How long does a concert lasts?

For music fans, attending a concert by their favorite artist or group is an amazing experience. All concerts are different, obviously, but if you go to a rock concert by pretty much any band or artist, you can expect to have a fairly typical running order for the show. There are rules for how a show is performed, but everything comes down to the setlist.

The setlist

The setlist is generally seen as a blueprint for a performance. Some bands stick to a setlist religiously, and make sure that the setlist stays constant and unchanging. This often happens for a short tour or festivals, where the band has a few dates to cover, and wants every night to have the same music. But many bands are also known for playing the same exact setlist over and over again (ex: Korn, Sum 41). A few songs will change during the tour, at best.

A setlist can also be driven by the nature of the tour itself. An artist that wishes to promote a new album may make the decision to only play music from that album. Some bands have been known to just play one album in its entirety for a show, in the album’s running order. When an artist is touring to help promote a new album, this album will have the most songs in the set they will play.

If you’re interested in learning more about this, we have a special setlist profile on the site (donut chart on artist pages).

However, it is often the case that an artist will change the setlist a little here and there during a tour. This is to add variety. In some cases, changes are made to suit the fans. It is now becoming common for fans to be polled via websites and social media, ahead of a concert tour stop, and asked which songs they would like played on that leg of a tour.

The songs

It is important to bear in mind the importance of the songs themselves. A band like The Ramones wrote very short songs, and were able to get through a whole album’s worth of songs in around thirty minutes.

Other artists, such as Guns N’ Roses, write longer songs on average, and to get through a whole album would take longer than the length of time The Ramones might use. Bruce Springsteen is another artist known for playing long sets. His most famous album, Born in the USA, lasted over 45 minutes. While he may not always play the entire album at a concert, the songs are longer than those that The Ramones created, so you’re getting a longer concert with the same number of songs in it. Some bands released even longer albums, like Guns N’ Roses with Use Your Illusion I & II, having a 75 minute length each.

Discography

An artist’s discography is a big factor in a setlist. If the artist has released many albums over a period of time, they will have a wider choice of songs to perform. A newer artist with one album under their belts, and therefore less material, may choose to perform cover versions to add more value for the audience.

An artist may also make a long album, such as a concept album, and playing even just a few songs from it will affect a concert’s duration.

Music Genre

The genre of the music that the artist plays will also have some bearing on the length of a concert. For example, punk music is all about short and sharp songs. This means a faster pace and therefore a shorter duration. Punk concerts may have the same number of songs than rock concerts, but they could be shorter due to song length. At the same time, pop songs are quick and snappy too, and generally shorter than rock songs.

Genre also has implications as regards how music is actually played. A rock concert will almost always have a guitar solo or a drum solo. Parts of the concert will be given away to these moments. In fact, some artists make a real spectacle of solos. The guitarist for Airbourne has become famous for climbing up stage sets and onto speakers to play his solos. This is a part of their concerts that fans look forward to. This ‘show within a show’ adds time to the set.

It may be the case that many of the songs in a band’s catalogue will have been successful. And the more successful these songs were, the more content there is to cover. Some of the songs in a band’s catalogue may have been hugely successful, which means that they will simply have more songs to add to the setlist, and since the top songs are what fans generally come to a concert for, this will have an impact on the length of the show.

It’s also worth noting that artists are justifiably proud of their work, and that’s why they decide to make a concert a mammoth session. Others on the contrary (ex: Placebo) will play songs exactly like they have been recorded, producing a shorter concert due to the lack of “live”

Acts

Some artists, predominantly those who make pop music, will divide the setlist into acts, just like in a play. Some might take a break in between acts, which will extend the show’s duration.

The encore

Not every band or artist will supply an encore, but it can be the biggest factor in a show lasting for a long time. Some artists will even play three encores, which has a direct impact on show length. In fact, three encores is not unheard of.

The most famous artists to make an encore last far longer than expected are bands like The Grateful Dead, and artists like Pearl Jam. Back in 1988, Bruce Springsteen played an 11 song encore in two parts on more than one occasion, and at one point in 2012, he made the headlines by playing so long he went past a curfew in Hyde Park. One Grateful Dead show went on for an astonishing six hours, a lot of which was down to the encore.

If an artist wants to deliver an encore (and they usually do, as that’s what fans will expected), it can extend a concert’s expected length considerably. And what makes this even more interesting is that the artist can literally decide in the moment how long they want it to last for. If they’re having a good night, it can be as long as the actual setlist itself. If not, that’s usually the momentum when you can hear hidden gems from the band’s early albums (ex. AC/DC or the Rolling Stones).

Our setlist prediction service is based on past concerts, we use AI to predict the probable Next concert setlist and results are pretty accurate. If you want to get an idea of the possibility of a certain song to be played, have a look at the “popularity” bar.

So, how long?

On average, with a band that has a couple of albums completed, it’s common for a concert to last for 90 minutes to two hours. With more established bands with a number of hit albums and singles to their name, this can increase, but it is a general rule that a concert will last around 90 minutes. Bands and artists have to bear in mind the venue and the local area around it. In the UK at least, if you play loud music after 11 pm, you could even be stepping into areas of legality.

Bigger artists will have support acts, which are commonly referred to as ‘guests’. These ‘mini-concerts’ before the main event will often last up to 45 minutes. Some huge artists have two or three support bands. Although this does not affect the length of the concert in itself, it will extend your evening out.

Expect a concert to last anything from 90 minutes to two hours, and that is a pretty good guide. There is often a 15-20 minute interval too. However, with artists being very much in control of their music, it’s also correct to say that a concert can last much longer, from two and a half hours to three hours.

You can see this information on our website, above the predicted setlist for the concert.

A setlist can be scrapped or changed drastically. The most popular songs in an artist’s catalogue can be shunned for the duration of the tour, in favor of new, more experimental songs, that could be drastically longer than what the fans are used to. And every now and then, you’ll have an artist who just doesn’t want to stop playing, and will provide an encore that goes into the night.

If you’re attending a concert, you can usually find a copy of the setlist online (check our partner at setlist.fm). This should give you an idea of what you can expect as regards length. Opening acts will extend the evening, and an encore could be huge.

So to sum up, expect a concert to last 90 minutes on average (that’s what our data suggests), but keep in mind that:

• Newer acts will play shorter shows: 1 hour to 90 minutes
• Huge acts can stay 3-4 hours on stage.