Our average gig is made up of three 45 minute sets with a 15 minute break in between. Some gigs go 4 sets long. Only when we play multiple band venues do we have shorter time slots - usually 90 minutes, and at those gigs we'll play one long set.

CUTBACK

We usually play 45 minute sets, encores not included. Longer sets will be around 60-75 minutes, again without encores. In both cases: add 10 minutes if the crowd yells for more

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martianspy wrote:

I originally come from a punk/alternative musical background in which multiple bands are booked in one night, sharing the bill. It was common to play 30min, 45min, or at the very most one hour.

I now find myself in a surf band that is booking 3 hour gigs (with short breaks between sets) . Is this normal these days? I've been in two other surf bands which never played more than an hour unless it was a private party.
I am a huge surf fan and even I would not want to see the same band play for three hours.

If you came from Punk then you know the routine. 30-45 minutes of original material before the next band comes on. But there are many surf bands on here that do the multi set thing. It really depends on what market you are aiming for and playing within.

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No vocals. We're 100% instrumental. We do have a little narrative that runs between songs, and that eats up a bit of time.

CUTBACK

Most of our shows are 1 45 minute set. Sometimes 60 minutes and we played some festivals and opening gigs at 30 minutes. I feel 1 45 minute set is the best with keeping the average listeners interest.

but we have done the 3 45 minute sets with 15 minutes in between and it just seems to drawn out. I try to avoid booking those gigs.

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caddady wrote:

from a 45min st up to 3x45 min sets.

depends on the gig/venue.

A 3x45 set night(blue collar working gig) has vocal tunes to stretch time a attempt to keep em interested (the house should turn in 3 hrs, so in reality you should be able to do the 1st set again and it would be new to all but the bar and wait staff:wink:

I prefer to do a 45 to 60 min. set. On a long night you have to pace it to keep from keeling over, a single set allows you to let it all hang out, more energy, more fun!

On occasion we would recycle the first set, but I really didn't like doing that.
I think some of the best shows we had were 2 set gigs w/ 1 break.

Heck I get tired of anybody after about 2 hours

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Last edited: May 14, 2014 13:36:35

As you can see - there are two main styles of gigs.
Type 1: 1 set gigs: Original music, club/scene type of gigs - short.

Type 2: Multi set gigs - bars/restaurant/events/parties - long, and probably have a majority of cover songs.

Some Surf bands do both, but most fall into one type or the other.
When I am in active band, I only do type 1, type 2 is not really my thing, but can enjoy attending when other people do it well.

Ran

The Scimitars

Ditto for Ran's summary, based on what I see in Denver as a member of the audience. Either kind of show is fine with me. It's not like I can pick and choose. Most of the time I can't get surf or even more general instrumental period. When it's a multi-band billing I may step outside during bands I don't enjoy, or stay only for one band and then look for something else to do or just go home.

I don't mind one band all night if they're any good. Actually, it's more of a problem to hear the same 50 songs every show for several years. You get so you prize the night when somebody did something a bit differently even if it came out of a mistake or a fit of some sort.

Obviously the longer shows tend to be by bands who hope to make some money playing, and those bands tend to stick to that format of show if they can get the gigs - special occasions, concert series, certain bars, etc. They also tend to be three piece bands, so the money splits fewer ways. If they could figure out how to do it as a two piece without losing business they would.

Currently in Denver I don't see bands writing much new material. Some have in the past. Actually, at the moment nobody is doing exclusively short bills with all originals at all in an instrumental vein. Well - I may have a lead on one doing "spy" that I haven't seen yet, but otherwise I haven't heard anything like that since 2012. I'm not counting some "experimental metal" efforts. I wore out on those.

The short set places are often special performance venues with stages and sound people (and of course a bar), catering to bands who want exposure as much or more than money. These may feature larger touring acts or special events when they can get them. Places that are basically bars or coffee houses may do either approach or both, often more of an informal sound setup or none. Surf bands, of course, usually sound pretty good managing their own sound. Better even.

When garage bands (vs. surf) do the short set thing sometimes it's not so much originals as an original take on arrangements. That works for surf too when you think how large a body of material there is to work with.

A third type of gig I have seen locally in one restaurant and bar location is a one or two short set presentation during dinner, before the main bill, which might be one band, or two, playing the usual after dinner time span. A lucky band might get a gig like that followed by a full gig elsewhere afterward.

I would like to revise my answer to "I'd rather not say in public."

35-40 minutes is ideal. We normally play 40-45. 45 is approaching too long.