New Setlist Songs . recent songs to the setlist that worked or didn't..

[wheresgrant3]

Haven't done this in a while.... As we are rebuilding the band we are adding new material at a blindingly fast clip. An average of 4-5 songs per rehearsal. Since January we've replaced over 50% of NUTS staple setlist. Just a few large medley's remain and we're about to tackle those next. The drive is to constantly reach for newer Top40 but I feel like I have to be the governor on that and throw in some classic song that we can tackle so we remain relevant beyond the last 5-10 years.

 

We just added (and have yet to play

Talk Dirty To Me-Jason DeRulo

I'm The Man-Aloe Blacc

Too Close-Next (a total throwback)

 

And have on deck

 

1

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MKTO- Classic

 

2. Fat Man Scoop- Be Faithful

 

3. Parmore-Aint it Fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Songs we've added over the past 2-3 months that worked or didn't.

 

Counting Stars-One Republic- Total filler... relevant Top40 but it doesn't light up the dance floor

Timber-Ke$sha- Meeeeeeeh again total filler. People dance but that is all. If this is the best reaction you can expect as a top40 band shoot me now.

Straight Up-Paula Abdul- Yep... we decided to throw this in as a fun throwback song to the 80's. We played this once... did a damn good job. It cleared the dancefloor. Cleared it. In all of my many years playing with Nuts I had never seen such a universal reaction from an audience. Everyone headed to the bar, the bathroom or pulled out their cellphone and started texting.

Shout-Otis Day & The Knights- Proving that there is still gold in tired, worn out standards this song has become one of the biggest of the night. Of course it helps when you have a charismatic singer who attacks it like a tent revival. This always worked for Nuts but it really works for this band. The roof comes clean off of the building.

Safe and Sound-Capital Cities-Filler... nothing more.

The Other Side- Jason DeRulo- The Same... filler

Tonight, Tonight-Hot Chellie Rae We brought this back to work in a medley with the previous two... filler.

Glad You Came- The Wanted This song (in the same medley as the previous three) still POPS. Probably the biggest reaction of any in this medley

Happy-P. Pharrell Willams- Definitely a catchy song. I'd say GOOD filler. Keeps the crowd engaged and dancing but it doesn't light the sky on fire.

Applause-Lady Gaga- Been playing this since January as a stand alone and we play it well... the crowd reacts appropriately.

My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark-Fall Out Boy- This song works but we really sell it. Pretty proud of the delivery and presentation as the song is super produced.

Holy Grail-Jayz/J. Timberlake-Just added a verse and chorus as an intro to the previous song. Works great... gets the audience attention and really lifts the Fall Out Boy Song

 

 

Any recent songs y'all add lately?

(don't know why everything is BOLD now. GOD THIS FORUM SUCKS. Formatting is a nightmare)

 

 

 

 

 

[musicmanmu]

It's good to have a mix of barn burners and more laid back tunes, or at least tunes that don't light up the floor. You can't expect everyone to dance all night to every song - you'll wear them out by the 2nd set! LOL. I feel like the 90s are coming back, so maybe some throwbacks to that decade instead of the 80s.

 

Our band just put together a medley of Grenade by Bruno Mars, straight into "Pony" by Ginuwine, and then "Royals" by Lorde, and it seems to be our most popular collection of songs in the set at this point.

 

We also added Counting Stars, and like you said, it was just 'meh.' Added "Demons" by Imagine Dragons, and man, that blew. Finally, we added "Chocolate" by The 1975 because the damn thing got stuck in my head and I thought it was going to shoot up the charts and be one of those popular "Summer" songs, but it appears to have fallen off Billboard. I usually have better RADAR than that! LOL. But it's a catchy tune and people enjoy it, although I don't think they know who the hell does it.

[jeff42]

We actually haven't added anything since February. Here's how they go:

 

Counting stars- decent filler for us. The problem is it's kind of mellow until the "clapping" part

Timber- Works well as a rock tune.

Anyway You Want It- Works well. We HAD to learn a Journey song and still haven't put together a version of Don't Stop with out a keyboard so we decided on this one.

 

Our Version of Timber:

[video=youtube;IhkHELNnGjw]

[wheresgrant3]

It's good to have a mix of barn burners and more laid back tunes, or at least tunes that don't light up the floor. You can't expect everyone to dance all night to every song - you'll wear them out by the 2nd set! LOL. I feel like the 90s are coming back, so maybe some throwbacks to that decade instead of the 80s.

