I'm interested if others have got to that point where you have realised that your band maybe needs to be a bit better at their presentation and slicker between songs etc.
What kind of things have you done when someone is changing instrument i.e. to a dobro (with finger picks to go on etc), or plugging in a harmonica to the same amp as guitar and changing settings etc. I know it's down to the singer in a lot of cases - we are working on her awareness in the set where this happens and moved songs or put them together to try to limit these changes.
We are putting the onus on the person who starts the song to look round and make sure we are all ready and equally if one of us has a technical issue to make it known.
I don't mind chat and banter between songs in a pub but some of the gigs we have coming up require a bit less of that and no fiddling with pedals, noodling between songs etc that we can all be guilty of!
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Other than that it is to be aware of when the changes are happening and make sure the front person can babble for long enough. This can be rehearsed, it doesn't have to be totally ad-libbed. Get in the habit of looking at each other and communicating on stage.
I think also that a minute of not playing feels like an hour when on stage, so try to not panic too much when nothing much seems to be happening.
And it goes without saying that noodling between songs (or during soundcheck) is unacceptable. Especially for drummers.
@Vaiai I play with some guys more interested in the visual aspect of their instrument rather than the practical ..... I hate that nothing is less cool than a guitar that won't stay in tune
You should be prepared to bang out the songs one after the other except where the frontperson takes the time out to interact with the audience - which I think is important to do as long as it isn't overdone. Whoever starts off each song should crack on unless there is a reason not to - and the person who has the problem (tuning has drifted, technical hitch) has the onus on them to make it known before the song kicks in.
If there is a guitar change needed, the front person has to fill that space by talking - It can seem an age but it needn't be. Just a general 'Hello, we are [band name], thank you for having us, lovely venue, here is a song by/ about [insert quick song introduction]' etc Or even 'This song features [insert band member's name] on dobro, which he is just strapping on as we speak...'
I have one guitar change during my set - for a Drop D tuning - which I 'cover' by saying 'this song needs a different guitar but see if you can spot my seemless guitar change here....See? Seemless....' to make up for the fact that I am always all fingers and thumbs when it comes to sorting out the strap.... Meaningless drivel, really, but fills the gap better than silence.
Later on we aim to keep people in the pub dancing, and so we try to minimise gaps. Normally a quick look round and the drummer counts us In. The second half of our second set runs back to back, and they are mainly guitar introduced songs, so I just keep going.
I now stand on the tuner between numbers
@Vaiai your band is going where I want mine to go. I think ours is falling apart (for various reasons).
I keep saying, we don't need to learn any more songs - we need to do all the other stuff now!
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For covers bands, i think it should be much the same really, possibly introduce the songs if you have to but unless your frontperson is particularly charismatic (and lets face it, most aren't) it's probably best just to keep the music going.
Things I feel set some bands apart from others:
No noise at start of set - band gets on stage, tunes instruments silently (if you have to - you'll have tuned it already 5 minutes beforehand anyway...), singer introduces band, first song starts. Simple.
Tight starts / endings to songs.
Short gaps between songs.
No noodling of any kind between songs, and especially not the cardinal sin of half the band sort of playing a song the audience knows but the rest of the band don't...
Set lists - everyone should have a set list, everyone should know who starts each song too.
If you want to manage the 'is everyone ready' thing, have the drummer drive the set - they count in each song, they can see everyone on stage and check everyone is ready before starting the click.
Band looks mainly at audience during performance, occasionally at rest of band, not their shoes / guitar neck / pedals / the wall behind the drummer all night.
Making the performance a performance can help with quiet gigs too - you can have a loosely scripted banter element that is more or less the same everywhere, you put on the same performance regardless of where you are. Getting over the feeling of being a knob is the most difficult part of this, and it helps if you have confidence in your band and their material.
I'm not saying all of these things are easy of course!
From the OPs list, i'd say things like plugging a harmonica into the guitar amp and then having to change all the settings is a total no-no, get an amp for the harp.
I'd also say in general - are guitar swaps *really* necessary? Maybe different in a bluegrass band if you need to go from acoustic to dobro...
We had a band meeting after rehearsal and discussed these things too - moving set about so when Billy swaps I do mine too but I can use either guitar thru the whole set apart from the 2 numbers that need the whammy action!
Also discussed having 3 or 4 songs we keep so if we get to the end of an up tempo group of songs and the dance floor is packed but One of Us or Brass In Pocket is next, we can make the decision to bump it and grab one from the up tempo choices to keep it going.
A lot to this eh
Saying that, I saw Ben Howard on his last tour and they took an age changing instruments between each song, with very little speech, yet still engrossing.
As for the harp, why not put it through the PA? Does it need it's own amp?