I just watched the Bob Marley movie, no setlist! Jimi Hendrix, Guns N Roses.. many others, just walk out and someone(?) calls the shots. I prefer a setlist to see how the flow of the show will go and what effects I need to get set for the next song; know to grab a different guitar.. etc.. not to accidentally repeat a song (if ur playing 2+ hrs).. make sure you finish on time… how have you seen the pros handle it? Any quirks? I dread the dead air of “what should we play?!” potential moments 😬😬
Touring musicians: how do some artists just go on with no setlist?
There are a lot of variables here...what kind of music do you play (jazz? Jam band? Pop?), what kind of crowd do you have (30 year old beer drinkers? 20 year old college kids? 50 year olds?), what kind of show is it (3hr bar gig? 45min opening slot for a big tour? Headlining a big tour?). In my jammy beachy trio we did opening shows for a big act so we had to have our shit tightly scripted to hit our time and to try to get as much of a crowd reaction as possible, but when we play the bars we just wing it.
Another thing is, we have our songs organized by openers, closers, long jammers, single type songs, slow jams, etc. that makes it easier to wing it.
Great idea! Oh, no, I’m just asking what others’ experience was regarding those shot-callers/band leaders. What do they know, what do they see?
I suppose I’m asking about world-touring acts (any era), 800-10k venues, no setlist - calling songs semi randomly (I understand if you run the same show 30 times, of course every can memorize it). But what about those truly random acts? It’s interesting to me.