So you get a gig opening for insert big name here. You tell your friend who is a fie hard fan who says they just heard him play the same exact set twice in a row and heard he’s playing the same set for the whole tour. You laugh cause you know the club owner at his next stop. You go see him play before you open for him, record his set via video on your camera phone. You then go home, practice his set for two days till you have it down to a science. The night you open comes up. You get on the mic and say “fuck insert big name here.” Everyone giggles then you play their planned set. He shows up as you are almost done and chuckles saying he was going to play that track last. You start during laughing cause he doesn’t know you just played his whole set. How do you think the crowd would respond once he started playing?
i think a good majority of the crowd will not notice if he’s playing 3-4 hours sets, or i could be wrong (i originally typed in a very long explanation to support my opinion but i got lazy and stopped half way and wrote this instead)
The thing about “big touring acts” is that they typically have three or four “variations” on their larger set - different beginnings, different endings, different transitions…but overall the main body of the act is “well rehearsed” and “well coordinated.” This is because they can NOT afford a train wreck. Better to play at 90% than to try for 110% and lose it. So, the odds of the set being “identical” is fairly low…the odds of the set sounding “identical” is fairly high.
That said, not even 10% of the people will notice or care.
If you do this it will probably the last time you will be asked to open for a big name. The problem is with big names doing a tour is that they have so much stuff planned around it (lightshows, video walls behind them, fireworks) that it becomes impossible to simply freestyle, because then the stuff around it doesn’t complement the music as much. By the way, these guys gig around the globe so the odds of people seeing the same set twice is very low.
It would be funny. And funnier would be spotting some people reacting a lot more energic and crazy to hear the big name play the same tracks played just before.
Sounds like an idea I had a few years back for a band called “The B@st@rds”. We would be a festival band, and what we’d do is turn up and play a 20 minute medley of the headliner’s hit records before trashing the PA. Not sure we’d get booked much.
I 100% agree. I used to absolutely hate on all these big room acts. But who cares, I went to the Greater Than tour in Dublin, IRL to see Pete Tong, Calvin Harris, Tiesto, yes all big room names and wouldn’t exactly be my own taste…but even though I’m sure the sets throughout the tour were probably pretty similar, it was one of the greatest nights of my life…I did not stop dancing, amazing show! the lights / lasers / fireworks were f’ing amazing!
Also, This video explains how even though its freestyle, the light show can be sync’d up to any track he plays!
although, if the Dj was a dick, it would be funny!
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