Willie-O: I see what you mean about looking for other venues if the pop songs are a drag. The main thing for me is that it seems as if most venues are like that.

And on the other hand, I think that DWD makes some valid points. You get booked at a place to play things that the most typical customers will want to hear. So clearly I need to update my repertoire, since the most familiar stuff I know is Simon and Garfunkel (and obviously, this is not bar music). I've been looking around for likely suspects to add to a setlist, but the fact is, a lot of this stuff is pretty boring. I mean, one song that seems to be a near-requirement is "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and it's just a lousy song. On the other hand, stuff like the usual Tom Petty ("Free Fallin'", "Last Dance") isn't so bad. I was also recently reminded of how much time and effort the Beatles put into their arrangements compared to a lot of stuff that's come out in the past 20 years. So there is certainly bar music that ISN'T boring - it's just not stuff I customarily listen to, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

This doesn't stop me from lamenting the current taste in music, but we are all traditionalists here and this is itself a long-standing tradition. :)