Yea i can fully understand why stang is on the set list. Its a simple song that spans like 40 years of
cover bands. When you work a set list up for an open jam night you have to keep it simple and you
need to play stuff that flys with a wide age demographic. If you sat in at the jam night where I play
keys ,, you would do stang and sweet home too. We also have a set of blues thats easy for guys to
jump in on, which we feel is important so that a good player can get up and look good and not have to
be an insider to get the crowd going.
The house bands plays the first set. We try to set the bar pretty high right out of the gate. A typical
opening song for us is my music by loggins and macina and then do an eagles tune both
having harmony on the vocals. the known factors tend to get in early in the show... then the middle is
all stuff where its easy to new guys to sit in.
We will do stuff you choose if you give us the key and at
least a couple guys have played it before. Toward the end of the show , the house band tends to take
back over and do some of the songs off the hosts CD. We try to be as guest friendly as we can and
still have it be a good show for the people in the bar. While I have heard people complain about how
its run and structured ,,, It does have a repuation as a really good night of music and not an amateur
hour. The backing band has some guys who have charted and had major record label deals. While we do
alot of old rock,,, we are also old guys. and tend to attract an older crowd. Its hard to put on a good
jam night ,,,,,and make it work. If a bar has a host and backing band that can pack the place week in
and week out ,, they dont like to mess with the format too much.
