Hey everyone,
I could use a bit of advice here. I've been putting together an acoustic set for solo performances. (btw, a belated thanks for all the song suggestions you all have made in past threads, you folks have helped almost double the size of my song list in my first 3 days here).The plan is to do coffee houses and bars, that kind of thing.

What I am wondering is how some of my stuff will go over. Most of my best vocal performances seem to come from the more depressing songs. Cats in The Cradle, Wish You Were Here, Working Class Hero, Mother, and others. I don't want to stop playing these songs but I don't want the audience to commit suicide either(my performance may drive them to that anyway ) Have any of you done these types of songs for an audience before and how do they go over? Also if you do use them is there a pattern to the set list? 3 happy songs, one depressing? That kind of thing..

While we are at it, how do you decide the order of your songs? I'm going to come out of the gate with a song I know I can't possibly screw up too badly but from there I haven't made up my mind yet. I've been thinking about a DJ I used to listen to named Jim Ladd and he used to do what he called "Theater Of The Mind" where he would group a bunch of songs together that all related to one another in some way. Doing sets like that would be cool. Even if no one realizes it (and most won't) it still seems like something to keep me interested in playing Lucky Man for the 7000th time.
One last thing about set lists. Originals. Do you play them and how many can you get away with?


Thanks in advance.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 30, 2023