Overview
A Primer for Beginners and those who find the new and expanded game in post-beta a bit intimidating and confusing. I will try to continually update it as Todd adds features to the game.Hopefully, this will take you from the beginning of the game up to your first gigs as a new band.Last Updated (05/12/21)
The Long and Winding Road
Create your character with the toolkit and add a character name and band name in top left corner. The bottom left is a choice of instrument and bottom right is a basic aptitude skill. The aptitude skill cannot be changed and it allows you to advance that skill twice as fast.
The new game version utilizes a system of attitudes that are prevalent and regionally specific. These attitudes reflect what musical themes are popular in that region of the world. These attitudes evolve over time so that an attitude that is unpopular today, may become popular in the future.
You can pick 10 sets of attitudes that your character can keep. Each attitude has two facets so your 10 attitudes can open 20 actual opposing attitudes. Of your 10 selections, you must choose 3 of the 20 attitudes you chose as your starting attitudes. Each few weeks you have the opportunity to change one attitude. Be aware that if an attitude that you did not originally choose becomes popular, you cannot ever use it to make songs.
For example, my character can choose Love/Hatred as one of his 10 original attitude options. If he chooses Hatred when he enters the game he can not write songs with LOVE as a theme until a few weeks have passed and he is able to swap out the two opposing attitudes.
In this same example you can see by the left screenshot that he was unable to take four of the attitudes. He will NEVER be able to write a song using any of the 8 attitudes listed on those 4 tiles. If, for instance, Technology was popular, he would be unable to write a song about it. If one of his band-mates had the ability to write a tech song, that band member’s writing skill would determine the value of the song rather than his own writing skill. (more about this later)
There are two continents available in the beta, United States & Canada or Europe. They can each be accessed by clicking the globe icon in the top left corner of the game map.
With a name like Ray Bob I decided to start his band in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I prefer starting the game in a smaller town for ease of travel, but any town will work. I do recommend that you pick a town with several other towns within easy driving distance. This allows you to make out of town gigs and still get home in time to rest and repair before the next gig.
Gimme Three Steps
Okay, here is where you begin to pay your dues in order to reach that brass ring of Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Mega-Stardom.
As soon as you start your game you will notice three things.
1) You are the only person in your band.
2) You are fully inspired (the glowing border around your picture).
3) You have gained a level of experience (the little pluses floating around your character pic) and can spend your first experience points. Depending on what difficulty you chose at the start, you will gain 6, 5, or 4 experience points per level.
Another fun thing to note here is that you can choose a nickname for any band member by simply putting quotation marks in the middle of their name. In my example, Ray Bob “R B” Jones has the name R B under his picture. You can put any name you want within the quotes to nickname a band member at any time.
I recommend raising Repair to 5 immediately and putting the other point(s) into Primary Aptitude. The reason for raising repair is to help jump start that skill and make early cash in game. Your skill level is a direct reflection of your percentage chance to repair an item. After this I will not invest in Repair since every repair attempt pays me experience (even if I fail) and every attempt has a 5% chance to succeed and repair some of the item’s damage/wear.
Two important quick keys to remember are X and H. When you are in your Home or any building, X will move you outside at the building’s entrance. If you are outside in any town where you own a home, H will move you inside your home from any location on the mini map.
In the screen shot on the right you can see a small mini map of my town set up as a 9 blocks square containing my current location. Until I drive the streets I can not see any location but my own home and the close surrounding area. Hitting M opens the mini map and shows the entire city. In my case, the town is so small that all 9 blocks appear on the mini map.
I explored the entire 9 block grid and as you see by the map icons, there are 5 Hotels/Motels, 4 Home sites, 4 clothing stores, 4 music shops, 3 recording studios, 2 managers, 1 photography studio, 1 garage, 1 Printer, 1 art gallery, 1 Park, 1 Cemetery, 1 Hospital, and 5 Music venues.
