wedding dance floor fillers

RocknRollDave

ElectroDan said:

One of the keys to packed wedding dance floors is not hanging about in between songs. It's like an automatic response of the audience to turn and walk toward their chairs after a song. But if you can come staright in with a great intro, they will stay.

This is spot on.

Danny1969

Yep, don't leave em hanging

One tip is ; you don't all need to be ready to start the next song straight away ... just start the drum beat to Superstition or SOF etc while people tune \ get their patchs sorted and that. As long as that beats going they will stay and dance

EricTheWeary

Makes me think of something I read by funk blues guitarist Bernard Allison ( ok, I've gone away from the wedding stuff here) about rehearsing the set and not just the numbers. If you see him there is no time to catch breath between numbers for the first 30 minutes. You can see that the outro of one song is a mental intro for the next. Then he stops, has a chat and plays a slow one.
Surprising how few bands are capable of doing that ( or interested in working toward it based on my experience ).

RocknRollDave

^ this makes a HUGE difference to a gig, too.

Metallica are the worst of the big names for this, they really mess about between songs, have in-jokes that you can't really make out because they're mumbling into mics and talking over each other...just doesn't work.

Of course, we all need the odd breather, swig of water whatever, but the stagecraft of putting a set together is something that, Eric quite rightly says, is so often overlooked.

EricTheWeary

I moaned a bit about how shit Deep Purple were last year. A few weeks ago I got one of those official bootlegs of the classic MKII line up from the early 70's. So much annoying twaddle between numbers. Deep Purple would have been a terrible wedding band. You heard it here first folks.

ElectroDan

Yeah, this is something my own band has really focused on recently. Everyone has a set list and who ever starts the song does so within a few seconds, unless there is an arm in the air and a worried look on the arm wavers face. It makes a huge difference and negates the need for amateur stand up comedy (which is always a good thing)!

Having your stuff together is essential for this way of playing though. A well set up guitar that has stable tuning, and the confidence that your band mates are alert, and not going to be caught with a mouthful of the buffet's finest offerings, or exchanging phone numbers with potential horizontal dance partners.

viz

Rocky version of california girls. David lee roth style.