[shakedown_04092]

So I've been thinking about our upcoming gig on the 16th in Portland, ME (http://www.myspace.com/heavydime), and I thought it might be fun to give you guys my bands' song list and have the folks from RUKIND forum come up with a setlist for us (or at least give us some ideas)! Whad'dya think? Ehh...could be fun, could be a busted post. Oh well. We are playing two :45 minute sets, and the third set will be about 1:15 with the encore....give or take.

Below are the songs that we've decided to play for this show, their artists, and the approximate number of minutes each song lasts (of course it varies, but we use it as a tool to estimate set-length). We usually don't go in with a "set-list" per se, but we have the song list out and sort of an "idea" of where certain songs fit, and also throw in factors such as the crowd energy, etc.

So.....who can come up with the best setlist for these songs??? Remember, 2 sets of appx. 45 minutes each, the 3rd set and encore will be about an hour and 15 minutes!

Heavy Dime songlist for 6/16/07


Cold Rain & Snow (Grateful Dead) 5
Cassidy (Grateful Dead) 6
Fire On The Mountain (Marshall Tucker Band) 5
Drifting (Trey Anastasio) 6
On The Road (Traditional) 4
Midnight Moonlight > (Peter Rowan) 5
Big River (Johnny Cash) 6
Funky Bitch (Son Seals) 6
Burning Down The House (Talking Heads) 6
Love Song (The Cure) 5
No Sugar Tonight (The Guess Who) 6
Mississippi 1/2 Step (Grateful Dead) 7
And She Was (Talking Heads) 5
Cortez The Killer (Neil Young) 6
Cities (Talking Heads) 5
*Suzy Greenberg (Phish) 5
Quinn The Eskimo (Bob Dylan) 5
*Money For Nothing (Dire Straits) 7
Sweet Dreams Melinda (Trey Anastasio) 6
Eyes Of The World > (Grateful Dead) 8
Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones) 5
Bathtub Gin (Phish) 10
Timber Ho! (Traditional, Phish) 7
Get Out My Life Woman (JGB?) 6
Comes A Time (Neil Young) 6
Shakedown Street (Grateful Dead) 8
*On The Road Again (Willie Nelson) 4
Loving Cup (Rolling Stones) 6
Mike's Song (Phish) 7

* - denotes 1st-time played


Now I realize this may be difficult because there may be folks who don't know all these songs, but do the best you can! I also just realized this may take more time than I thought....but since I've already typed all the songs, might as well post this post. Oh well. Seemed like a really good idea when I started.....

Well, looking forward to the gig nonetheless. Thanks in advance if anyone replies!

[GratefulFloyd]

make sure Eyes makes an appearance

[shakedown_04092]

Oh, it will, that's a staple. All the songs on this list will. We have about another 40 songs that didn't make this show's list, so the ones you see are the ones we're gonna play. Of course, I say that now, and it's anyone's guess as to what actually happens the night of the show.

[Rev_Roach]

i dont know if its a coincedence that you put it up top, but ive always thought Cold Rain and Snow was a good opener

[mttourpro]

Since I'm a big fan of setlist construction, and, no one else responded, and, I had a few minutes, I whipped one up for you---here it is---hope you like it. I'll be curious to know if you use it.

1
half Step
Suzy G
Quinn
$$$ for nada
Bathtub gin
Big River
Cold Rain

2
Shakedown
Mike's
Comes a Time
Cities
And she was
Funky Bitch
Eyes

3
Cortez
Drifting
Cassidy
Love song
Obn the Rd again
Midnight Moonlight
On the rd
Fire on the mountain
Get out of my life woman
Timber Ho
No Sugar
Lovin Cup

Have fun...MT

[Stellar Blues]

Shoot! I thought you meant the city of roses, Portland, Oregon!

[shakedown_04092]

Cool! Thanks man, muchos gracias! I'll let you know if we use it, and even if we don't, I'll post the setlist after the show!

Thanks again!

[BuddhaG]

do you guys do segues from song to song???

in which case as i was reading the list i thought these would sound pretty crazy... just in the way that you listed them gave me suggestions...


Eyes Of The World > (Grateful Dead) 8
Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones) 5


Midnight Moonlight > (Peter Rowan) 5
Big River (Johnny Cash) 6

I think thath both of those could turn into some crazy jams in between. I know this usually takes some practice though... I'm trying to get my "band" to do it but it seems we need some kind of structure for the transition.