The 5 music venues on the map can be identified by using mouse over and they show 1 of the venues is a large Theater, 2 are night clubs and 2 are small bars. Without a manager, we can only book gigs for ourselves in the bars and clubs. Managers are necessary to book large venues like Theaters and Stadiums.
Since we are just getting started and have no songs, no instruments and no band, we will need to address those issues before we try to get a gig. Drive to the nearest music store (musical note icon) and enter it.
In the first shop we found a BC Rich Son of a Beast White guitar in very poor condition for $135. If I use this guitar it gives me +1 Stage Presence. This bonus remains regardless of condition unless it reaches 0. The current condition is 13/78 which means it has only 13 points of wear and tear before it is broken, BUT if it is repaired to max it will have 78 points. I can pay to have it repaired, but the cost is prohibitive and will not benefit me. In the early game, I want to raise my repair skill as fast as possible and sell the stuff I don’t need for gigs at a profit.
By right clicking the guitar in the store’s inventory. When I left click it in my inventory, I can see what it is, what condition it is in, what I paid for it, and what the store will pay me to buy it back. This last notation is important. I can now drive to the other 3 music shops and see what they will pay for it.
As you can see by this screen shot, Alan’s Discount Music is willing to buy it for $76 so I willalways sell any used and repaired gear to Alan’s, regardless where I purchased it. Please note, that if I am in another town where I do not know where the best shopping is, I can still see what I paid for any item before selling it.
Now our first band hire needs to be made.
As you can see, I had to drive to a neighboring town to find a band member who can repair gear. When you look at the ads on a music shop bulletin board, they describe what their primary aptitude is. We needed someone with repair skill and we found him. He is not very compatible with the band leader, but that is not a factor until we start playing gigs and making money. When everyonde is broke, they are willing to work out differences, but as they gain success, the cracks begin to appear. No worries, as Dominic’s usefulness will eventually have him joining the Pete Best’s and Stu Sutcliffe’s of the world.
Returning home, I go to the rehearsal room and choose REPAIR tab.
Repair window shows the condition of all of my band’s gear. Each member of the band gets a number of repair attempts per day based on the difficulty level of the game. Dominic has 27% chance of success per attempt, Ray Bob (R B) has a 5% chance of success per attempt.
My recommendation here is that you use the higher skilled member to keep items from breaking (0 quality) and all other band members struggle to raise up their skill every day. I would normally have other band members added at this point, so let me recruit some more members.
Keith Strange is a low ego high playing skill drummer with good compatibility with RB. Dakota Hawk is a low ego bass player with good compatibility with RB as well. Her business skill is not as valuable over the long haul, but can definitely make a difference in cash flow at the start. Low ego is important because there is far less tendency to quit over compatibility or anger issues. As I said before, personality issues are not that big of a deal in the early days, and everyone’s issues with Dominic will be resolved LONG before our band hits the big time.
Johnny B Goode
For the next few weeks the mantra is simple. Mow the grass at the nearby park, busk each day in the park gaining 200 exp and +1 Playing skill per day (the park will allow busking for 2 weeks following the lawn mowing job, so you should gain 13 playing skill before needing to mow again). Repair gear daily by letting the best repair skill band members keep items from breaking as the rest wear them down by trying to repair (you get experience from every repair attempt). Write Songs or Practice songs (each member whose name appears on a completed song gains exp. from writing and all members get some exp as well as a possible +1 Playing skill from practicing songs). Sell repaired gear for profit at the best resale shop and replace with new worn out gear (be careful to ONLY sell the gear that is NOT utilized by the band. As you buy gear, often the band members who buy it will keep it for gigs, writing, rehearsing or busking).
Rinse and repeat the process.
During this time the experience from Busking, Practicing, Writing Songs, and Repairing gear will begin to level your band members. I recommend putting 2 points each level (4 skill points) into their primary aptitude skill. The rest into Playing skill (only AFTER they have maxed 20 skill from busking) or Writing Music or Lyrics depending on your preference.
