Kramerguy wrote:jw123 wrote: I start Sweet Home and the dance floor fills up, Roadhouse Blues the dance floor fills up, Hard To Handle the dance floor fills up. Why I dont know, I would rather play something newer and more challenging just like you. I just suggest as you build a song list to have a few of these in there just in case you run into that kinda crowd.
And chances are that if you are playing a bar, firehouse, or private club, the people will want to hear the standards. I've slowly come to accept the same thing, people SAY they want to hear this and that, but when you learn and play it, you get crickets and no dance floor activity. I'd rather play sweet home alabama and get a party going than play a 12 minute ode to Tool (which I saw done in a bar.. it was amazing and not one person cared, except me, and I wasn't dancin) and get nothing....
No to derail the topic, I just found this point interesting.
Kramer,
We play some Rage Against The Machine, SoundGarden, Chilli Peppers and if you have the right crowd on hand these bands get people up headbanging. Ive seen it again and again, but if the right people arent there, these songs fall on deaf ears and you actually start to lose people. The crazy thing is the people that headbang to the above songs also get up and dance to the old tryed and true standards. Sad But True
Its really easy on a forum to talk about what people will listen to, but when youve got 150 people in front of you wanting to party. You need to entertain them and keep them dancing. If you are a new band you can ussually get your friends to support you for a couple of shows and it makes you feel vindicated in your choice of songs, but once they get tired of you and youve done say 20 shows in your area you will find out what works and what doesnt. Different places may be different, I just speak form where I stand and the people that come to see my group.
When I make these comments Im not saying to not play what you want to play, but I think having 10-15 of these bars standards in your bag of tricks can be the difference between a successful gig and a dissapointing one. Our band kind of puts our own stamp on songs, they are quite a bit heavier in person than the radio versions. Take Sweet Home, I always start it by the book the first few bars and then we may turn it into a raggae song or a metal just depending on what we are feeling like at the time. Ive turned my delay on and turned it into a U2 sounding song before. I will add here that if you want to be truelly successful in the bar scene that you probably need 80-120 songs in your list in order to keep people happy. If you can play a couple of request for folks they will come back again and again. If someone that is paying to see you wants to hear some song and you work it up for them you will have a fan for life. Our band has a few folks like that that have been coming to see us for 20 yrs. Yrs ago I would ask people what do you want us to play, and if we didnt know it and it suited us we would work it up for them. Those folks are still fans.