Sorry I don't know all the songs so I couldn't arrange them properly... but have a blast at my birthday show! (Turning 20, losing my teenage-hood)

[shakedown_04092]

do you guys do segues from song to song???

Eyes Of The World > (Grateful Dead) 8
Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones) 5


Midnight Moonlight > (Peter Rowan) 5
Big River (Johnny Cash) 6

Ha....actually we do a lot more than just those 2, but ya, when we do Midnight Moonlight, 99% of the time we go into Big River after jamming for a minute.

We've never done Eyes > Sympathy, but that's what we've decided to do for this show since they're both in E. Haven't practiced yet, but sometimes that's when some of the best stuff comes out because it's so raw and new and intriguing. Or it could be a train wreck, but either way....hey, we're doing it!

We've also done:

-Cities > Come Together > Shakedown
-Cities > Shakedown
-Comes A Time > Shakedown (love that one)
-Comes A Time > Cities > Shakedown
-Shakedown > Wheel Jam > Can't Always Get What You Want
-Cities > Jeopardy (Greg Kihn Band...old 80's song)
-Cassidy > Sneakin' Sally Through THe Alley
-Fire On The Mountain (Marshall Tucker Band) > Me & My Uncle
-Get Back > AC/DC Bag
-Sand (Phish) > Eyes
-Eyes > New Speedway Boogie
-Viola Lee Blues > After Midnight > Viola Lee Blues > Sirens (String Cheese Incident) > Trance Jam > Sirens
-Sirens > Trance Jam > Sirens > Peter Gunn Jam
-Dark Star > pretty much anything we want

That's all I can think of but I know there's more.

But in regards to the transition, I don't think you "need" structure, per se. Try getting your bandmates together and say "Listen, let's just dive into it and see what happens"

You guys know all the songs you play, so just start jamming on one, and when it ends, keep jamming, but slowly work away from the beat/structure of the song you are coming out of, and head into no man's land. Feel out the music, with the most important thing being "LISTEN" to everyone else, and add to it. Listening is THE MOST important thing of all when you get into the jam, but you (and your bandmates) have to comfortable and competant enough in your own right/skill to be able to handle it. Just let the music play the band when it gets to that point, and see where it takes you. You might not even go "into" another song, you may just end up jamming on a jam. It's one of the most satisfying and cool things about playing music, I think. When you have 3, 4 or 5 other people around you who can think for themselves musically, it's an awesome experience to see what types of expressions are made with the music.

Just this past Tuesday our band did something we've never done before, which is "take off" at the end of Fire On The Mountain (Marshall Tucker Band). We usually just end it or go into MAMU or something, but this one just kept going and we jammed for a half hour on nothing at all, really. Totally made up on the spot, and something we'll never be able to recreate again in the same text. We just started on the end jam (Em & C) and the music navigated us in and out of different chord tones off of those chords. I remember playing some real dissonant stuff against what some of the other members were playing and it was really giving a great spook to the music. And then we just weaved our way through the music...I Don't even remember what we ended up on, but it sure as hell was nothing close to the chords or beat to FOTM. VERY cool when that stuff has spontaniously like that.

Sorry for the ramble....

[BuddhaG]

thank you for the ramble!!!!

i always want to experiment with this kind of stuff but my band members are a bit mroe conservative and get confused and stop??? when i throw in notes that weren't there before during the structured part of the song. i guess it is because they aren't used to jam music. but don't worry i am getting them into it slowly but surely. the other guitarist is starting to get a real appreciation for the dead. i have to work on the bassist some more cuz he likes more simple stuff like Cake, Muse, and more punky type stuff. all in all we are slowly developing our own sound, and i really love some of the grooves we get in.

i think it helps maybe to at least have some predermined notion of what chord tones to hit in the transitions as sort of like musical signposts.

back to your gig, how about cold rain & snow > on the road again ?

shakedown for the opener or closer!

[shakedown_04092]

I really like Shakedown as an opener or closer...we usually do it as a closer because people seem to like it a whole lot there (probably 'cuz their hammered by then...)

