Setlist for a three piece?

Emp_Fab

Covid has brought many changes, not least the departure of our keyboard player (he left, not died!) and the original singer.  That leaves just guitar, bass and drums.  What songs work well for a simple three-piece ?  I do have a sample player too so any performance could easily be augmented with non-tempo-based synth pads etc.

Nothing too structurally complex either as I'll be doing rhythm, lead, vocals, samples and FOH mixing!  It takes concentration for me to any one of those!

Stratavarious

I had a three piece RnB band (power trio is a stretch) for a few years... go for basic crowd pleasing rock and roll classics, some raw Beatles and kinks and classic rock.. Free, T rex, Bowie  most guitar stuff you can do with a three piece.  

I’d keep it simple and uptempo.. and add the synths and triggers later.  We used a kazoo for silly sax solos and stuff. 

munckee

The Jam back catalogue. 

EricTheWeary

How generic is this? 

Yes, the kind of blues rock/ RnB/ power pop stuff - Dr Feelgood, ZZ Top. Things with a strong bass line/ punky riffs so Guns of Brixton or Should I Stay by The Clash. Several things by The Jam like Start.    The simpler end of The Police like Roxanne. Shed loads of analogue delay really helps ( possibly).  

And Timebomb by Rancid. Done here by a three piece ( sound quality not brill)...



There are two guitars on this but it's essentially a three piece instrumental 

   

or ( kinda thing) 

mrkb

White Stripes covers, then you can lose the bass player as well, unless he wants to do Royal Blood covers and dump you instead (assuming you play the guitar).

Sesh

What genre(s) are you thinking of here?

TTony

I guess it depends on what your audience (if you have one, ie if you're not just playing for your own amusement) expects, and how faithful to the original you want to be.

Some 3-pieces, the bass player is essentially doing a lot of the rhythm work as well as the basslines, but you'd need a pretty good bassist for that.

A simple looper pedal can help fill out the guitar sound - ie have the main rhythm part playing on that whilst you're doing lead stuff.

Watch all of this ...

thecolourbox

There are a few well known songs by Black Keys that could work, fun to play and not that hard to sing as well.

You could do some of the early Motown stuff as well with that setup but some of those do require a certain level of vocals as well

WiresDreamDisasters

How about 'Fuck A Dog' by Blink 182?

WiresDreamDisasters

Blink 182 are a 3 piece. They play simple pop punk music, and they have a sense of humour. Be great for your band!

Roland

I’ve played all of these without keys or second guitar. A lot of them may not be to your choice, but you probably need a few off-the-wall ideas:

20th Century Boy - E

A Girl Like You - Cm

Addicted To Love - A

All Day And All Of The Night - G

Black Velvet - B

Breakfast At Tiffanys - D

Brown Eyed Girl

Chelsea Dagger - G

Crazy Little Thing Called Love - D

Dancing In The Street

Day Tripper - E

Design For Life - A

Disco 2000

Does Your Mother Know?

Don't You Forget About Me - Em

Don't You Want Me Baby? - Am

Dreaming Of You - Am

Faith - B

Fat Bottomed Girls - D

Feeling Good - Gm

Footloose

Friday I'm In Love - D

Get Back - G

Go Your Own Way

Good Thing - Dm

Hard To Handle - Bb

Hot Stuff - Bm

Human - Am

Hungry Like The Wolf - Em

I Am The One And Only - A

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

I Predict A Riot - Cm

I'm A Believer - G

Is She Really Going Out With Him - Eb

Kids In America

Let's Dance - Bb

Let's Stick Together - A

Living On A Prayer

Locked Outta Heaven - F#m

Long Train Running - Gm

Love Is The Drug - Am

Message In A Bottle

Money For Nothing

Mustang Bleeding Sally - C

My Generation

Play That Funky Music - E

Power Of Love - Cm

Running Down A Dream - Em

Save Tonight - Am

Sex On Fire - E

Smooth - Am

Stuck In The Middle With You - D

Substitute - D

Superstition - Eb

Sweet Child Of Mine - G

Sweet Home Alabama - G

Tainted Love - Am

Teenage Kicks - D

This Love

Valerie - Eb

Venus - Em

Walking By Myself - E

What's Up - E

Wishing Well - Em

Wouldn't It Be Good - B

CarpeDiem

It sounds like you've got your work cut out multi tasking already, but, I agree with @TTony regarding a looper pedal. I'm currently trying using one to record rhythm parts that I can subsequent solo over. I'd suggest one with separate buttons for starting and stopping recording, unless you're good at double tapping to stop single button devices! It's taking me a lot of practice, but it's worth persevering with to fill out the sound on some songs.

thomasw88

I've played in a 3 piece for years. (well its' 4 piece but the singer doesn't play anything) 

Most songs work great.  Occasionally we'll drop a song or two because they don't work and need something else in their.   The drummer does have a roland  drum pad which he can also trigger samples or loops from but we don't tend to use it for loops very often as they can go wrong or he'll trigger it slightly early/late and everyone has to adapt to it quickly.


What works for me is to not just play 1 guitar part but  play what is important to the song.   So if there are 2 or 3  different voicings in a song, choose which one is important for each section the verse, chorus, bridge, etc and adapt it  accordingly to how your band plays.   It may not be exactly 'right' but it  usually  works and is quite interesting to do.

The drums and bass are really key and I just float around on top of them.

I'd avoid looper pedals as they can really go wrong and make you sound shit.

Cols

Bundle of blues rock stuff really - Cream, Free, Hendrix, Ten Years After, ZZ Top, Mountain.  Or you’ve always got punk and Nirvana-esque grunge.

fastonebaz

The Aristocrats if you can  

Emp_Fab

Thanks guys.  Some great suggestions here.  Much appreciated.

GoldenEraGuitars

Stereophonics’ first few albums were done as a 3 piece. Word Gets Around has some amazing short, easy and catchy songs on it. 

Same with Feeder. Plenty of amazing songs done as a 3 piece mainly although both bands use extra musicians live. 

HAL9000

Roland said:

…

Mustang Bleeding Sally - C

…

Genuine LOL

HAL9000

Checkout…

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/285/one-chord-progression-songs-suitable-for-jams-or-encores/p1

…for things that aren’t too onerous to play - not doubting your abilities but it does look like you’ll be pretty busy with singing, rhythm, lead, FOH, etc.

Wazmeister

Play the music you love.

fretmeister

Almost every song can be rearranged for a 3 piece.
The main element of a good 3 piece is whether your bassist is Adam Clayton or Jack Bruce.

Theres dozens of good power trios. Listen to more of them and pick some tunes.