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Location: Jet City | I did a search and didn't really see a topic dedicated to this.
I'm up to 18 songs I feel comfortable playing and singing, but really it all started out as just fun and learning things I liked.
That said, most is Neil Young and Dave Matthews, so I've been starting to learn some more non Dave/Neil things to play. I think originally I only had one song aside from Dave/Neil I was singing and playing, but now it's up to 6.
I'd be VERY INTERESTED in hearing what some of the rest of you are playing/singin in a solo or duo type atmosphere. I've done 2 open mics now, and getting ready to do the 3rd Wednesday. I wouldn't mind learning one more to add before then, and then 2 or 3 for next week.
Here's what I've got so far...
• From The Beginning - Greg Lake - 12
• Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young - DD
• Typical Situation - Dave Matthews - 12
• Disease - Matchbox 20 - C2
• Down By The River - Neil Young - DD
• Grace is Gone - Dave Matthews - 12
• Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town - Pearl Jam
• Bartender - Dave Matthews - DD
• I Am a Child - Neil Young - 12
• Dancing Nancies - Dave Matthews
• Don't Let It Bring You Down - Neil Young - DD
• Wild World - Cat Stevens
• Gravedigger - Dave Matthews - 12
• Lightning Crashes - Live
• Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young - 12
• Crush - Dave Matthews - DD
• Ohio - Neil Young - DD
• Annie's Song - John Denver - C2
And I haven't done it yet, but I can do a mean "Tonight You Belong To Me" on the Uke.
DD=Double Drop D tuning
12=12 String
C2=Capo 2nd fret |
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Location: Jet City | P.S. I know we have the "Pop Quiz", but there's too much crap in there. 'm more interested in things that are working for you live that the crowds are digging on. |
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Location: south east Michigan | And I'm sure you're askin' for SET lists... not what is in the songbook. |
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Location: Jet City | right, songs you do pretty much every time.
I have a bunch more too, and hundreds more if I don't have to sing. |
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Location: south east Michigan | oops... timed out...
Off the top of my head....
Can't Explain
Kids Are Alright*
No Sugar
Share the Land
Ticket to Ride*
Natures Way
Knights In White Satin*
Won't Get Fooled Again
Don't Let Me Down
Secret Agent Man*
I Feel Fine
Thank You
Crazy Love*
Mrs. Brown*
Nowhere Man
Two Of Us
Something
Pretty Woman*
Wonderful Tonight*
The ones tagged with a * are songs we think are overplayed but we do them anyway. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | No that I'm working on... but I would if I could.
Plush = STP
Overkill = Men At Work
Superman = 3 Doors Down
On Overkill. I heard the guy from MAW sing/perform it with just an Acoustic on "Scrubs".. I liked it more than the Album version. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Oooo. Overkill is also on my list of things to do. I got inspired by the Scrubs (great show) version myself. |
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Location: Las Vegas, NV | This may be a little strange, but Overkill is the first song I learned to play on the guitar. I also liked the 'Scrubs' version. Anyone heard the Tenacious D medley where they do a little Overkill? |
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Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by Slipkid:
Oooo. Overkill is also on my list of things to do. An understated guy like you? |
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Location: NJ | That one's one of my faves (and "goes over" well, too . . .)
I played that one the first OFCjam at the SkiLodge, but I don't think it made the video . . . |
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Location: Scotland | My band does about 50/50 originals/covers. The covers are in a constant state of flux and are loose interpretations rather than note-for-note and most of it has a twist of some kind. currently we're playing:
Dead Flowers (Stones)
For What It’s worth (Buffalo springfield)
Sympathy (GooGoo Dolls)
The Joker (Miller)
Love The One You’re With (Stills)
Ride On (Christy Moore)
Show Me a Little Shame (Ben Harper)
My Girl (Lifted from a Hiatt live bootleg)
With Or Without You (U2)
Ooh La La (Ronnie Lane)
Price Of Love (Everlys)
Wild World (Yusuf Islam)
Underneath The Stars (Peter Case)
Caledonia (Dougie McLean)
The Weight (The Band)
Unforgiven (Bap Kennedy)
Mercury Blues (Lindley)
We also have a few throwaway crowd-pleasers, Crowded House, The Killers and a bunch of other stuff I hate playing. Right now We're working on material by Tom Waits, The Monkees, Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne. We're also about to include "Overkill" Mostly due to Cliff playing it at my wedding gig and the guys in the band going "Hey, we need to do that" |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | My set list this week is "Lost Her Mind" with the opener of "Broken Gospell Band". |
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Location: Jet City | Good suggestions all, keep 'em coming!