 

Our band just put together a medley of Grenade by Bruno Mars, straight into "Pony" by Ginuwine, and then "Royals" by Lorde, and it seems to be our most popular collection of songs in the set at this point.

 

We also added Counting Stars, and like you said, it was just 'meh.' Added "Demons" by Imagine Dragons, and man, that blew. Finally, we added "Chocolate" by The 1975 because the damn thing got stuck in my head and I thought it was going to shoot up the charts and be one of those popular "Summer" songs, but it appears to have fallen off Billboard. I usually have better RADAR than that! LOL. But it's a catchy tune and people enjoy it, although I don't think they know who the hell does it.

 

I don't measure songs on whether people are dancing or not I measure them on audience engagement. We offer more of a concert like experience so in fact if the room is dancing and not really paying attention to the band then that song is definitely filler oppose to a song where everyone is facing the stage and participating. And that's what you get with Timber and Counting Stars... they will dance or move in time to the music, but they aren't really that engaged with the show at that point. I remember you guys were a 4 piece rock band right? I'd love to hear how Lorde came out. How did you arrange the song?

 

[Vito Corleone]

There's not much on the charts right now that is screaming "Learn Me!". But maybe I'm just pre-occupied with other stuff. In either case, we haven't learned much new stuff lately. Last 'new' (for us)songs we added were "The Way You Make Me Feel" and a medley/mashup of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". The latter goes over better than the former. "Girls" has been killing. "Way" has been much more 'meh' than I thought it would be.

 

I've been back and forth on whether to add "Happy". I think it will probably work better for us than a lot of bands because stuff with positive lyrics is always an easy sell at the weddings. I'm just looking for a place in the set for it. Newer Top 40 always seems to work better for us in medleys rather than as stand-alone pieces.

 

I'm surprised that "Straight Up" was such a flop for you. That one has long been on my 'long list' of songs we should try. Maybe now I'm glad it's stayed on the list!

 

Our standard dance-set opener at weddings has long been "Celebration" which everyone in the band despises for all the obvious reasons. But it's also a great wedding-opener for most of those same reasons. But lately I've been focused on finding something to replace it that checks off all the same boxes. So right now I'm thinking we're going to give "1999" a shot.

[wheresgrant3]

 

I'm surprised that "Straight Up" was such a flop for you. That one has long been on my 'long list' of songs we should try. Maybe now I'm glad it's stayed on the list!

 

 

I'm thinking relative age of the audience we play to (25-40) and moreso... that song never crawled out of the 80's. Mos songs I find that that have legs are songs that have been covered by other artists, used in commercials, movies, TV or have some pop culture significance. Footloose works just cuz the movie is an 80's guilty pleasure. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" is a anthem and used in TV and movies for years. "Straight Up" might have seemed nostalgic when Abdul was on Idol but now it's just a song for 40 year olds.

 

 

We're working on a Michael Jackson medley and our keyboardist is arranging it and he threw in Human Nature (which is down tempo ballardy) and I was like dude... this isn't a tribute. He apologized and coughed it up to watching "This Is It" way too many times. LOL.

[Vito Corleone]

Yeah, older songs have to have some modern cultural connection to work. I thought Straight Up had some. Wasn't there a "slow burn" cover of it a couple of years back? I guess it didn't connect Re: MJ. I've long wanted to try PYT, but my drummer keeps nixing the idea. We only learn songs both of us sign off on. Anyone in the band can make suggestions for learning songs, of course, but the final decision always comes down to the two of us. What's your process for deciding which songs to learn?

[dan88z]

We're overdue for a rehearsal, had one scheduled and our singer had babysitter issues so we cancelled, and haven't had a chance to reschedule it. On the agenda is Happy- we'll kill this. Also going to break out a couple 80's songs, one that we did with prior personnel, Every Time You Go Away (the Paul Young version). This always went over well and it's a nice ballad the band is really strong on, so I'm sure this personnel group will do it even better. We also want to give Something About You by Level 42 a shot, it fits our band perfectly, but that doesn't always mean it'll work. Might be a good 1st set get people warmed up song.

 

The recent adds we did are Shake Your Body and Billie Jean by MJ. We run them back to back and the floor is packed with them.

A couple months ago we added some oldies to cater to some of the venues. Cool Jerk, Do You Love Me, Something (Beatles), Baby Work Out, and I Saw Her Standing There. The 1st 2 are keepers, they have been working at every venue. Something we rotate in with the other ballads. Baby Work Out went well with the older crowd but it's not making the list on our other gigs. I Saw Her does pretty well but we have stronger material so it gets cut a lot.

