Burning time on the gig?

[Wengr]

So, a club owner messages to say that the duo gig happening the day after tomorrow originally booked for three hours, will now need to be four hours. I want to be flexible and compliant, but the problem is we are not prepared with material to cover four hours.
Any ideas, musical or otherwise to fill time?

[leew3]

quick answer: how likely is it that the intended audience will remain through all four sets? Mix and match some of the first two sets for the fourth hour might work.

[catdaddy]

When faced with a similar situation years ago the band I was in was playing venues that pretty much guaranteed significant clientele turnover over the course of an evening. As a consequence the majority of the audience that was there for our first set was gone by the time the fourth set started. We could confidently repeat our first set knowing only the venue's owner and the employees would be aware (and most times they weren't) that we'd played the songs before. Don't know if your venue is similar, but if it is you should have no problems if you repeat your first set.

At shorter gigs we often would repeat some of our original material since it was not familiar to most folks, occasionally slowing or speeding up tempo and changing the arrangement slightly to "disguise" a song. Never had anyone ask why we'd played the same song twice. If you have some originals this could work for you.

Finally, we'd often say we had a request for a song that we'd played earlier if it was a tune we all enjoyed playing. The "request" of course coming from within the band didn't make our statement any less accurate.

[Mr. Jelly]

Besides the other great answers depending on the material you can take longer solos and/or repeat the first verse on songs that you can get away with it on.

[DenverSteve]

So, depending on your on/off time, I do 55 on & 10 off, but many do 45 on / 15 off means you are only playing 180 minutes or 3 hours for the 4-hour gig. You can't play 3 hours? Beyond that what does your signed agreement/contract state as your responsibility? If you have no agreement, have a good time and replay songs as necessary. Four hours is usually unrealistic for a solo or duo. That's a long time to play especially if you sing as well.

[Steve DeRosa]

Every experienced musician has a few good solo songs in his/her repertoire that somehow never make it to the official "band" playlist - now's the time for your bandmates to step out and let their individual talents shine: drummer moves over to the keyboard and does some solo Billy Joel, bass player shows off his fingerstyle guitar abilities, your hard-rocking female vocalist teams up with the rhythm guitarist for some cabaret-jazz tunes...you get the idea. We've always had this "Plan B" in every band I've belonged to for the last 50 years, and I've seen groups as musically divergent as CSNY and Jay & the Americans make it an integral part of their regular show; I see it as a win-win situation all around: it not only showcases individual talent but diversifies your show, builds on-the-spot audience appeal, and makes your act more marketable to a broader demographic - which, to paraphrase the late George Steinbrenner, puts arses in the seats and money in your wallet...

[Murphy Slaw]

Tell funny little stories about your "bar life" adventures, I have hundreds. Tune up between every song like Chris Thile (love ya man).

Ask everybody "Are ya feeling alright?" every few minutes, (just kidding about that one).

A minute here, a minute there, piece of cake, add some simple 3 chord classics to the set quickly that won't need practice, stuff you've done your whole life and just forgot about.

[Mbroady]

You can do long guitar-centric jams ala Allman brothers

[Nymuso]

If the audience is engaged you might be able to do the story telling thing - if you are good at it. That is a skill that must be practiced and honed like any other. I believe the real answer is repeat the first set. The people who were there for the first set are not likely to be there for the fourth. And if they are they'll be too drunk to remember.

[jojobean39]

Play Freebird.

[PorkPieGuy]

As others have said, I doubt anyone from the first hour will be there during the fourth hour (or third hour depending on the gig). Do four 45-min sets with 15 min break each hour. Make your 4th set a "best of" of your first three sets. No one will notice. If they do, commend them on their attention span and willingness to listen for four hours.

[MikeBmusic]

Assume your 3 hours was 3 50-minute sets and 2 15-minute breaks.

So 4 hours: 4 45-minute sets, 3 20-minute breaks

180 minutes of playing vs 150 minutes, so you only need to repeat 30 minutes of tunes.

[Johnny K]

Originally Posted by Mbroady

You can do long guitar-centric jams ala Allman brothers

BDTD. It's amazing how long can you jam some songs out. We used to close out last set with Dazed and Confused and always ended into a long jam. By 4th set most of folks are wasted and would could read the phone book to a 12/8 shuffle groove and they probably wouldn't have noticed the difference.

Learn Stand By Your Man...It worked for the Blues Brothers.

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by Wengr

So, a club owner messages to say that the duo gig happening the day after tomorrow originally booked for three hours, will now need to be four hours. I want to be flexible and compliant, but the problem is we are not prepared with material to cover four hours.
Any ideas, musical or otherwise to fill time?

You do plan to get more money for the gig, right? I sure would. Make a few of the songs longer ... extend the instrumental breaks, add an extra chorus, etc. Do a few of your best numbers in the first and second set, and bring 'em back in the last set. Ask for more money, and get it.

[H2O]

Having faced similar situations, our solution has been to reach out to fellow local artists to see if they might be interested in opening for us. Great way to add variety and fill a time slot. Not to mention the networking aspect.