Is a 1H20 set "acceptable" for a headlining band (regular show, not on a festival)?

[nomisofsiman]

The funny thing is most here have failed to mention the simple fact that set lengths are often controlled by the curfew of the town in which the venue lives and operates.

Not really though, unless you're talking one-offs. Bands typically have the same set lengths for an entire tour. The only difference from town to town is if town a has a curfew of 10 and town b has a curfew of 11, it just means that town a's start time will be earlier. It doesn't affect the set lengths.

 

[Rick Pierpont]

Our headlining set for our CD release party this Saturday clocks in at 2 hours. And while 90 minutes is a standard, being just 10 minutes short of that isn't bad. And it has nothing to do with age. I'm 42, the guys in Dream Theater are mostly about 2 years older than me, and Rush was putting out albums when I was 5. And as mentioned, Dio was still full of energy and I saw him with Heaven and Hell a couple of months before he was diagnosed.

 

[Angrafan]

I don't know. When The Gathering played here, they were on stage for more than 2 hours. Blaze was here two weeks ago. He played for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Before that I saw Pain of Salvation for 2 and half hours. Same with Riverside. Same with Nevermore last summer. Same with Jon Oliva's Pain or Evergrey. Like I said, I'm thinking as I type this but I'm hard pressed to name a band that plays less than 2 hours let alone an hour and 5 minutes. That is laughable. Maybe it's because they're so fucking blown away by the Turkish audience's reception...

Are you sure you didn't lose track of time because you were so into it or something? Over 2 hours every single time is pretty incredible.

Just under 2 hours is pretty common... 1:40, 1:50... But 2:15, 2:30.. that's really rare in metal. Either you got incredibly lucky or you lost track of time....
The Gathering for example... I've seen them all over the place: South America, Europe, North America... I am pretty sure the only time they played a show that was over 2 hours long was in Chile, when they recorded their live DVD. They usually play for 1:40 minutes or so... I've seen them play a really short concert too, just over an hour in NYC (the venue was really hot, the drummer was about to pass out haha).

 

[Jasonic]

Not really though, unless you're talking one-offs. Bands typically have the same set lengths for an entire tour. The only difference from town to town is if town a has a curfew of 10 and town b has a curfew of 11, it just means that town a's start time will be earlier. It doesn't affect the set lengths.

I have seen this happen, where due to curfew, if things are running late, bands get cut short. Though, it depends on the venue. Not saying this is 100% true for impacting every band. I was just pointing out that this was a factor not yet mentioned. Carry on!

 

[AeonicSlumber]

I had to leave early because I went to see Dillinger Escape Plan. It was not only the second show I was seeing in one night, it was the second show DEP was *playing* in one night. Earlier in the evening they had opened for Deftones, and now they were playing a headlining show on their own. DEP are some of the most intense performers you'll ever see (items that made it surfing out on top of the crowd included a guitarist, a singer, a box fan, and, most frighteningly, a huge equipment crate). But still they were here playing a second show in a night, and fatigue seemed to be a total non-issue. They played for about 70 minutes, which felt just about right for the audience (many of whom had also been at their earlier show).


Neil

Has nothing to do with the thread, but DEP is amazing live. At Gigantour 1, the Greg the singer jumped into the ocean at the Jones Beach show *during* the performance.

He talked about it in an interview

The Jones Beach water thing just happened. I don't really even remember consciously thinking about it, I was just all of a sudden in the water, and it was like being in the fucking Star Wars trash compactor.

 

[nomisofsiman]

I'm really starting to regret not going to that DEP show the other night. Damn.

 

[AngraRULES]

Has nothing to do with the thread, but DEP is amazing live. At Gigantour 1, the Greg the singer jumped into the ocean at the Jones Beach show *during* the performance.

He talked about it in an interview

I felt bad for them at Gigantour when they played Poughkeepsie. They got such a bad response by a certain group there, that if he jumped in the water with that crowd, they'd probably make sure he drowned...

 

[Mynock]

Is that the case in the US? I have never seen a headliner playing a show less than 2 hours in my life. And believe me I have seen many shows all across Europe. I would say the shortest headliner set out here is at least 2 hours long.

I've seen about 30-35 shows in Europe before moving to the US, and most of the European shows I've seen the headliner played around 1h40mins (this includes bands like Nightwish, Symphony X, Iced Earth, Epica, Angra, Kamelot etc). Only a handful played over 2hours sets, Dream Theater and Metallica being the two that come to my mind right now.

Shows I've seen in US were only marginally shorter.

 

[AngraRULES]

Is that the case in the US? I have never seen a headliner playing a show less than 2 hours in my life. And believe me I have seen many shows all across Europe. I would say the shortest headliner set out here is at least 2 hours long.

No offense meant, but I find that very unlikely...

 

[labrekk]

Not sure where the complaint lies? it's not about time it's about amount of songs to me. nearly 20 songs is GREAT for headliner.

Might be a nice amount of songs. For Volbeat, it was still not too bad as I mentioned it was a great show, just a bit short.

But would you be happy getting a headline gig from let's say a punk band (that has released 4-5 albums) that would play only 20 songs of 1 minute or 1 minute 30 sec each?

 

[dcowboys311]

Might be a nice amount of songs. For Volbeat, it was still not too bad as I mentioned it was a great show, just a bit short.

But would you be happy getting a headline gig from let's say a punk band (that has released 4-5 albums) that would play only 20 songs of 1 minute or 1 minute 30 sec each?

Absolutely. That is not rare at all for punk or hardcore shows.

 

[labrekk]

Absolutely. That is not rare at all for punk or hardcore shows.

Well, I would not be. 30 minutes for a headliner would just be too short. And I've seem lots of punk/hardcore shows between 1988 and 1992 and they lasted longer than 30 minutes...

 

[nailz]

I'm not bored after 1H30 if the songs are good...3 hours is indeed too long, but 1H45-2H00 is the best IMO.

Sabaton completed their Tempe headlining set in an hour and 20 minutes or so, we got around 15-16 songs. In the end, we were all left wanting more, but happy with what we got. I'd say that's a successful set.

 

[adaher]

Seems like it's easier for newer bands to pack enough into 80 minutes. A band with about 20 songs fans demand to hear simply can't pull that off. And frankly, they don't try. I hate looking at a setlist of a veteran band and seeing 5 new songs, three solos, and 5 songs the fans actually paid to hear. Bands like Journey or Bon Jovi deserve credit for giving the fans what they came to see while still promoting their new stuff.

The setlist length, to the extent possible, should be dictated by the catalogue. If you've got a "dirty dozen" group of songs the fans demand to hear(like Journey does), and you need to play five from the new album, you're looking at 17 songs, minimum.