 

We also dusted off Miss You by the Stones and Would I Lie To You by Eurythmics. They both work well for us.

 

We had The Way You Make Me Feel on our break music and we were all sitting at a table and said "This one goes on the to do list". We had the harmonies going singing along with it. So we'll probably get on that one at the next rehearsal as well.

[TrickyBoy]

Because we're going to be taking a break in another month, we've been a little lax on learning new songs. That being said, songs added this year that are doing really well for us:

 

Timber - This kills for us. IDK, I think we play to a younger crowd than you maybe. Also it's "country vibe" makes it super popular here. But the chorus is a complete sing along.

Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus - This completely brings the roof down as a sing along.

Royals - Lourde - I need to get a recording of our version, because this is without a doubt our favorite song to play as well as the crowds favorite.

F*** You - Yeah, we're late to the party. Very late. But it still goes over great

That's Not My Name - Ting Tings - an older song that we recently added. Works well with the spring break crowd, to which we played 4 times last month and will again play 4 times this month.

A three song medley of Rock Around The Clock - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - Rock This Town. This does well at the casino gigs and works as a first set show, depending on the crowd

[Vito Corleone]

"That's Not My Name" we medley/mashup with "Mickey". Works pretty well.

 

 

[wheresgrant3]

What's your process for deciding which songs to learn?

 

In the old band we built a 'voting booth' in Google Forms. Everyone would submit up to three songs and then we would vote for the top five. If your song didn't get picked?? Just resubmit it.Sounds like a nice concept but it quickly became political with secret alliances supporting each others songs.

 

These days we've been bringing songs to the table without the voting booth. The thing is before we attacked songs outside our comfort zone for the novelty of playing them. In this band we can pull off so much more. Still some ideas seem creative, but they need to work in the context of an audience. I don't want to staunch a creative idea but certain songs sound better on paper than in a room of 200+ drunk people.

[wheresgrant3]

"That's Not My Name" we medley/mashup with "Mickey". Works pretty well.

 

We used to that a few years back when that song was hot.

[Vito Corleone]

We used to that a few years back when that song was hot.

 

"Mickey" kills for us. TNMN is just so-so. But it adds a nice extra flavor to Mickey to throw a couple of verses of it in there. I don't think it would work as a stand-alone.

[Vito Corleone]

 

I don't want to staunch a creative idea but certain songs sound better on paper than in a room of 200+ drunk people.

 

+1000. We come up with some GREAT ideas. Most never get past the drawing boards because on further thought, it becomes hard to see how we're going to bring the audience along for the ride. And some we work up thinking they will work great only to find them met with the proverbial "thud".

 

But, you don't get great rewards without great risk. Some of our best set pieces come from when we pushed those creative boundaries and they've worked. But that's gotta be done will realizing that many ideas that seem great aren't going to work out.

[musicmanmu]

 

I don't measure songs on whether people are dancing or not I measure them on audience engagement. We offer more of a concert like experience so in fact if the room is dancing and not really paying attention to the band then that song is definitely filler oppose to a song where everyone is facing the stage and participating. And that's what you get with Timber and Counting Stars... they will dance or move in time to the music, but they aren't really that engaged with the show at that point. I remember you guys were a 4 piece rock band right? I'd love to hear how Lorde came out. How did you arrange the song?

 

Sorry - I shouldn't have used 'dance' as the operative word, but you are right, 'engagement' is more apt.

 

We're just a 3-piece. I need to record it the next time we do it, but we kept it very simplistic...coming out of 'Pony' hitting the last note hard and letting the drummer immediately go into his own slow and funky beat that's sort of like the recording but not. People don't know what it is until I sing the first line, and then they get excited...lol. From there, we keep it very minimalistic, but slowing building from the pre chorus to the chorus, where we just hit open distorted chords. Hard to explain, but it works!

[Vito Corleone]

 

We had The Way You Make Me Feel on our break music and we were all sitting at a table and said "This one goes on the to do list". We had the harmonies going singing along with it. So we'll probably get on that one at the next rehearsal as well.

 

Fun one to do and we really like nailing the harmonies on it (when we nail them...lol...)

 

Three distinct keyboard parts (4 if you count the bass line!) makes this one a challenge. Right now I'm leaving out the horn lines completely so I can concentrate on the two main keyboard parts. I'm still planning on working some of them in as I get more comfortable with the song, but we'll see.