Miles, Plush was one I was thinking of doing. Nice call.
Overkill looks promising.
Temp, I was wondering why a few I hadn't heard of. They must be regional hits? I like The Weight, but there's another band there that seems to like to do that one. Harper, GooGoo Dolls, Buffalo Springfield, all good stuff. Very similar to the stuff I'm doing already.
Thanks for the ideas all. Send more if you got 'em. |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Ya ought to catch John B. for this one. That guy knows some 300+ songs for solo performing. If I could only get that guy to go camping...we need him around the campfire at night. He's got a great setlist of tunes...check out his website it's on there...or most of it.
http://jebmusic.com/our_music.html |
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Location: Jet City | wow, that's one helluva list. Thanks! |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by Damon67:
Temp, I was wondering why a few I hadn't heard of. They must be regional hits? Our only criteria for picking songs to cover is we have to like them, and we have to be able to do a credible version with our own slant. We never choose a song just because it's well-known and we couldn't really care less if the audience is familiar with them. If you perform any song well enough, with conviction, then it'll work for the vast majority of audiences who are interested in music (rather than a crowd who want background noise while they drink) |
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Location: Maple Shade, NJ. | Damon, we always have a great response to just about anything Beatles. |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Not solo or duet, but this we are a trio. The main things we look for are:
1) Great songs
2) Lots of variety...I can't stand an act that sounds the same all night long!
3) We generally limit to two, maybe three tops by the same artist in one night.
This seems to be pretty much our standard grouping right now:
Set 1:
Substitute (The Who)
Good (Better than Ezra)
Let It Rain (EC)
Paint it Black (Stones)
Stacy's Mom (Worlds of Wayne)
Run Like Hell (Floyd)
Smokin In The Boy's Room (Brownsville Station ish)
Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts)
Broken Hearted Savior (Big Head Todd)
Possum Kingdom (Toadies)
Set 2:
Born On The Bayou (Creedence)
Gel (Collective Soul)
Gimme Some Money (Spinal Tap)
You Don't Know How It Feels (Petty)
Stray Cat Strut (Cats)
Hey Jealousy (Gin Blossoms)
Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top)
Can't Get Enough (Bad Company)
Fast As You (Dwight Yoakum)
Funk #49 (James Gang)
Set 3
Runnin Down a Dream (Petty)
Keep Your Hands To Yourself (Georgia Satellites)
Hard to Handle (Black Crows)
Rockin Me (Steve Miller)
Face in the Crowd (Petty)
Saw Her Standin There (Beatles)
Californication (RHCP)
3:00am (Can't remember...)
Crossroads (Cream)
Set 4:
Mary Had a Little Lamb (SRV)
Moondance
Who Do You Love (Bo)
Lookin Out The Window (SRV)
Jenny Jenny
Squeeze Box (Who)
Pink Cadillac
Islands in the Sun (Weezer)
What I Like About You
Good Love Is On The Way (John Mayer) |
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Location: NJ | ". . it'll work for the vast majority of audiences who are interested in music (rather than a crowd who want background noise while they drink) . ."
One of the things that I found REALLY cool when I "went over" t'visit Paul was that when you're playing music, the people there LISTEN.
Even during his wedding reception (which was a knock-down/drag-out "party"), as soon as we started t'play, everyone settled down, was attentive, listened, and was responsive (until the "dance tunes", then all decorum went out the window).
Even at the pubs . . .
when the music started, there were no TV's, no invasive "chattering" etc.
. . . people listened, people applauded.
It was very similar to WedNite at th'Mermaid.
People were there "to hear music".
It was quite refreshing. |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Cliff - I had the opposite experience last week. We went to a place called "Red, Hot and Blues" - basically a hotel restaurant/bar. We went for some BBQ and some blues. There was a small stage (i don't think you can even call it that) then the bar, then the restaurant. There was a good three piece blues band playing and the bar was not crowded, but full. Not once did anyone at the bar applaud, or even seem to notice the band. We were the only ones clapping or leaving a tip. I felt pretty bad for them. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'm a Man --- Bo Diddley
Love is a Burning Thing --- Johnny Cash
La Bamba / Twist and Shout medley
I Saw the Light --- Hank Williams
Do you wanna dance --- Beach Boys
Soul of a Man --- Jimmy Driftwood (via Terry Hendrix)
I wanna be Sedated --- Ramones
Somewhere Over the Rainbow / Wonderful World medley via Izzy
Louie Louie --- Kingsgmen
Shout --- Beatles Version |
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Location: NJ | ". . Not once did anyone at the bar applaud, or even seem to notice the band . . ."
Exactly.
