Frosty Jack Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 in my opinion any "local" band playing for more than about 25 minutes is just pointless and comes down to stage wankery.Shorter sets are far better.What if they just have loads of great songs that people might want to hear? Personally if I go to see a band I like, I expect them to work a bit for my money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Milner Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 in my opinion any "local" band playing for more than about 25 minutes is just pointless and comes down to stage wankery.Shorter sets are far better.Ill remember that next time i see Your Fears then.There are a heap of reasons for playing longer than 25 mins and none of them are about stage wankery, thats just a silly statement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofdeon Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Ill remember that next time i see Your Fears then.There are a heap of reasons for playing longer than 25 mins and none of them are about stage wankery, thats just a silly statement.Totally i think playing for 25 mins is pointless. Min of 35mins i'd say.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundefex Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Totally i think playing for 25 mins is pointless. Min of 35mins i'd say..35 minutes is good for locals bands as long as they stick to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundian Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 How long should your set be? Ideally, few minutes less than the promoter has asked you to play! If your set is significantly less than the time you've been allotted let the promoter/engineer know. Starting the gig 15 minutes later is infinitely preferable to having a huge gap in the evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Exposure @ Lemon Tree Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 25 minute sets look rushed in my opinion.I don't think there's much point in playing much less than 30 minutes.I'm with Ian - a little bit less than your allocated time slot. This can vary from gig to gig. We can quite comfortably fill 50 minutes to an hour, but we normally get 30-40 minute sets. I think our best set would be about 40 minutes as we can play all our good* songs, and leave out the ones we're not so sure of.(*good in our opinion)We once got told to play 10 minutes. We were supporting The Departure at the Tunnels, and it was a little under promoted - only about 5 folk there when we were due onstage. The engineer told us to hang off a bit to see if it got busy. The Departure walked in and demanded that we go on immediately and that our set get cut short cos there was no way they were playing later than their allotted time. The engineer said we'd have to play 10 minutes - we negotiated up to 20 minutes - we would have otherwise just not played cos 10 minutes is beyond pointless. We played 4 songs and quickly got off stage.Just our luck that there was a guy from STV music reviewing the gig, and one of his comments on our performance was that the set was "rushed"....We did get 2 out of 5, which was 1 better than the Departure though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooms Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 lol, milner clearly you've never seen us, or at least not since i've been in the band, we've never ever played for more than 30 minutes and our set time is currently 25 minutes including banter time.the reason i think this is that at 'local' gigs there is generally a few different sytles/genres of bands and people attending. Playing 4/5 songs for 25 minutes is more than enough to show people who you are and what you sound like...any longer and people tend to get bored of you and want the "main" band to come on. I think a local band playing their tunes to their mates for 35 mins+ is just a bit silly. I don't see what you add to your set/sound by being on stage for that long.It's obviously different if you're say a touring band with album out and actual fans etc. But from a local support point of view I don't see any reason to go over the half hour mark. Peferably a little less. Not to mention it helps the gig run smoother and able to get the headliner on quicker, avoiding the post 10 pm exodus that often occurs due to 'last bus syndrome'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 25 minute sets look rushed in my opinion.I don't think there's much point in playing much less than 30 minutes.I'm with Ian - a little bit less than your allocated time slot. This can vary from gig to gig. We can quite comfortably fill 50 minutes to an hour, but we normally get 30-40 minute sets. I think our best set would be about 40 minutes as we can play all our good* songs, and leave out the ones we're not so sure of.(*good in our opinion)We once got told to play 10 minutes. We were supporting The Departure at the Tunnels, and it was a little under promoted - only about 5 folk there when we were due onstage. The engineer told us to hang off a bit to see if it got busy. The Departure walked in and demanded that we go on immediately and that our set get cut short cos there was no way they were playing later than their allotted time. The engineer said we'd have to play 10 minutes - we negotiated up to 20 minutes - we would have otherwise just not played cos 10 minutes is beyond pointless. We played 4 songs and quickly got off stage.Just our luck that there was a guy from STV music reviewing the gig, and one of his comments on our performance was that the set was "rushed"....We did get 2 out of 5, which was 1 better than the Departure though The Departure sound like twats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Milner Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 lol, milner clearly you've never seen us, or at least not since i've been in the band, we've never ever played for more than 30 minutes and our set time is currently 25 minutes including banter time.the reason i think this is that at 'local' gigs there is generally a few different sytles/genres of bands and people attending. Playing 4/5 songs for 25 minutes is more than enough to show people who you are and what you sound like...any longer and people tend to get bored of you and want the "main" band to come on. I think a local band playing their tunes to their mates for 35 mins+ is just a bit silly. I don't see what you add to your set/sound by being on stage for that long.It's obviously different if you're say a touring band with album out and actual fans etc. But from a local support point of view I don't see any reason to go over the half hour mark. Peferably a little less. Not to mention it helps the gig run smoother and able to get the headliner on quicker, avoiding the post 10 pm exodus that often occurs due to 'last bus syndrome'.i guess its a bit of a nonargument really is it? Most people will have different opinions on this, the bit i really disagreed with was when you said bands who play longer and "stage wanking" or whatever you said, i dont agree with that at all, there are good reasons to play longer than 25 minutes if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest treader. Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 I once saw Blink 182 play live for like 2 hours. Wankers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unbroken Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 It's so subjective this whole stage time thing...Personally, for me, I'm happy when headliners play for 40 mins to 45 mins. It's enough time to not get bored by them, gives them a chance to play around an albums worth of material and I always find after a set like that I will always leave satisfied, or leave wanting more, which is perfect as I'd go see them again if they ever came back.Saw Isis once, they played the entirety of Panopticon and then a couple encores, NEVER AGAIN. I love Isis, just not that much....Generally, 25mins to 30mins is perfect for most local bands, what a lot of bands don't seem to realise is that a set of that length is actually helping you professionally, if you do it properly, you can get through quite a few songs if you cut the banter a bit and just focus a bit more on your songs. Makes you seem like a better band if you do it this way.Oh...one thing that REALLY pisses me off, when bands have a certain time to be onstage, ready to play but at that time, one member is fucking off to get a drink/have a shit, its like, fucking hell, do you realise you are meant to be starting NOW! You had all this time to get a drink and sort yourself out and you choose your stage time to do it. This is just one of THE MOST irritating things ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooms Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 ...Generally, 25mins to 30mins is perfect for most local bands, what a lot of bands don't seem to realise is that a set of that length is actually helping you professionally, if you do it properly, you can get through quite a few songs if you cut the banter a bit and just focus a bit more on your songs. Makes you seem like a better band if you do it this way.I guess this was just a better way of saying what I was trying to say before. But yes, I agree with this.Oh...one thing that REALLY pisses me off, when bands have a certain time to be onstage, ready to play but at that time, one member is fucking off to get a drink/have a shit, its like, fucking hell, do you realise you are meant to be starting NOW! You had all this time to get a drink and sort yourself out and you choose your stage time to do it. This is just one of THE MOST irritating things ever.Yeah this is REALLY annoying. A couple of times my own band members (well, member) has done this and with the other 4 people sat up on stage ready to go (maybe even lights dimmed/music off) it just looks so shit!! Not to even mention the whole eating into your set time argument! Hate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teabags Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Oh...one thing that REALLY pisses me off, when bands have a certain time to be onstage, ready to play but at that time, one member is fucking off to get a drink/have a shit, its like, fucking hell, do you realise you are meant to be starting NOW! You had all this time to get a drink and sort yourself out and you choose your stage time to do it. This is just one of THE MOST irritating things ever.Maybe he's shitting himself about going on stage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonade Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Maybe he's shitting himself about going on stage?I got caught short in the Tunnels once, right as we were about to go on I suddenly got the stomach cramps and had to dash off to take a power dump. Last time we played the Moorings I was actually standing at the urinals mid-stream when I heard Flash introduce us."Next up it's Cobra Kai!"*big cheer*Then silence as they expect the band to start playing.And I'm still pissing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan G Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 It's so subjective this whole stage time thing...Personally, for me, I'm happy when headliners play for 40 mins to 45 mins. It's enough time to not get bored by them, gives them a chance to play around an albums worth of material and I always find after a set like that I will always leave satisfied, or leave wanting more, which is perfect as I'd go see them again if they ever came back.Saw Isis once, they played the entirety of Panopticon and then a couple encores, NEVER AGAIN. I love Isis, just not that much....Generally, 25mins to 30mins is perfect for most local bands, what a lot of bands don't seem to realise is that a set of that length is actually helping you professionally, if you do it properly, you can get through quite a few songs if you cut the banter a bit and just focus a bit more on your songs. Makes you seem like a better band if you do it this way.Oh...one thing that REALLY pisses me off, when bands have a certain time to be onstage, ready to play but at that time, one member is fucking off to get a drink/have a shit, its like, fucking hell, do you realise you are meant to be starting NOW! You had all this time to get a drink and sort yourself out and you choose your stage time to do it. This is just one of THE MOST irritating things ever.YES to all of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfer_Rosa Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 I usually drop a pre-performance brown snake, I think it lets me play better. Though I do try and make sure it's not right before we're meant to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soda Jerk Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 25 minute sets look rushed in my opinion.I don't think there's much point in playing much less than 30 minutes.Hi!You know we play for like... 17 minutes, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeid Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 I usually drop a pre-performance brown snake, I think it lets me play better. Though I do try and make sure it's not right before we're meant to play.I did this tonight, no... last night, gah, they all blend in the same to me just now.I always take at least two or three shits before I play, but never right before I hit the stage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonhenry Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 I usually drop a pre-performance brown snake, I think it lets me play better. Though I do try and make sure it's not right before we're meant to play.Naw, just do the Iggy Pop thing and let it fly right there on the stage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundian Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Oh...one thing that REALLY pisses me off, when bands have a certain time to be onstage, ready to play but at that time, one member is fucking off to get a drink/have a shit, its like, fucking hell, do you realise you are meant to be starting NOW! You had all this time to get a drink and sort yourself out and you choose your stage time to do it. This is just one of THE MOST irritating things ever. That annoys me as well. It's not difficult to be on-stage on time, technical problems aside, so why so many bands fail is beyond me. If I've got a strict curfew I tell the bands that I don't care what time they start their set, but they're going to finish when they're scheduled to finish. That seems to work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 I must say, I'm quite a fan of the short, sharp shock approach to sets. 25 minutes of good music will always blow me away more than 40 minutes of tedius noodling, topped off with the oh-so-predictable climax of noise/turn on delay pedals/leave guitar against monitor and leave ending.I mean this in regard to "local" bands - I'd happily watch (and have) Idlewild or good period Radiohead for ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Exposure @ Lemon Tree Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 topped off with the oh-so-predictable climax of noise/turn on delay pedals/leave guitar against monitor and leave ending.You should probably go to the toilet just before the end of our last song on 17th April Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Hehe, oops! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfer_Rosa Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 topped off with the oh-so-predictable climax of noise/turn on delay pedals/leave guitar against monitor and leave ending.How about if it's backwards delay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Hey, I was in bands in Dundee in the 90s, I've had my fill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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