 

Probably the main reason this song hasn't killed for us is set placement. Because that synth-bass sound is so prominent and signature to the song (IMO, anyway), we have the bass player come over and play it on one of my boards. He also does the same thing on "Sexy And I Know It" so it makes sense to do the two back-to-back. We use SAIKI as a bit to drag a bunch of guys up on stage and let them pretend to be Chippendale's dancers. But I think TWYMMF is just a bit too 'relaxed' after the frenzy we create with SAIKI. I'd like to try to find another spot in the set for the song, but it's all about not wasting time with the bass player changing positions and all that.

[pinkfloydcramer61]

My country band got a great response last gig with Katy Perry's "Dark Horse". We have a young, attractive girl singer but no rappers- or even halfway decent square dance callers- in the group. Fortunately Tank, the tattoo'd, 350 lb DJ of Italian descent, volunteered to do the Juicy J rap (even coming to a rehearsal to work it up). Unfortunately he got lost towards the end of it, but we covered the best we could and had a great time. It was cool to see so many people come to the front of the stage to check it out. I'm hoping it's the start of a new direction for the band.

[TrickyBoy]

What's your process for deciding which songs to learn?

 

I pick 85% of the songs we learn. Meagan picks the other 15%. I'm lucky in that our rhythm section, for lack of a better term, doesn't care. They bitched a little about Wrecking Ball. But then a room of 300+ people start singing at the top of their lungs and its smiles all around. That's not to say that I'm always right, and I cut songs as fast as I add them if they don't work (I make the setlists too and also call out songs onstage if we deviate). But for the most part, I think I'm very good at picking songs that work for us.

[wheresgrant3]

 

I pick 85% of the songs we learn. Meagan picks the other 15%. I'm lucky in that our rhythm section, for lack of a better term, doesn't care. They bitched a little about Wrecking Ball. But then a room of 300+ people start singing at the top of their lungs and its smiles all around. That's not to say that I'm always right, and I cut songs as fast as I add them if they don't work (I make the setlists too and also call out songs onstage if we deviate). But for the most part, I think I'm very good at picking songs that work for us.

 

 

I would say our bass player (who was founder of NUTS and defactor band leader for this one) is the final verdict as he controls the setlist. So sometimes a song that isn't working once or twice just doesn't end up back in the setlist.

[TrickyBoy]

 

Sorry - I shouldn't have used 'dance' as the operative word, but you are right, 'engagement' is more apt.

 

We're just a 3-piece. I need to record it the next time we do it, but we kept it very simplistic...coming out of 'Pony' hitting the last note hard and letting the drummer immediately go into his own slow and funky beat that's sort of like the recording but not. People don't know what it is until I sing the first line, and then they get excited...lol. From there, we keep it very minimalistic, but slowing building from the pre chorus to the chorus, where we just hit open distorted chords. Hard to explain, but it works!

 

Lorde Kills for us, and it's nothing like how you described it. I start it with a guitar lick. The bass and drums kick in and it's got a really great groove to it. Honestly we basically rewrote the song, and just like y'all, no one knows what song it is until Meagan hits the first notes. Then it's pandemonium. By far our biggest song of the night. We also do it acoustically and it goes over great. Maybe I'll see if we can do a quick recording of it that way tonight. As a matter of fact, our biggest gig of the year is coming up in 2 weeks (Over 2500 people - packed already well liquored crowd from the beginning) and I think we're going to open with Meagan singing the beginning of Team (Lorde's new single), but then us kicking into Royals.

 

Funny thing is song two will also definitely be Timber, which unlike the response Grant gets, is again, one of our biggest songs of the night. I'm talking Bon Jovi crowd engagement. But that's the funny thing about crowd engagement. The audience doesn't engage with the song. They engage with the band's performance of the song. There are very few songs that just "work". Different Songs work for different bands. Timber kills for us, but we wouldn't touch This Is How We Do It with a 10' pole.

 

 

FYI - Song three is probably going to be I Want You To Want Me or Pour Some Sugar on Me, but we'll see. LOL

 

[wheresgrant3]

 

Lorde Kills for us, and it's nothing like how you described it. I start it with a guitar lick. The bass and drums kick in and it's got a really great groove to it. Honestly we basically rewrote the song, and just like y'all, no one knows what song it is until Meagan hits the first notes. Then it's pandemonium. By far our biggest song of the night. We also do it acoustically and it goes over great. Maybe I'll see if we can do a quick recording of it that way tonight. As a matter of fact, our biggest gig of the year is coming up in 2 weeks (Over 2500 people - packed already well liquored crowd from the beginning) and I think we're going to open with Meagan singing the beginning of Team (Lorde's new single), but then us kicking into Royals.

