How Many Sets Does Your Band Play at a Gig?

[Ken]

For your standard 4 hour gig, How many sets do you play?

It seems that for the longest time, the standard has been 4 sets and 3 breaks (15 minutes each break).

 

[Bankston]

We play about 3 hours. Depending on the venue, we either play 3 hour sets or 4 sets of 45 min.

 

[Loud Librarian]

We do 3 sets, 4 hours, 2 breaks of about 15 min. or so. Our sets are around 17-18 songs, kind of long sometimes so we end up cutting songs or having a shorter 3rd set.

 

[matthet]

for the 3 hour gig, if thr crowd is bumpin we go the whole way through!

 

[crzyfngers]

we do 3. it's hard to keep track of time unless things aren't going well. an hour for the first set and a longer second and third set. sometimes that second set will run 2 hours. i enjoy my work.:RoCkIn and we never use a set list. so we don't keep count of how many songs either.

 

[Victor R]

Four 45 minute sets.

 

[StompBoxBlues]

What am I missing here..."sets" aren't finite in time are they?

Isn't it more useful (I am totally ready to believe I misssed an important point here) to ask "how many sets, and how many songs in each set?"?

 

[shallbe]

Three to four, just depending on crowd reaction. I prefer three longer sets.

 

[Gas-man]

4 hours--4 sets.

Approx 17 beers.

 

[billm408]

Typical show for us is 10:00- 1:30 (ish). We'll play 3 sets.

A 45 minute warm up the crowd set.
A 90+ minute keep 'em drinking set.
And a 30-40 minute sweep out the drunks set.

 

[tone4days]

We do 3 sets, 4 hours, 2 breaks of about 15 min. or so. Our sets are around 17-18 songs, kind of long sometimes so we end up cutting songs or having a shorter 3rd set.

this

 

[drgonzoguitar]

Four 45 minute sets...

 

[edgewound]

Four 45 minute sets...

That's typical for a four hour bar gig. Depends on the gig and the overall program.

We recently did a corporate gig at Santa Anita Racetrack. We played 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off when the horses were on the track...sometimes longer...so we ate....and ate some more.

But..it was a loooong day. Arrived 9:30am to set up. Got to leave at 6pm when the park was empty.

 

[Ken]

Maybe its just me, but I'm an older guy, so for those late night Bar gigs, I really want the full three 15 minute breaks....

Going all night with only two short breaks for the amount of money the bar's pay seem like a lot of work for little return.

Back in the old days, four 45 min sets were pretty much the standard.

 

[Jon Silberman]

I'm kinda surprised at the responses. Perhaps your areas have greater call for single-band gigs. In my neck of the woods, these days, it's uncommon to find those anymore.

 

[Casey]

We kinda do different things depending on how long the gig is...

4 hour gig = 3 - 1 hour sets, and 2 - 30 min breaks
3 hour gig = 2 - 75 min sets, 1 30 min break
2 hour gig = 1 - 2 hour set

And thats how we roll up in North Cackalacky

 

[RickNew]

Typical show for us is 10:00- 1:30 (ish). We'll play 3 sets.

A 45 minute warm up the crowd set.
A 90+ minute keep 'em drinking set.
And a 30-40 minute sweep out the drunks set.

Never thought of doing a long middle set but that seems to make a lot of sense to me. thanks Bill

 

[Phil M]

In my old band we usually started around 10:00-10:30 and finished at 1:30-1:45. We did two really long sets and took a 20-30 minute break in the middle.

My new group that hasn't played out yet has discussed this. I think we'll do 3 45 minute sets. We need about 10 more songs though--we only have 30. My old band had a few long songs with jams and a couple with audience participation. The stuff we're doing now doesn't really have that so I think we need more material. We're mostly doing 3 minute pop/rock songs.

 

[GCDEF]

Usually four. The fourth is usually a little shorter than the others. If the place is really hopping, sometimes we'll just play a long third set.

 

[johnny q]

3 Sets at roughly an hour a piece.