I just saw an instrumental guitarist play last night, Jim Campilongo, and he played about an hour as the first on a co-headlining bill. I could have stood to hear a couple more songs, and would have liked that.

However, I can't remember the last time I was really disappointed that a band had stopped.

Ben

A good band, at lest an hour. A shit band, half an hour.

way too many variables, but as a rough guide that i am happy with:

Grindcore / power violence / fastcore punk: no more than 20 mins.

Sunn O))) played for 2 1/2 hours when i saw them, and it was totally acceptable and still help my interest.

Fugazi did the same, totally acceptable. maybe its about whether you are good or not, as i think a great band (still heavily dependent on style) of which there are only a few, can get away with playing for 2 hours plus and still be amazing. most bands in the Rock genre should not go over the 40 minute mark, unless truly outstanding.

For openers, 15-20 minutes.
For headliners, 30-60 minutes, unless they're fucking stellar.

Even when my band headlined we didn't like to play for more than 30 minutes or so. Always leave them wanting more instead of wanting you to stop.

As a non-headliner, it's never been up to me how long I get to play. Usually the promotor, hired soundguy or manager of the touring band decides how long the openers get to play here. It's customary for openers to get 20 to 40 minutes to set up and play, depending on the number of bands on the bill. 8 band bills are frustratingly common in this silly town.

There is absolutely nothing I hate more than small/local/opener bands who play for an hour on 4-band bills. Seriously, it practically inspires me to violence.

The worst part about it is that an anonymous band full of people clueless enough to think that everyone wants to hear an hour of their music is inevitably terrible. They have rock-star attitudes, talk a lot about getting "signed", and are oblivious about the extent to which they're fucking the other bands.

If you're not the band people paid to see, play for 30 minutes and get the fuck off the stage.

ErukthePink wrote:Hell, there's a band here in Montreal (Jerusalem in my Heart) who only play sets that are little over 10 minutes!

10 minutes. That is an eternity compared to the early Palatka shows. Three minutes tops. By the end of the band they got it up to 20 minutes. In Europe they would just play the set twice. I doubt many people noticed.

Jon