DarkStage is a tablet-first setlist and performance management app for musicians.
The Shows tab is where you build and manage your gigs — creating a show, filling in its details, and putting together the setlist you’ll actually perform from.
Shows are split into Upcoming and Past. A show moves to Past once its End Time has passed (or, if you never set one, at the end of its scheduled day) — see Upcoming vs. Past below.
Tap the + button to start a new show. You’ll be asked for:
Once saved, your show appears in the list on the left (or top, on a phone), with its full details on the right.
If you’re a DarkStage Pro user, there’s a search button (magnifying glass) next to the Venue field. Type in whatever you know about the place — its name, a nickname, a partial address — and tap Search. Pick the right result from the list, and DarkStage fills in the venue name, address, and location automatically.
If you’re on the free tier, or you’d rather just type it yourself, the Venue and address fields are always editable by hand — the search button is a convenience, never a requirement.
Once a show has a venue address saved, tap that address in the show’s detail pane. This opens your phone or tablet’s Maps app with the address already filled in, ready to navigate — no separate app or account needed.
Every show is organized into one or more Sets. Tap to add a set, and give it a name if you don’t want the default (“Set 1”, “Set 2”, and so on — DarkStage numbers new sets for you automatically). You can also set a target break duration for a set, which shows a countdown during the set break in Performance mode.
Within a set, you add two kinds of entries:
Both songs and talk blocks can be reordered within a set using the up/down arrows, and each has its own edit and remove controls.
Tapping a song’s title or artist in your setlist opens that song’s Library entry directly — a genuinely global edit, since it changes the song everywhere it’s used. If you just want to tweak something for this one show (a different key for tonight, a note about a tempo change on the bridge), use the pencil icon on that setlist row instead — that opens show-specific overrides for BPM, key, and notes that only apply to this performance, leaving the Library song itself untouched.
Long-press any show in the list to bring up a menu with Edit, Duplicate, and Delete.
Duplicate is handy for a recurring gig or a similar setlist you want to reuse — it copies the entire show, including every set and every song/talk entry, into a brand-new show you can then adjust (new date, new name, etc.) before saving. Note that duplicating a show doesn’t duplicate the songs themselves — both the original and the copy point at the same Library songs, so editing a song’s details later updates it everywhere it’s used.
Tap the calendar icon in the Shows screen’s top bar to pull a show’s details straight from an event already on your device’s calendar. The first time you do this, you’ll be asked for permission to read your calendar — DarkStage only ever reads events you explicitly pick, nothing more.
You’ll see a list of your upcoming calendar events (the next 90 days); pick the right one, and its title, location, and start/end times pre-fill a new show for you to review and save.
A show stays in Upcoming until its End Time passes. If you never set an End Time, the show stays in Upcoming for the entirety of its scheduled date, and moves to Past once that day is over.
Past shows are collapsed by default, keeping your Upcoming list the main thing you see when you open the app.