bands music to be honest.

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thecameronator

the only bit of advice i could give is...wen ur making songs dont play what othere people want play what u want, what u think sounds good...otherwise u'll lose your intrest in music

SomeEvilDude

But on the other hand you'll lose the interest of the audience and possibly even get some complaints if you just play what you want to play, instead of what the audience want to hear.

For example, an emo band would not over well at a black-metal gig, a punk band at a prog. rock gig.

While it's good not to lose your sense of direction and musical interest, it's sometimes a good idea to play what other people want to hear as well, instead of just your own style. Hell, incorporate your style into other songs and genres. It's all good.

Zeus2716

Some of my own thoughts:

I hear people here talking all the time about drinking or smoking or doing other crazy **** before a show to get pumped. I disagree with that, im not sure anyone else does though. I find that when i get onstage, and i walk out of the wings into the spotlight with the crowd roaring, that gets me so pumped i dont need anything else. I think more people should try this, just going out and let the music guide them. its true, stage presence is important, but dont plan out your act. when you get up there and start grooving, everything will come to you, and it will be much more natural, and a better show. and always enjoy yourself.
just some thoughts...

pentagram_man63

Well, this is a good thread! Thanks to all who contributed, this is really useful.