When Rick & I were playing t'gether, there were a couple places like that.
When we'd tell the mgr. that we didn't wanna play there anymore, the response would be
"Why NOT?? . . You Guys're GREAT!! . . Everybody Here LOVES YouGuys!! . . yadayadaya . . . "
There are places where 90% of the night is a CricketFest, then when you announce it's your LastTune of the night, all the drunks treat you like you're a friggin' GOD, and don't want you t'leave . . .
Rick & I used t'call that:
"F@ckYou/PayMe Time". |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I think that the reality is that in many venues, we (as performers) are not the reason that people are there. People go to bars and restaurants to eat, talk with friends, watch the game etc. The fact that they are not responsive doesn't mean that they are not enjoying the music, it just means that they don't want to stop what they're doing to applaud.
I can't tell you how many times I've been half way through a gig, convinced that I was totally tanking, only to find out at the end of the gig that everyone (mainly the management) were very happy with the performance. It's just something that I think that we either have to accept, or just take the "fun" gigs. Of course, it's a lot more fun to play to a receptive crowd, but the way I see it, playing music to "crickets" is still better than toiling away at a job that you hate. My worst night playing music is better than my best day at almost any other job that I've had.
That said, I can bitch and moan about crowds with the best of them. ;) (Don't say it, Cliff) |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Originally posted by Strummin12:
Ya ought to catch John B. for this one. That guy knows some 300+ songs for solo performing. If I could only get that guy to go camping...we need him around the campfire at night. He's got a great setlist of tunes...check out his website it's on there...or most of it.
http://jebmusic.com/our_music.html |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by John B:
People go to bars and restaurants to eat, talk with friends, watch the game etc. The fact that they are not responsive doesn't mean that they are not enjoying the music, it just means that they don't want to stop what they're doing to applaud. +1
As a counter example, we played at a "Battle of the Bands" on Sunday. Very different environment. The audience was listening and paying attention, applauded at the end of each song, and even applauded when we finished our set. Not your typical bar gig.
Mostly, we just want to get them dancing. |
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Location: Jet City | John B, there's some really good stuff on your list I plan on stealin'. Great demos too.
Omaha, that's a great list too. I just started learning Good Love Is On The Way last night. How's that one working for you guys?
Cliff, too funny. The bar I've been going to is EXACTLY like that, crickets until the drunks at the end. I have noticed that it can be affected some depending on what song you're playing. Some seem to act like good background music. I need to get those replaced on the list. Or maybe the key is to get them with an attention grabber, then slip in a sleeper?
Thanks for the input all. It's been a great help.
Oh Fuzzy, how you doin man? I'm taking good care of that Legend. |
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| Yep nothing like a good crowd. When your just treated like background noise and an annoyance to the drunks who are veying for attention then the night takes forever to get through and I find myself looking at my watch to be sure I do not play one minute longer than I need to. Even ending a song early if need be. An appreciative crowd gets more, that the business.
Here's a few (approx 60) that might help you out. I have odd set lists and I also have my own versions of some of these songs and when I have a good crowd I get lots of compliments on the variety I switch this list around all the time and try to add more when I can now............Working on Overkill now myself. great song;
FLOYD
Wish you were here, pigs on the wing 1&2, DOGS, Brain Damage, On the Turning Away, Is there anybody out there, Blue Sky, Mother, Welcome to the Machine.
ZEPPELIN Acoustic
Ten Years Gone, That's The Way, Gallows Pole, Ramble On, Dancin Days, Thank You, Hey Hey What can I say, Bron Ar Yur. Working on Going to California....?? tough one for me so far? Stairway to heaven............by majority rule request only.....this has happened.
Music to the Story.......Moody Blues
From the Beggining..........ELP
Give a Little Bit.......Superttramp
Magicians Birthday.......Uriah Heep
Mans to Strong..........Dire Straits
Solsbury Hill...........Peter Gabriel
Lightening Crashes.....Live
Tears........Rush
Medley of Rush stuff............
The Who
The Loser, Cut My Hair, Pin Ball Wizard, I'm Free, The Rock, Miles and Miles, Working on more from the who......
The Space Between.....Dave Mathews
Typical Situation.."" ""
Sand Man...........America
Horse W/no Name.....""
Ventura Hwy..........""
Sister Golden HAir....""
Lonely People..........""
Pooh Corner...........Kenny Logins
OHIO............CSN
Daylight Again...""
4 & 20..........""
Southern Cross....""
Neil Young
Pardon My Heart, Pocohontas, Old Man, Needle and the Damage, Don't let it bring you down, Long May you Run, Hey Hey My My.
