Pub playing, who does it?

[Keith Newell]

I have played once sometimes twice a week in pubs for the last 19 years and I am amazed at the variety of patrons, the variety of situations and the variety of players that show up on the sessions. I have seen a huge range of situations that are very entertaining and the music never stops, we just turn and look at each other as we play and either raise an eyebrow or grin as our other half of the brain is playing and keeping track of tune changes (Irish session). It's to the point I always sit with my back to the wall so I can see the bar and the door and watch all the scenes play out. In fact you get pretty good at pegging certain types as far as what the scene they are gonna play in consists of.
Does anybody else who has played for a while in public venues enjoy this kind of grab bag that plays out on a regular basis?
I just find it so fun to play and watch and wondered if anyone else does it? Every time we play a place that has a television or a window/mirror that reflects a T.V. I find I play and watch it...it's so hard to not do that for me.
The funny thing is I notice everything but the one time my Mom comes down from Alaska and watches a session I totally miss her catching the cloth napkin on fire at the table and causing a scene.....go figure http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
Keith

[Tim Bowen]

Yeah, mostly it's an enjoyable and sometimes confounding insight into the human condition...! I've been playing pubs, clubs, and concerts on a weekly basis since the 70's, so I really should know better by now...

Odd timing on this - last night's show was the first time in thirty years that I actually lost my cool with a patron, and trust me, I've encountered some colorful characters along the way.

I was working with my duo. While playing mandolin on the Utah Phillips tune, "Rock Salt and Nails", this guy kept shouting "Say it ain't so", at the top of his lungs. It was sorta funny at first. A bit later, I was playing lap steel on a cover of Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move", and it became obvious that this guy was speeding his whatnots off, as he simply wouldn't shut up, and he kept yelling "Say it ain't so". The rest of the bar was jumping up and down and partying in a happy, unobtrusive fashion. He wouldn't ease up, and was so loud that my act's meter was compromised, and I could no longer hear myself think. I said over the mic', "It ain't so", hoping that this would appease the intoxicated jester. No such luck. At this point, the guy's wife/girlfriend, and the rest of the patrons, had had just about enough of this guy. I remember thinking what a great baseball bat that a Supro lap steel would make, but I didn't act on it.

I then found myself playing on guitar, Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years", and was having a great time. The drunken redneck decided at this point to jump onstage and give me 'the back' and approach my mic' - and let me emphasize that I've always sorta sucked it up when dealing with drunken idiots. In effect, this guy crossed the line, much like hitting on someone else's partner - and his lady shot him a look that told him as much. It was not pre-meditated, but I said to the guy (which I guess patrons heard over the PA), "This is MY stage right now. You pay your dues and then you can have a voice. Until then, you need to step aside". Much to my surprise, the guy tucked tail and sat down, only to be soundly admonished by his lady.

The crowd cheered, and the venue owner had found his way to the bandstand at this point, ready to back me at all costs. I don't dig this sort of thing, but it's cool to receive support from patrons and venue operator when the chips are down.

[Rick Cadger]

Had a lame one last night.

A medium-sized pub/bar with very little atmosphere. For some bizarre reason they asked us to start at 7pm - and in our area no one goes out until 9pm!

I usually love pub gigs but, although we went down well with the people who eventually did arrive, and we played until 11pm, this one really left me pretty cold. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[MikeEdgerton]

Here we call them bars http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

For me I've found that it's rarely the a regular that gets crazy about singing with you, it's usually some person passing through. The last two have been women by the way, and in my case the crowd will usually handle them. The regulars know us.

As far as the human condition goes, I always look for what I call "The Happy Table". It's always there. The husband sitting with his drink looking one way, the wife sitting with her drink looking the other way. I've never quite figured out why they even come out.

