Excluding friends and family (and dogs) I don't play in front of an audience that often. I also don't play for a living (or even for any kind of income) - so I might be underexposed to certain aspects of live performance.
Like a guy I "ran into" last night at TJs. I accept that some people are just going to carry on with their meal and their conversation whilst performances are going on. I don't approve but I accept. C'est la vie.
But this charley... I got plugged in, checked that everything was making the right noises, introduced my first tune and whilst I was doing so put the capo in position. I heard this very loud voice saying "Oh look! Capo at fret 2. Drop - D". He wasn't talking to anybody in particular, he was just leaning on the bar (looked like standing was not much of an option).
And so it went. I'd been told to pad my set out a bit, so I tried to give a little bit of information about each song I played. My "new friend" was Scottish (so "drop D" was more like "drrrrrop D") and when I introduced a song written by Robbie Burns I and the audience got a large dollop of extra information (his thick accent rendered even more difficult by a distinct slur).
I tried to work a little joke about poetic forms into the intro for the next song which was "Spenser The Rover" ("is it Iambic Pentameter I hear you ask? How about Anapestic Trimeter? No... it's that great traditional English poetic form doggerel"). Now the connections start up in my new friend's mind: Poetic form implies Poet. Poet implies Robbie Burns. Robbie Burns implies Scotland and all things Scottish. Hoots Mon and away we go!
Half way through my last song a cell phone rings. Guess who.... "Hello! HELLO! YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP, SOMEBODY'S PLAYING SOME @#$%ING MUSIC..... WHAT? WHO THE @#$% IS THIS???"
This carried on through the set by the following act. Then he took another phone call and did know who the @#$% it was this time and went outside.
I've never run into anything like this before. I thought I did a reasonable job of getting the topic away from Scotland and back on poetry fairly quickly, but he continued to have lots to say and it was hard work with your tunings and technique being described as you started each tune. And then that cell phone conversation... why couldn't he do the decent thing and just pass out? I didn't want to get into crossing words with the guy, life and the time allocated to me being too short (and he was a pretty large guy), but it did seem a bit much - and not just for me but everybody else present.
Do any of you have similar experiences to share? Any tips on dealing with this?
Like a guy I "ran into" last night at TJs. I accept that some people are just going to carry on with their meal and their conversation whilst performances are going on. I don't approve but I accept. C'est la vie.
But this charley... I got plugged in, checked that everything was making the right noises, introduced my first tune and whilst I was doing so put the capo in position. I heard this very loud voice saying "Oh look! Capo at fret 2. Drop - D". He wasn't talking to anybody in particular, he was just leaning on the bar (looked like standing was not much of an option).
And so it went. I'd been told to pad my set out a bit, so I tried to give a little bit of information about each song I played. My "new friend" was Scottish (so "drop D" was more like "drrrrrop D") and when I introduced a song written by Robbie Burns I and the audience got a large dollop of extra information (his thick accent rendered even more difficult by a distinct slur).
I tried to work a little joke about poetic forms into the intro for the next song which was "Spenser The Rover" ("is it Iambic Pentameter I hear you ask? How about Anapestic Trimeter? No... it's that great traditional English poetic form doggerel"). Now the connections start up in my new friend's mind: Poetic form implies Poet. Poet implies Robbie Burns. Robbie Burns implies Scotland and all things Scottish. Hoots Mon and away we go!
Half way through my last song a cell phone rings. Guess who.... "Hello! HELLO! YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP, SOMEBODY'S PLAYING SOME @#$%ING MUSIC..... WHAT? WHO THE @#$% IS THIS???"
This carried on through the set by the following act. Then he took another phone call and did know who the @#$% it was this time and went outside.
I've never run into anything like this before. I thought I did a reasonable job of getting the topic away from Scotland and back on poetry fairly quickly, but he continued to have lots to say and it was hard work with your tunings and technique being described as you started each tune. And then that cell phone conversation... why couldn't he do the decent thing and just pass out? I didn't want to get into crossing words with the guy, life and the time allocated to me being too short (and he was a pretty large guy), but it did seem a bit much - and not just for me but everybody else present.
Do any of you have similar experiences to share? Any tips on dealing with this?