Yer So Bad .............. Tom Petty
Feel A Whole Lot Better.... ""
Spirit in the Sky.............Norman Greenbalm ?
Black Bird..........The Boys
Norweigen Wood........""
Major Tom..........by request only
Skating Away..........Jethro Tull
Locomotive Breath.......""
Currently Working on Thick as a Brick
Fooling yourself...Styx
Suite Madam Blue....""
Almost forgot Shape of My Heart...Sting
& SOS
My Originals...........No Names yet... |
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Location: Jet City | Cool list. 1/3 of the songs on mine are on yours. Intersting Rush huh? Tears is on the B side of 2112 right? I actually have been contemplating adding "Something for Nothing" I can play and sing it, but wasn't too sure about how it would go over. |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by Damon67:
Omaha, that's a great list too. I just started learning Good Love Is On The Way last night. How's that one working for you guys? Its a good closer. Kind of finishes off the evening. Its one of those you can stretch quite a bit if you want to. |
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| Fun stuff, seems to work for me as well as the crowd most nights. I have some more WHo material but it does not work well as a complete song same with the Rush, I have worked out a decent medley for these peieces and it goes over pretty well. I try some new stuff when I think I have the right crowd. Up here I seem to do real well (oddly enough) with anything from Zeppelin and Neil Young. The rest of the odd set lists seem to go over well as an acoustic solo. As a band there are a lot of songs you could not get away with. Like DOGS from Floyd or Ten Years Gone from Zeppelin........you have to do the more A side stuff with a band.
It is fun adding new stuff, it is a drag sometimes getting requests for stuff you did not plan to do, but it always happens and ya try to be as crowd friendly as you can.
I am going through some of the Men at Work stuff to see if there is more, been a while since I listen to any of it. It is some good work and still stands the test of time quite well.
Fun band actually, cool style. |
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Location: Scotland | You know, there's several approaches to this. Have a book full of gazillion songs you kinda know, try to "read the audience" and give'em what you think they want. Though personally, unless you have specific requests I think trying to second-guess the tastes of any audience is a waste of time.
Then there's "Do You Own Thing" and the audience can take it or leave it (my personal preference)
Then there's a middle ground somewhere between that, which I guess most of us kinda work to.
Guys, remember that bar in Amelia. We turned up late & drunk (OK, I was the most drunk) and there was a guy playing really lame covers. Good voice, good strong guitar player, good sound through a Bose L1. So we (ok, it was just me) started shouting "play something we haven't heard before!" He comes back with "Nobody ever asks me that!" and he played a bunch of his own songs, which were damn good and suddenly he became a musician with some fire and passion, rather than someone trotting out a bunch of crowd-pleasers to earn a crust.
I'm not saying any approach is better or worse than the other, or playing well-known covers is bad, in fact it's a great place to start. It's just that there's "Art" and there's "Craft" When you can balance both and still get paid, you're getting there. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Where was that, the Palace? Was he playing a Taylor? Might have been Hupp. |
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Location: Scotland | Yeah, The Palace, and I think he was playing a Taylor. He was good. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Had to be Hupp. He is pretty good |
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| Most of the songs on my list are songs no one in this area ever plays. There are of course, some standards, ya just can't help that but the songs I have are mostly songs I like so I am playing what I want most of the time anyway. As for changing the sets to fit the crowd........This is good business thats all....hell I don't care if they want more of The Who or more Zeppelin I can do that perhaps the Neil Young is not so good with the younger crowd that night. The next time I can't play enough of his stuff. You guy's know the game, I know you do. You get used to the places you play. Personally I'd love to have some yell play something no ones heard in a while. Cool......I like the Play what you want approach I hate the bands that do the same dam crap set lists I used to do 25 years ago as well. Around here (The Southern Adirondacks) there are a limited number of places to play and if you get drunk or have a total f-you atttitude ya won't be back again. So you play a few they want and then ya play a few you want.
Works for me. |
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Location: Crossville, TN | Hello everyone, 1st post. Nice lists from everyone. I've been down and out and not been able to play live in a couple of years, I have been still playing and trying to keep the chops up and hope to jump back on the stage in the near future, but depending on the croud some of my usuals that I used to play were,
Something - Beatles/Harrison
Southern Cross - CSN
Pink Houses and Jack & Diane - Mellencamp
Dock O' the Bay - Redding
Back 2 Good - Matchbox 20
Rockin in the free world
Cinnamon girl
Heart of gold - Young
Plush - STP
Piano man - Joel (usually a request)
Take it to the limit and various other eagles
Hey Joe
Angel
Little wing - Hendrix
It's only Love - adams
Sister Goldenhair - america
wanted dead or alive - Bon Jovi
Every rose has it's thorn and Life goes on - Poison
acoustic clapton - runnin on faith, key to the highway, layla
and one of my very favorites that I played more for me than the crowd was Warren Haynes' version of U2's one
That was a kind of generic list, and I wouldn't always have time to play everything, I would add to or take away if a song poped in my head and of couse always work in requests if possible. |
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Location: NJ | sue and I have been playing some open mics.
we usually do one cover and one original.