The goal is to have a band with;
All members Playing skill above 50,
At least one member with 70+ Music Writing Skill
At least one member with 70+ Lyric Writing Skill
At least one member with 70+ Stage Presence Skill
Playing skill allows musicians to quickly learn and master songs, especially difficult songs.
Each of the three Music writing tiles (rhythm, tempo, riff) has a Large Number (quality), a small number (difficulty) and a name (author).
Each Lyric writing tile has a Large Number (quality)
Attitude (Blue text means it is currently popular and Red means it is currently unpopular and all the others are neutral). The popularity of each attitude will change as the attitudes go in and out of favor with audiences, so today’s popular theme may become despised later in the game and eventually regain favor.
Combining the 4 puzzle pieces allows the band to write a song. When a particularly valuable tile is unable to fit into the puzzle it can be dragged to the bottom bar and saved forever (or until used).
In the example we are creating a 4 quality song with 16 difficulty. Three of the band members will get experience for collaborating on it as well as gaining happiness every time we play it at a gig (this can be a cause of friction in the band later when members, especially ones with high ego, get angry because they are not getting song writing credit). Notice that the Lyric is about a popular present attitude. As attitudes change, so will the song’s popularity.
HELP!
During the previous section, you should have been writing and rehearsing songs for the experience. The songs were low quality and pretty basic musicianship. As you eventually get 6-9 songs above 70 Play Skill. When we are in that range of skill we can start looking for gigs in small venues. In my town those are Kevin’s Watering Hole and Rick’s Bar. There are also two larger clubs in town, but they are not going to take a risk of hiring us until we have some popularity in town.
I also drove to the two nearest cities to try the small venues in each. I was able to book the next two weekends as well as booking a gig on Friday night the first weekend of next month.
Because each of these venues has me on their Calendar, neither will offer me another gig until I fulfill my scheduled date with them. If I fail to show up for a gig, my rep with that club will suffer and booking future gigs there will be very difficult.
Where Do We Go From Here?
OK. We have rehearsed our first 6 songs.
Note that I do not name a song unless it becomes a hit, but that is my own choice so do as you will (I just got tired of using my fave song titles on songs that tanked for my band).
As you can see, our opening gig at Vanessa’s Bar showed a serious deficiency in both our presentation and quality of performance. Somehow, I doubt that this bodes well in our Battle of the Bands tomorrow night.
As I feared, we were slaughtered at the Battle of the Bands. However, the weekend was far from a disaster. We managed to pick up inspiration, happiness, popularity and reputation with both the fans and club management, as well as some of the other local bands. This popularity with bands increases the chance that they will be willing to invite us to perform at their future gigs. We also sold a couple band shirts which will garner future popularity. Lastly, the clubs will be more agreeable about booking us for future gigs.
So, I drove back by both venues, Rick’s had no openings, but Vanessa;s had a month’s worth of slots to fill. Positive reputation and band popularity are a huge factor in booking gigs. Having a band member with Business skill helps a bit, too!
Unfortunately, I chose not to accept any more gigs in order to deal with a future headache.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do!
Band Dynamics are always difficult, but success seems to bring it all to the fore. one of the advantages in this sim, is that you get a deep look into band chemistry and can plan accordingly. When you hire a new musician, his potential relationship with each band member is illustrated for you by color and line thickness.
In every band I begin, I look for someone with high repair skill to help my band members become proficient at repairing gear without spending valuable experience on the skill. The downside of this strategy is that you often end up grabbing a skilled craftsman that has zero chemistry with the rest of the band.
Like Dom
We knew he would be trouble eventually, but we needed his skill. Now the rest of the band is more skilled than Dom was when he joined us, so we no longer require his skills.
While he is making us money faster because of his 99 repair skill, his personality will become a bigger issue for us down the line.
Earlier in the game we had a random event where Dom was arrested and we needed to bail him out or lose him. Because we were still low in repair skills at the time we chose to keep him. Now our options are
1) Wait for another random event.