And those musical "signposts" you mention are a good idea. You guys should just put the instruments down for a minute when you rehearse and talk about what types of chords you are playing for the next song, how they relate to each other, what notes they are made up of, and maybe what key and/or mode you may be playing in and/or around. Then everyone is on the same page and will be more familiar with what's available to them once the jam starts. Another key is to know how to branch off from that, and one way to do that is, for example:

Let's say the song you're playing is in G minor and you are in the key of F, for instance. Well, you know that the notes of Gm are G, D & Bb, but you also know that the Gm is the ii of F (Dorian mode), so take a look at some of the other notes in and around the key of F (F, Gm, Am, Bb, C, Dm, Edim, & F) and go from there. And once we get into the jam, I like to sometimes switch up what mode I am playing in. For instance, if I were playing a Gm Dorian, I might switch it over to Aeolian, Phrygian or just plain Gm Blues Pentatonic to change the flavor, and if I get lucky and another guy in the band notices )usually the keyboardist) and maybe starts emphasizing some new tones, we can start to even change the key and add in more tones/notes. Also, when playing a major chord, like say a C like this:

e-3-
B-5-
G-5-
D-5-
A-3-
E---

I'll throw in the bass note of the 3rd of that chord and it gives great flavor (this is quickly becoming one of my more favorite chords to play, in fact...a blast to solo around):

e-x-
B-5-
G-5-
D-5-
A-7-
E---

So it becomes a C/E, and a little darker/dirtier.

It's actually pretty late here, I'd like to write more but I'm beat.

[d-v-s]

shakedown,
good luck with the show this weekend. I hope things work out with the new keyboardist.

There were to many songs that I was unfamiliar with in your song list for me to think of trying to put together a set-list for you. Just a couple of suggestions...

I like the show-opener of "cold rain & snow" and the first set big jam be the Midnight moonlight> big river jam.

Start off the second set with a bang - eyes>sympathy jam!

I also go for the show closer of shakedown.

Also, thanks for posting those late-night rambles. There was some good info there - like the bit about adding the bass of the 3rd to the chord.

[tigerstrat]

Don't get me wrong, I love variety. But instead of following the instinct to evenly distribute the covers by different artists throughout your show, you might consider putting them together in "blocks": Your Phish songs might sound/go over better following and preceding other Phish songs, and your Neil songs might sound better following and preceding other Neil songs, etc. etc. And Dead songs for sure sound best as a set of Dead songs, or at least as a mini-set within a set!

imho, the only reason the Zen Tricksters aren't the world's top GD tribute band is that they hardly ever seem to string several GD songs together as a cohesive "set"; they always mix in their originals- which are excellent by the way, but imho they would sound better and "break the magic Grateful Dead spell" less if they were played together... if they would say, play most of set I of originals, closing it with a GD song... and then open set II with an original followed by a big phatty set of DEAD!

My two bits.

[tigerstrat]

I really like Shakedown as an opener or closer...we usually do it as a closer because people seem to like it a whole lot there (probably 'cuz their hammered by then...)

That's a reality of bar gigs, especailly without an opening band... at the beginning, the room isn't full yet and folks just aren't quite ready/buzzed enough to dance, even to Shakedown. Never open with your best dance song. Save it til the room is hoppin'.

[shakedown_04092]

I really like Shakedown as an opener or closer...we usually do it as a closer because people seem to like it a whole lot there (probably 'cuz their hammered by then...)

That's a reality of bar gigs, especailly without an opening band... at the beginning, the room isn't full yet and folks just aren't quite ready/buzzed enough to dance, even to Shakedown. Never open with your best dance song. Save it til the room is hoppin'.

Agreed, and it's one thing that I dislike about the bar scene, but what can you do? Sometimes it's good, because sometimes your first few songs are about shakin' the rust off and getting comfortable with the sound on stage, etc., so it's not a big deal that people aren't out there groovin' yet, but man, I wish that the place was hoppin' and ready to go when we got out there for song numbero uno, you know?

And the previous post had some good points in it, some of which we kinda do already, but maybe we could emphasize your points more so. It might catch a few more people...I see what you're saying. Esp. if we play, say a Neil Young song, and there's someone out there who really loves Neil but not so much Phish. Well, it'd be better received if we did 2 or 3 Neil songs in a row to appease them, so to speak, rather than doing just one, then going into Timber Ho and having them go "what the eff is this??? why not play more Neil, that was great" and losing their interest.

We thought about having an opening band (which we've had at some previous gigs), but we really like having the whole night to ourselves and getting a chance to play a lot of material. It also leaves time to get into some nice jams too. One benefit of an opening band, though, is that it usually brings in more people.