How we pick the set each night

People ask whether the set changes every night. Mostly it does not. Low Ceiling opens, Lights Up closes, and eight songs in between are as fixed as we can make them, because the lights are programmed to them.

Two places move. The fifth song and the one before the encore depend on the room: a seated theatre gets Halsted early, a loud standing room gets Coat Check.

The corridor song

The last decision happens in the corridor about ten minutes before we go on. Someone has usually asked for something on the way in. If three people ask for the same song, it goes in. Porch Light came back that way in Philadelphia after two years.

The setlist taped to the stage is written by hand after that. The poster in the shop is the one we play most nights, not the one we played last night.