# Set list Length?



## Demeyes (Dec 3, 2008)

Just wondering how long your normal set list is?
When I played covers in a band we did 1.5-3 hours regularly enough. With my original metal band we generally get 30-45 mins. I've seen gigs where bands have played as little as 15min for their set but at most gigs here it about 30 for suppport upto max an hour for an originals band.


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## thedownside (Dec 3, 2008)

we normally play around 45-55 minutes. although we did play a festival this summer, 2 shows, almost 3 hours per show


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## darren (Dec 3, 2008)

We typically structure a 30-45 minute set, as that's usually all we get.

We once hosted a CD release set where we played two hour-long sets of all original stuff. It was brutal and exhausting.


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## Meldville (Dec 3, 2008)

30 minutes typically, never more than 45. I firmly believe that unless you're Slayer or Priest (or someone of that caliber), nobody really wants to hear you play for hours.


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## ZXIIIT (Dec 3, 2008)

My band usually plays for 35 minutes.


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## hairychris (Dec 9, 2008)

30 minutes seems to be pretty much what I've ended up playing. Not outstaying your welcome seems to be the way to go if you're playing originals and you aren't a known act...


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## MF_Kitten (Dec 9, 2008)

25-30 minutes is as long as my band&#180;s gone yet. one of my earlier bands got like 45 minutes once though, that was cool 

but if you&#180;re the band people are coming to see, then an hour to an hour and a half is a good length.

i can&#180;t wait till my band has made enough material to play for that long... yeeeah!


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## TheAceOfSpades1 (Dec 9, 2008)

My current band hasn't played any shows yet but the old band's shows were generally around 25 minutes. Our longest set ran close to 50 minutes. And our shortest was about 15 minutes.


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## petereanima (Dec 10, 2008)

we ussually play something between 30-45 minutes - depending on how much time we GET and if then really someone should scream for more hahaha...

i like to play 30 minute sets most, because thats also what i enjoy when i see bands in that genre. i lose attention when i see unknown "brutal" bands for longer than 45 minutes.


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## Benjo230 (Dec 10, 2008)

Our set list remains the same constantly (which runs upto around 45 minutes including little talks with the crowd etc...). If we've been given a half hour slot, we just drop the least impressive song/s...

Shortest set was about 15 minutes...we only got to play 2 songs


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## 7deadlysins666 (Dec 11, 2008)

We've got two sets we practice 30 min and 45 min......our next show caught us off guard...we get an hour! hahaha. We had to add a few things. We're going to do "the Ripper" and then let our drummer sing Mother (singer on drums) at the end of our set. Should be fun.


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## Naren (Dec 11, 2008)

Most of our shows are 30 minutes long. The shortest show I ever played was 20 minutes long and that sucked because we were planning on playing 7 songs and we only got to play 5. But someone who had come to the last 3 shows said that the shorter set list seemed a lot more powerful and crazy. The longest show we've ever played so far was either 35 or 40 minutes, I don't remember.


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## Randy (Dec 11, 2008)

30 - 45 minutes, here.

An hour sometimes, but in most of those situations that includes load-in and load-out; which comes out to about 45 minutes of playtime anyway.


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## Shannon (Dec 11, 2008)

For my past original bands: 45-75 minutes.

For my current cover bands: three 45-50 minute sets per night

For my AIC Tribute: the show averages 150 minutes. Sometimes it's one long set, but the last show was so long, we had to do a 15 minute intermission between 2 sets (110 minutes set, intermission, 70 minute set). Looooong night.


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## Munky7Head (Dec 11, 2008)

my old band was a metalcore band (MySpace.com - Boris Wheatley - RICHMOND, Virginia - Death Metal / Hardcore / Metal - www.myspace.com/boriswheatley) and our set lated maybe 15 mins. I would say average, 30-45.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Dec 16, 2008)

hairychris said:


> 30 minutes seems to be pretty much what I've ended up playing. Not outstaying your welcome seems to be the way to go if you're playing originals and you aren't a known act...


+1

Play 30-35 minutes, then leave. People tend to get bored the longer you play, you are better off playing your best stuff, and culling the weaker tracks and building a set that showcases your band, and leaves people wanting more.


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## Nick (Dec 16, 2008)

+1 again

We'll aim to play for about 30 or 40 mins and fint 6 songs into that which is enough to not be short but not long enough to bore people.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Dec 16, 2008)

Yep, I do think 5-6 songs is a happy medium, even if it is fun to play way more


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## Demeyes (Dec 16, 2008)

7 Dying Trees said:


> Yep, I do think 5-6 songs is a happy medium, even if it is fun to play way more



Yeah, I'd agree, depending on the length of the songs. I've seen bands play well over an hour and really lose the crowd. They end up playing to a much smaller crowd than what they started with. 
Seems like most people play around the same length regardless of where it's at. 
One thing that I find about culling songs is that my band ends up fully dropping songs after we stop playing it live. We've dumped almost our entire set that we started gigging with at this stage. It's not really a conscious thing, we tend to favour new songs because they are new and gradually we play the older songs less and less.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Dec 16, 2008)

Demeyes said:


> Yeah, I'd agree, depending on the length of the songs. I've seen bands play well over an hour and really lose the crowd. They end up playing to a much smaller crowd than what they started with.
> Seems like most people play around the same length regardless of where it's at.
> One thing that I find about culling songs is that my band ends up fully dropping songs after we stop playing it live. We've dumped almost our entire set that we started gigging with at this stage. It's not really a conscious thing, we tend to favour new songs because they are new and gradually we play the older songs less and less.


Happens all the time, the old ones that then survive are the better ones 

Or, you just mix it up, keep some old ones, and circulate them in between the new, every gig, just to keep playing them, plus, means you have more if required


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## NKGP (Jan 22, 2009)

I think this depends most on what type of band you are.

I know a sludge bands that plays very slow and long songs. They really build up tension slowly and mostly plays sets of 40 minutes or more. If they'd play only 20-25 minutes, you just wouldn't get anywhere near the same tension and climax.

Another band I know plays very agressive and fast hardcore. Most of their songs are less than 3 minutes. They get on stage, say who they are and become a furious machine for 20-25 minutes. With the way they play and exhaust the audience, you can't play longer than 30 minutes.


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## FoxZero (Jan 23, 2009)

I say it depends on the situation.

If you are playing with multiple bands then I say 30-45 minutes (including set up time) is fine. However I feel my band could play longer and keep ears tuned in as our sound varies greatly and we fit into to various rock and metal sub-genres, we probably vary too greatly lol, but hey I would get bored of my own material if it was all the same genre.

I say if you are the headlining act then people came to see _you_ so your set should be at least an hour. If longer then I say start throwing in intermissions to keep from wearing yourself and the crowd out.


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