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THEMES

The short sets I do often have
"themes" to them, but I almost
never make a point of it.  People
either notice or they don't.  For
the long set though, the theme is
always announced in advance.

This creates a game about playing
with people's expectations
here... a "clever" segue in the
short sets is intended to take
people by surprize.  A slightly weak
connection probably won't be even
recognized in the attempt.

For the 45 minute set, however, if
the listener knows the theme in
advance, then they'll be listening
for how what you play fits into the
theme.

A weak connection could be an
obvious gaffe... or, you may be
able to rely on the listener's
expectations to fill the gap.

Some 45 minute sets I've done have
required an enourmous amount of
work, but in general they're not
that hard to deal with.  When
you're not worrying about getting
on the mic, you have more time to
go rushing around working on other
things.  I've gotten stuck for time
and improvised some long sets that
have worked out okay, if not great.



Types of themes?

There are stupid ones,
like 105's "guess the connection":
("Yes, that's right! The bass players
all have brothers named Fred!")

Single keyword groupings,
e.g. songs with "ice" in the title.
This can be stupid, but it's
surprising how often something like
this can be interesting to listen
to: you get a collection of "icy"
music, and get to hear what
"iciness" means to muscians.

Collections of a certain type of
thing.  This can be based on sound
(e.g. music with flutes) or on the
theme of the lyrics (songs about
killing the president). Or they can
be based on some external property,
(e.g. songs that have all been
mentioned in Neil Gaiman's
_Sandman_).

But the highest, the ultimate, type of
theme set is the _Essay_, a collection
intended to advance a thesis
that may or may not be expressed in the
lyrics of the songs used.

        It's rare that I manage to do this.

                     ESSAY_ON_THE_UNDERGROUND




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