2) Fire him.
3) Make him so angry he quits.
All three choices have consequences. Whatever the reason, he will take 1/4 of band funds when he goes. The band will also have lost a lot of Play skill on our songs. It will also drop further if/when we try to hire a replacement.
By firing him now, we will mitigate many of the expenses and heartburn of losing him down the road. After all, the band is just starting out and has very little cash on hand. There are also ways for us help us mitigate those losses.
We have 3 gigs still on our calendar. The plan is to fire him immediately after those gigs are done. That way our play skill will not be hurt by his departure. it also gives us time to hide the money from him so he cannot take any band funds with him.
I know, it seems heartless and cruel to recruit the guy and use him to make us better, then dump him and deny him his fair share. So sue me.
Music is a dirty business!
So, you can see we lost a huge chunk of our Play Skill after firing Dom. We then hired Sabrina.
Her only downside is her ego, it is below 50, but if she is not allowed to co-write a lot of our music, or if we don’t include enough music that she collaborated on in our gigs and CDs, she might have anger issues later, despite her positive relationship with the rest of the band. This will bear monitoring.
From this point, I intend to focus on doing a few small gigs and write all new material for trial at these gigs. Any song that is low quality and not a hit song is only gonna end up in my dustbin. I delete them as soon as I realize they have no future value, except as CD filler. At this stage of the band’s life, we can afford to grind through a few dozen new songs without saving any that are not hit songs. Until the time we are able to write songs of at least 50 quality and difficulty, only hits will be saved.
Which leads us to the magical Hit Song!
It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock ‘N’ Roll)
SO
We have our band in place.
We have skills and we are on the right path to stardom.
What more is there to know?
The answer to that is….LOTS!
We have only scratched the surface, and this guide is far from a definitive work on the subject of success in the Rising Star 2: Pre-Live Beta.
Attitudes change and you have to change with them or your band will be the next Milli Vanilli. It is not enough to have a hit song (or three) and ride the “Fame Train” to glory. Going into clubs, especially as your rep and popularity there goes up, you will see people talking and sharing thoughts on music both present and future. These are telling you what direction attitudes are heading. The more you see an existing popular attitude being shared, the longer it will stay popular. If the attitude is not currently popular, it soon will become so. This allows your band time to change member attitudes and write songs that are not only relevant now, but will soon become relevant.
PAY ATTENTION!
I will gladly add updates as people ask for them, but this is it for now. As I said, this is not the definitive guide to RS 2 success in PLB. It is merely an attempt to help people gain more insight into the nuances of it.
I know that Todd is diligently working on this game and trying to address concerns as they arise.
Stay Tuned!
Turn the Page
About Inspiration, Songwriting and Gigs
UPDATE #1
No amount of inspiration will make a difference until you can begin creating two digit tiles (10+ value). Inspiration only really impacts your Lyric and Music Writers. When they are inspired, they write their highest value tiles….even when the creative cycle is down.
As I mentioned before, the song tile pool ebbs and flows over a monthly cycle where you get a lot of tiles and then the pool dries up and you struggle to write songs.
Here is my songwriting strategy.
I create 12 songs asap and use them at every gig. I never have more than 15 songs active and never have less than 12 active. When I create a high quality song that is not a hit, I record it (at 70 recording quality) and archive it rather than delete it, that way I can use it to fulfill a contract or fill out a CD.
Once I am able to book every weekend in advance, I can create one new song each week and rehearse it up all week because last weekend I played all 12 current songs so they don’t lose play skill for a week. Even if your weekend sets are only 6 songs you can play half on Friday and the other half on Sat or you can rehearse all 12 on Friday or Saturday night (since you are local).
This allows you to focus on creating a song and skill it up all week. play it at the Friday gig and delete the crap tune it replaces. If it sucks you only need it one more night and create again.
Until you can consistently write 25-30 point songs, inspiration is unimportant.
