I have lived here a little over a year and my wife an I left a couple of very successful bands in the northeast to relocate here. We were very lucky to fall in with a couple of gifted musicians soon after we got here and we're now playing local venues (City Fire's, etc), and hopefully refining the act to eventually play the squares. Initially our set list had a number of slightly deeper but classic rock cuts that we thought showed off the band, akin to stuff the Hooligans play, but after one gig we felt the need to slightly retool to really emphasize dance-ability. We don't play Brown Eyed Girl, but we do play Wild Nights, LOL. But we do manage to squeeze in 1 or 2 of our favorites a set (Steely Dan, Edgar Winter, etc).
The point is it's a balancing act... keeping the dance floor packed, keeping the manager happy, and maintaining your musical self respect.
Shameless plug - we're at City Fire in Sumter 2/29 if anyone wants to check us out.
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