Pacing tunes between sets in restaurants & lounges

[ekurburski]

For those of you playing restaurants and lounges I am curious as to how you pace your tunes between dinner time and lounge time.  Do you play quieter, slower dinner music during the earlier hours and switch to the more up stuff as you go along or do you start with a bang?  It seems obvious that you may  be more careful with volume during dinner.  Any other considerations?  40-50 years ago I played one ballad an then one up, jump tune.  40 on and 20 off.  Things have changed, but how much so?

[EileenL]

I find people like to be able to hear one another talk during Dinner so quite background music is all that is required. You do need to read the audience and you will know when to step it up.

[mikf]

It depends on the venue as well, and what they expect. Do they want it to stay sophisticated or evolve into a party. everywhere is different. If the venue management is smart they should book entertainers that suit their establishment. You don't book a sophisticated jazz trio for a noisy pub aimed at the young set.
Mike

[travlin-easy]

Way back when I used to play restaurants, lounges, country clubs, etc..., the very first thing I did was tried to read the crowd and figure what they wanted to hear. Most of the time, especially, if it was relatively early in the evening, they just wanted background music. You could fire up the keyboard, select a slow Bossanova style and play anything you wanted for the next two hours. However, I always found it best to play the song that they obviously knew, based upon their age. And, played them at a low volume with few or no vocals. Later in the evening, I would bring up the volume a bit, and play some songs they could dance to. Not everyone would get up to dance, but when a few couples got up, about halfway through the song, the floor would gradually fill. As stated above, every venue is different and you have to be able to read the audiences. However, it is up to you to set the atmosphere. Sometimes, but not often, I got it wrong. The one thing you do not want to happen is to allow the club/restaurant manager dictate what you should be playing. I've had a few try to do this and continued to play the songs I thought the audiences wanted to hear - I was usually right in my assessment. However, I did have one job where the owner was insistent in my cranking up the volume to ear bleed levels and playing hip-hop songs - I packed up and walked out and never looked back.

Good luck, Earl,

Gary

[ekurburski]

Thank you all for your replies.  Sounds as though things haven't changed much through the years.

[Toril S]

Same here. Easy listening for dinner and coffee, then crank it up a bit later😀