Always bank high value tiles, except lyrics (unless they are popular, or about to become popular). create a new song using the strongest tiles and build around them from the pool.
As far as booking a lot of gigs in advance, every town has at least 2 small bars, as soon as you are able to book a gig at one of them, you can start driving to nearby towns and book the small bars there, as well. If you started in a small town with several others around you, it is easy to schedule up to 5 weekends in advance. As your popularity grows you can expand those gigs to the larger clubs as well.
If you play it rightly, you have a dozen clubs that are within a day trip’s range from your home to book gigs at. By the time you are booking a month in advance you should be putting out 30-40 point songs easily and have gotten a hit or two written.
With a Little Help from My Friends
With the cap at 50, experience is even more important. One trick I have found for maximizing experience is using Bonus Days to the max. This is done by using as many exp adds as possible.
When there is a Bonus announced they are accompanied by a popup saying something like, “Today is Tony Ramone’s Birthday” or “Today is the anniversary of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon” or some other big day in Music History. It tells you everyone in the band is getting more experience for the day.
First thing you need to do is repair all the gear that you can (even failed repairs get exp). Then drive to the park and busk or take a job. Next, drive to every small surrounding town to explore (or buy more gear to repair) which gives you driving experience, drive home (more driving exp) and Practice a song that will not max out (in other words songs that are not gonna hit 100 by practicing) if your song list is maxed, pick archived songs to practice. If archive is empty write a song with every band member contributing a tile, no matter how bad the song is.
I Got a New Attitude (Update 3/27/21)
OK there are 5 attitudes that you do not have listed for band members, but they reflect fan reaction (they show up on the yin/yang attitudes icon in the top right of the game screen).
- Low Energy Songs (blue energy)
- High Energy Songs (red energy)
- Instrumental Songs (made with no Lyric tile)
- Basic Musicianship (1-30 difficulty)
- Technical Musicianship (70-+ difficulty)
Each type is chosen when you create and name the song. These are also foreshadowed by checking the thought bubbles in local clubs. There is a huge advantage in knowing that a type of song that is not currently popular, but will soon be, can be written, rehearsed, tested on audiences, recorded and released in time to maximize its impact on the industry and the public appeal of an album.
It is important that you make note of any attitude that pops up in advance. It is quite possible to walk into a club and see two new attitudes being discussed and still not see them become active for 2 months or more.
For example, in my current game, I entered a local club where I have 25 popularity and almost everyone had thought bubbles. Many of the thoughts were talking about Love, Instrumental, and Depression (all current attitudes) but, there were several talking about Sports Cars and Basic Musicianship.
I had started the game with Sports Cars as an attitude for my lyricist, and had archived several Sports car songs that were decent quality, and basic (since they were written while we were all low Playing skill). I started rehearsing them and added them to my first album when I noticed that several of the songs I was about to release on the album were currently bad attitude songs.
Despite the fact it was released on a low rated label, the album did very well for a group of nobodies.
Who Are You? (added 4/4/21)
I did not go into much detail about creating a character and the pros and cons of each musician and skill. Most of the reason was that I want to let you play what you want and how you want. Some builds are better than others, but it is possible to be successful with any instrument/skill combo.
Please bear in mind that each setup will use a separate set of gear to take advantage of various stat bonuses. These bonuses improve your skills and can save you a LOT of wasted experience points if you make sure to check all four setups before spending exp.
The setups are for Practicing (playing skill), Performing (stage presence skill), Songwriting (writing music skill) and Busking (no bonus gear but specific instruments necessary to do this task).
There is no bonus gear for writing lyrics.
Instruments:
Vocalist: this is the least profitable musician in the early game, especially if you plan to follow my strategy of repairing and reselling gear for profit. There are only two types of equipment for the vocalist, 1 microphone and 3 effects processors per setup.
