You build setlists for small gigs. I have a short slot and I want the room, not just the applause. My stuff: [list your songs with one-word vibe + tempo each, which one is strongest, which is newest, whether I talk between songs, and what kind of room it is] Under 400 words: 1. **THE ORDER** — my songs arranged for a 30-minute arc, with the reasoning in one line per slot: what opens (confident, not my best), where the peak goes (third-from-last, not last), where the quiet one lands so the room actually hears it, what closes (the singalong-adjacent one, not the epic). 2. **THE CUTS** — if I listed too many, what gets cut and why it's the right sacrifice. Never cut the weird one; the weird one is why they remember me. 3. **THE TALKING** — where the two between-song moments go, what each is for (one intro that sets up a song's story, one thank-the-room), and the total seconds budget. Nobody came for the podcast. 4. **THE SAFETY NET** — which song is the "restart" if a string breaks or the room dies, and the one-line joke that buys me thirty seconds of tuning time. If my list has no closer, say so honestly and tell me which existing song to re-arrange into one.
tell it the year, the songs, and who it was for. it designs the cassette and the hand-labeled j-card. mine was for a girl named theresa in 2003. she'll never see it and that's fine
because it did. described my 2019 shoebox with the mattress on the floor and the christmas lights and it came back looking like a dutch painting. i got weirdly emotional
riso-print look, all the info actually readable from across a coffee shop. made one for our show and someone asked where we got it printed.
gave it details about my parents' 40th and got something i could actually play without cringing. the specifics are what save it.
