How do you choose your set-lists?

The baroque "setlist" theory involved three movements. In the first movement, you showed them how well you could play. In the second, you showed them how well you could feel. In the third, you showed them how happy you were it was all over. This still seems like a reasonable guideline.

Someone either calls out the name of the next tune while we're on stage or starts playing it. If no one can think of a tune, or we only have a couple tunes left, or somebody doesn't want to play something because of tired chops, then we might argue about it for a few minutes.

(nb, for our big show on Friday somebody actually wrote a setlist)

Recently we've started giving more consideration to our placement in the overall show. For example, if we have an early spot on a Friday night, we tend to frontload slower stuff and new still-in-testing material so we can kick ass toward the end when people are getting there. Also, if it's a REALLY late slot, we try to stick to higher energy material more.