I usually hit them with a cover they have not heard for a long time or one that is not usually played over and over and over
some selections
the letter (joe cocker version)
the pusher (cross of hoyt axton and steppenwolf)
season of the witch (more like the brian auger julie driscoll version)
carmelita (cross of the original warren zevon and linda rondstat)
after they hear something they kinda know then they will listen to an original without much coaxing. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | good approach Mr Big. |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by alpep:
the letter (joe cocker version)
the pusher (cross of hoyt axton and steppenwolf)
season of the witch (more like the brian auger julie driscoll version)
carmelita (cross of the original warren zevon and linda rondstat) Whoa, those will do! Great short setup list...
Ya'll are really overwhelming me in the selections and length of the 'lists'! |
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Location: Jet City | Very nice Mr. Big. I like The Letter, I may use that one.
I learned another this eve I think I'll add to the list that I didn't see on the others.
I Am Mine - Pearl Jam |
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Location: Maple Shade, NJ. | Hey Damon,
Doin good, The kids are back and work is finally slowin down.
Hope you are enjoying that legend!!
Old "Flint Hills" is doin fine too. (I still owe you a recording) |
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Location: Chicago | [blog Sept. 4 from "site 1" below]
*****************************************
Guitar Night at Katerina’s
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Guitars of Fire played an inspired set last night at Katerina’s. Joe and Jeff were in excellent form and we crafted new versions of “Tamboura” and “Spain” which I regret did not get recorded. Here’s our set list:
1. Cadence
2. Song for My Father
3. Fantasia Suite
4. Tamboura
5. Frevo Rasgado
6. Lady of Rome
7. Egyptian
8. Ursa Gyspsy
9. Guardian Angel
10. Take Five
11. Spain
12. Bozo’s Waltz
13. Mediterranean Sundance
14. B Minority
15. No Mystery
Guitarra Azul followed with a driving performance featuring their four percussionists. Especially impressive was Omar on the “Tableh” (the “Arabic drum”). The lead man, Stefano, is a great instrumentalist and entertainer. We look forward to doing it again. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | We missed you by that much. I don't get to Chicago often, but I hope to catch you next time, dobro. |
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Location: Jet City | Dobro, I'd love to see you play that set through. Wow. |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Originally posted by Damon67:
John B, there's some really good stuff on your list I plan on stealin'. Great demos too.
Thanks man! That's nice of you.
Steal away. I have a lot of the chords saved in pdf format. If you need any, let me know. |
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Location: Chicago | I am truly bummed by that Mark. We don't pack too many gigs into one month, so it's hit and miss. Did you at least have fun at the wedding? Did you catch a show? |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Had a good time at the wedding, except for concern about how much it cost my friend, the father of the bride. Strange 8 piece band at the wedding that played a bunch of Motown stuff from the 60s and 70s, even though they had only one black guy and all these very white people were dancing the night away. Free booze, I suppose. |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | In reference to the "play what's expected" or "play what the hell ya want" discussion, I think a good medium is to put your own twist on the cover tunes. In my book, that's cool as hell to hear. I love when someone does that live...especially when they get really creative. I heard someone do a funky version Michael Jackson's "Bad" on mandolin while they sang it. I don't even like that song AT ALL, and yet was one of the crowd singing and clapping along to this creative version. It was great.
I don't play well enough to learn note for note, nor do I have the patience. Out of necessity, I often do my own versions of covers. Most times, I learn the guts of a song for rehearsal, but then don't really listen to the original version again. Months or years later I'll hear it on the radio and think "jeez, we don't play it like that" as I forgot how the original went, cause I've been playing my version so long. |
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March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | There are a lot of tunes that people just want to "hear" they way they think it should sound. But it is really cool when somebody turns a tune on it's head. A perfect example is our own Matthew's take on "I'm A Believer". People know the tune but he twists it so wonderfully that people go nuts when they hear it.....
282.... Remember |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | I just came across a possible addition.
I can't beleive that it has avoided my radar because it's just the kind of song Brian & I do.
Seventy-three men sailed up from the SanFrancisco Bay...
Got off of their ship and here's what they had to say.....
Anyone else do this one? |
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