Sorting the set list order

[whimsy23]

Interesting topic. My band agrees our set order in a minute! We hardly disagree on anything really but that's just us. We tend to open up with a couple of fast numbers (not that there is really any slow ones lol), play our most well known song in the middle and end with what someone actually called the 'pop song' haha. It is a lot simple and less crazy than the others though. We also try to seperate the couple which make our hands hurt and knacker the drummer out.

Also, I strongly disagree about playing songs that have same notes/keys next to each other, we do this all the time and have a couple of easy, slow, doomy jammed parts inbetween them (which also serves as a rest). As long as you make it clear where one song ends and the other starts (basically, if your audience doesn't know your stuff, leave a reasonable gap inbetween them, 20-30 seconds) there is no problem. On a similar note, in heavy music, bands use the open chord in practically every song anyway so it's unavoidable.

[dc2009]

Quite frequently playing in pubs I find the start time is far from set in stone, but changable right up until you go on, sometimes I've been told, grab your bass you're on in under 30s because the DJ has already gone for a fag! In these situations, warm up before you go on isn't ideal/possible, which is sort of why I don't like fast songs at the start of a set.

[Panamonte]

[quote name='TimR' post='1290282' date='Jul 2 2011, 05:11 PM']It really, really does.


Well, if you read the rest of my post then you'll see how I qualified that statement. There's no magic formula and swapping tunes around to try and fit said mythical magic formula will only serve to annoy your band mates. Settle on a setlist in the order [b]you[/b] like. It won't be the way your band mates like and it won't be the order that anyone in your audiences would chose either. It's down to one person to select/call the tunes and a [b]lot[/b] of time is wasted by people in bands endlessly discussing whether tune A should be before or after tune B. It happens in [b]every[/b] band I've ever been in and I suspect from the replies here it happens in every band that I haven't been in too.[/quote]

Yes, I do take your point, but I also think that if you've decided on a selection of songs that you - as a band - are all happy with, it's worth taking time to put them together in an order that makes some kind of narrative and/or dynamic sense. It's not rocket science, but it does have an effect on how the audience perceives you in your magnificent totality