Guitarist: There is no distinction between lead or rhythm guitar in the game, but you can field more than one if you like. This is my favorite musician in game due to the wide variety of distressed gear available for repair and resale. 1 guitar, 1 strings, 3 processors and 1 amp per setup.
Bass Guitar: Much smaller variety of bass guitars in the game make it less popular than anyone except the vocalist. 1 bass guitar, 1 strings, 3 processors and 1 amp per setup.
Drums: The gear availability is about on par with Bass, but the greater per unit price makes it a lot more profitable when you repair and resell it. There are also a couple expensive additions (drum heads and cymbals) but they can also add enhancement bonuses, so it rates above the bass. Drum. drumsticks, drum heads, cymbals, 3 processors per setup.
Keyboards: Now that keyboards can busk, this is my second most profitable instrument, as keyboards and their amps are VERY pricey, but once you can repair them each unit sold has the highest average dollar value in the game.
So, using my repair and resell strategy for fun and profit, I rate the most profitable musicians to be:
1) Guitar
2) Keyboard
3) Drum
4) Bass
5) Vocalist
Now, about starting skills, they are great to have because each exp point used in your bonus skill counts double. However, there is no real consensus on what skill is the best for beginning the game. My personal take on each is included here for you.
Playing: I have mixed feelings about taking this as a bonus skill. Most players still feel that you are wasting valuable double exp points because busking earns you 1 playing skill each day until you reach 20. The fact that you are getting exp from busking and income from busking AND a free playing point is something I highly recommend.
So, if you choose this as your bonus skill, do NOT put any exp into it until you reach the 20 free busking points. The reason is simple, the game will stop giving you a playing point for busking as soon as you reach 20 skill.
After reaching 20, you also have a tiny percentage chance to gain 1 playing skill every time you spend a night practicing songs. I believe that your percent chance to gain a skill is based on the difficulty of the songs, but I do not know that to be a fact. What I do know, is that you do gain occasional progress in playing skill from practicing.
I consider Playing skill to be one of the most important skills to raise, especially early in the game. It speeds up the amount of time it takes to learn new songs. It also makes it easier to learn difficult songs.
While many people choose to focus a different primary skill and use single experience points rather than bonus skills on it, I have recently tried using it as a bonus skill and rapidly ascend the playing tree until I reach 80 as soon as possible. Playing skill can earn you money from busking and earn endorsements later in the game.
Music Writing or Lyric Writing: Most players seem to favor music writing or lyric writing as their bonus stat, but there seems to be a growing number of players who feel that by not choosing either skill, it is an effective way to combat unhappiness in the band.
Their reasoning is solid. In the middle-to-late game, when your band is finding success and making money, unhappiness drives a wedge between members, usually due to ego or songwriting credit. It is pretty common to have someone leave the band abruptly, if you are not paying attention.
Every gig you play consists of a set list and credit for each song is shared by each of the musicians who contributed a songwriting tile to it. The same is true for CD releases. If you choose to take a back seat and not write music, there is a greater chance that the other band members will share writing credit on most of your songs, making them each happier.
Stage Presence: Another money maker. You can get endorsements and your songs can get a better audience reaction (boosting T Shirt and CD sales) with a high stage presence. This is my recommended player skill.
Production: Probably the least valuable skill, but there has been some discussion on the community boards and some feedback from Todd, so it is possible that this may get tied to something in a future update.
Updated (4/29/21) Todd did it again! Production skill has been tied to the song creation process by allowing each band member to combine two matching tiles that were previously created to make them better. Each combine takes one point of production skill for each tile point. For example, a pair of matching 3 point tiles can create a 6 point tile and costs 6 Production skill. These skills can be used daily. Apparently, like with Business skill, the points each player get to use are based on the highest skill band member. This means that if the highest band member has 70 skill, the entire band can combine up to 70 points per day.
Business: Like production, it seems to have limited value past the early game. There is the fact that you are getting marginally higher fees and better gigs, but it seems to be barely noticeable.
