Ben said:
Your example of a record release show is definitely an exception. That's your night to be the center of attention without a doubt.
What's your band called, Doc?
We're the Cyco Sanchez Supergroup, and our release party was a blast - wouldn't have been if the other two bands, The Neros from our hometown Tübingen and Frank Drebin from Phillipsburg hadn't played such wonderful sets!
The last and assumedly best slot sometimes can be a pain in the ass, too. It happened two times that while playing with other bands we were granted the "best" slot, meaning headlining the evening respectively playing as the second band, and the bands that played before us just wouldn't stop playing. One time there were two local "heroes", and the first one of them just started their whole set over again because someone yelled for an encore. It was an open air party in autumn, parts of my family were there to see us for the first time, and it got colder and colder, we got more and more sober again and entered stage with a two hour delay. That sucked, but we were so pissed off that we put our anger into the show and played one of our best gigs ever, including destroying the stage.
The other time we were three bands, all coming from another town, and we let luck decide who played when. And the first band played twice as long as we (second) and the third band. That was annoying, too.
And how come that it's always the most boring band that wants to play that long, while the good bands seem to know their limits?