 

Funny thing is song two will also definitely be Timber, which unlike the response Grant gets, is again, one of our biggest songs of the night. I'm talking Bon Jovi crowd engagement. But that's the funny thing about crowd engagement. The audience doesn't engage with the song. They engage with the band's performance of the song. There are very few songs that just "work". Different Songs work for different bands. Timber kills for us, but we wouldn't touch This Is How We Do It with a 10' pole.

 

 

FYI - Song three is probably going to be I Want You To Want Me or Pour Some Sugar on Me, but we'll see. LOL

 

 

Part of it is definitely approach and presentation... the other part is seriously market. Timber charted high here but I don't think it's the song on everyone's mind. We play it straight up Top40... but I recently saw another agency level band play it pretty close to the cuff and the reaction was basically the same. the front row of girls are singing to it... the rest of the club is waiting for the next song. I'd love to see/hear your version of it... I'm sure it's a hit with Megan singing it (perfect sell for Keisha). But I'm thinking that song just plays better in the south.

 

​With NUTS the big songs of the night were Living On A Prayer, Sweet Child of Mine, Dynamite, Bawdiddabaw.... with the new band it's Empire State of Mind, Shipping off To Boston, Country Girl (Shake It For Me), Shout... Again... play Shipping Up to Boston in Atlanta... probably going to get you stares. Play it in an Irish bar here in NY and the place erupts like Vesuvius.

[TrickyBoy]

I've never heard Shipping Up To Boston. Just googled it. Yeah, that would go over like a lead turd down here.

[sventvkg]

Why not let the DJ play all the flavor of the month disposable pop and you play the classic tunes that kill in a live setting? This way you don't have 1/2 your set list disappearing every year? Oh, have some new stuff but the really big hits that stick around for a few years...I don't see the reason to learn all the new stuff when most of it is here today gone tomorrow. My buddy who runs a 7 million dollar a year entertainment production company that does high end corporate stuff says the same thing. I don't know, maybe i'm missing something....

[wheresgrant3]

Why not let the DJ play all the flavor of the month disposable pop and you play the classic tunes that kill in a live setting? This way you don't have 1/2 your set list disappearing every year? Oh' date=' have some new stuff but the really big hits that stick around for a few years...I don't see the reason to learn all the new stuff when most of it is here today gone tomorrow. My buddy who runs a 7 million dollar a year entertainment production company that does high end corporate stuff says the same thing. I don't know, maybe i'm missing something....[/quote']

 

 

You are... you're not playing in the nightclubs.

 

For one... if you roll into the same club with the same static setlist you won't be working for very long no matter the show you put on. The pressure is there from the club owners, the agents and the audience. If your setlist reeks of beyond the two year expiration date well then you're considered dated... and you will get put in the back of the bus. Plain and simple. Even the most established cover bands on the scene have 4-5 current Top 40 in their setlist. A season or two of slack results in people dating the band and the material. What can you say.... things are very competitive these days.

 

The days of rolling into a club and playing a setlist comprised of guilty pleasures over the last 20 years is over for now. you would get to the club and the owner would hand you a list of songs the DJ would be playing (and not to cover the songs on that list). Now the club expects you to be playing the same steady stream of top40 for their marquee bands.It's a New World Order.... If you want to keep your job against the DJ you had better do a decent job competing against him

 

[TrickyBoy]

Why not let the DJ play all the flavor of the month disposable pop and you play the classic tunes that kill in a live setting? This way you don't have 1/2 your set list disappearing every year? Oh' date=' have some new stuff but the really big hits that stick around for a few years...I don't see the reason to learn all the new stuff when most of it is here today gone tomorrow. My buddy who runs a 7 million dollar a year entertainment production company that does high end corporate stuff says the same thing. I don't know, maybe i'm missing something....[/quote']

 

I'll add something to what Grant said. 75% of our set is the tried and classics. but it's that 25% that makes you stand out. You don't know how often I get... "You're so original... You play all the songs that no one else plays..." Our set list containsDon't Stop Believing and Living on a Prayer and I Want You TO Want Me and ..... But it's that 25% of unexpected stuff that makes all the difference.