Repair: If you follow my guide, you will never put more than 4 exp into this skill. I usually prime my character to 5 repair off my first level exp. After that, I skill it up by repairing things. The game has no end to the amount of gear to be fixed, and every attempt to fix an item, whether successful or not, gains you experience and a chance to raise the skill by 1 on each attempt.
That’s right. You could (potentially) gain 1 skill point on every attempt!
I Am Music and I Write the Songs (Updated 05/10/21)
I have gotten a lot of questions about how to build a set list, especially when High Energy or Low Energy is an attitude. I have a basic set list for when neither attitude is present, then modify it for longer gigs. All you really need to understand about a set list, is that you need to manage the audience’s energy and interest.
ENERGY
Every audience comes to the gig with energy to burn, and a need to be entertained. The first meter on the gig screen shows their energy and the 2nd one shows their interest. High energy songs drain energy from the audience. If their energy hits zero they will struggle to recover and lose interest in the music. You can manage their energy by strategically placing softer songs in the set list so they can recover a bit before the next rocker.
I will arbitrarily assign values to each song type to illustrate the issue. Understand that these are not absolute, since some HE songs will drain more than others, while some LE songs will recover less than others.
High Energy (Red) – Burn audience energy by 30%
Medium Energy (Yellow) – Recover 15%
Low Energy (Blue) – Recover 40%
So my basic 6-son set has 3 high, 1 low, 1 medium and a final high energy song. We burn about 90% of the audience’s energy then recover about half before burning another 30%.
H, H, H, L, M, H (6 song set)
H, H, H, L, M, H, M, M, H (9 song set)
H, H, H, L, M, H, M, M, H, M, M, H (12 song set)
This means I keep an active core song list of 6 high / 5 med / 1 low. Since I normally keep 14-16 songs on my active list. This allows me to rotate in new material as a trial (looking for a hit). Hit songs are always active, and all other songs are archived or deconstructed.
This set list is not an absolute, I modify it a lot (especially when introducing new material) so there are times the energy burn or recovery is not accurate because a poorer quality or skilled song will have less of an impact and less of a percentage of energy change. The important thing is to never let the audience energy hit zero. One way to do that, is to intersperse more medium energy songs, as they do not burn energy. While Low Energy songs also do not burn energy, they get a penalty when you play them while audience energy is not under 20%.
INTEREST
Audience interest is impacted by song quality, play skill, stage presence, attitude and hit status. A hit song ALWAYS makes a visible jump on the meter. All the other factors combine to slowly raise interest. A skilled band with good stage presence, good quality material, positive attitude music will usually gain the audience’s interest. One or two hit songs will make it a sure thing.
THE IMPACT OF HIGH AND LOW ENERGY ATTITUDES
Every band has run into this wall. You go on a multi-week tour and your gigs are selling out. The music has enough quality and popularity (maybe even a hit or two) that audiences are loving you. The end of the month rolls by and you suddenly have a horrible gig. The set lists are sucking because the energy is all over the place. You look at the attitudes and realize that High or Low Energy attitude has thrown your carefully crafted set lists into ruin.
What do you do?
Let’s go back to the original arbitrary values we placed on songs at the beginning of this chapter.
High Energy (Red) – Burn audience energy by 20-30%
Medium Energy (Yellow) – Recover 5-15%
Low Energy (Blue) – Recover 15-35%
Now adjust those values by half, and apply it to our 6 song set list.
High Energy (Red) – Burn audience energy by 30-45%
Medium Energy (Yellow) – Recover 0-8%
Low Energy (Blue) – Recover 8-18%
H, H, H (the audience had no energy, B (audience has 8%), M (no bonus…still 8%, H (audience has no energy)
This is with High Energy attitude. When Low Energy is prevalent you need to push all the Blue and Yellow songs you can and sparsely use the red ones because the audience starts with only half the normal energy level. Also, you do not get penalized when you play a low energy song as much, because a LE song normally needs energy to be below 20% to be effective.