[fishdawg40]

Every time we play a place that has a television or a window/mirror that reflects a T.V. I find I play and watch it...it's so hard to not do that for me.
Ha! Played my first bar the other night. I was watching ESPN through a substantial portion of the set. And was thinking, "should I be doing this." Also, being on stage gives you a good excuse to people watch. You're not some weirdo standing in the corner staring at everybody.

[UnityGain]

One of the more odd experiences was during a setbreak we had a freind play some solo guitar stuff. #Pretty dead bar at the time. #So we are all doing out usual set break rituals; cigarettes, refills, etc... and then all of sudden we realize that there is a girl standing behind the guitar player on stage. #Most of us assumed that it was a girlfreind or backup singer or something. #Till we get the "WTF" look from the guitar player. #Then we realize that no one knows who she is. #She isn't bothering him, or trying to sing along or anything, just standing there looking out over the room and watching him from behind. I think she was kinda dancing a little bit too. #We of course think this the funniest thing ever and do nothing to help him. Yeah, were those kind of freinds. #So he just keeps playing and eventually she just walks off the stage and sits down. #So then when we get back on stage and start playing and sure enough, she just walks right over to us and tries to step up on stage. #Well, imagine two guitar necks coming down like the haliberts of two guards at a mideival castle. #We weren't having any of it. #So she says nothing, turns around, went back to her seat walked out of the bar a few songs later. #We still don't have any idea who she was or what her deal was. #She didn't even look that drunk, she was just... weird.

[allenhopkins]

Played bars in the '80's quite a bit; a good mostly-acoustic trio or quartet, great lead singer/banjo/slide guitar player, "Nancy Park & Bluesgrass." #We did a bit of blues, some pretty rudimentary bluegrass, lots of "folk-rock" and country rock tunes, a few pop hits just for audience recognition. #I played my ol' F-5, plus rhythm guitar, Dobro, a lot of harmonica, even a touch of Autoharp. #Never got paid much, had a decent time, but --

A. #Smoke; everybody smoked then (not me), it seemed. #Play 9-1 in a bar, take the PA down, put the instruments away, drive home, get to bed around 3 a.m., smelling like an ashtray, coughing the next morning. #So much better now in New York with the restrictions on smoking indoors, but I just had a bit of a lung cancer scare, and although I apparently missed the Big C, I wonder how much damage all the second-hand did over those years.

B. #Drunks; never had a real incident (the only time I had an instrument damaged, headstock broken on on my first F-2, was in a fight with a drunk in a coffeehouse -- he got his load on elswhere). #But lots of inappropriate, annoying, loud behavior, guys hitting on the lead singer, requests for songs anyone could see we couldn't do, "belligerent rhetoric" not leading to anything. #We put up with it but didn't enjoy it.

C. #Low pay; it was 25 or so years ago, of course, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to leave the house at 7:30 for a 9 p.m. gig (set-up time, tune-up time, finding a place to park after unloading, etc. etc.), play four 45-minute sets, then have take-down and put-away and not get to sleep before 3 a.m., and get $50 or so apiece.

D. #"Wallpaper"; even in the so-called "music rooms," a lot of the patrons were there for other reasons than listening. #Hoping to score something (drugs, sex, whatever), socializing with the volume turned up to "10," working the video games or pinball machines against the back wall. #It was during one Olympics, and the big TV was turned to the gymnastics competition, when I think I had a bit of a revelation. #The bartender had thoughtfully turned off the volume, but the picture was still on, and I noticed we were playing to the side of everyone's head, as they watched some Romanian nymphet in Spandex on the parallel bars. #We were there to make some sound in the background, I realized, and I for one didn't get all that upset when the trend later went toward "non-live" music in those bars.

I'll still play a bar once in a blue moon, or sit in with a friend, but my so-called "musical career" has headed off toward coffeehouses. #But don't get me started about espresso machines...

[Jim Kasperson]

We played one night at a bar that had burned down a couple of years before. The owner got a little trailer for the sink and cooler, put up a platform and made a kind of "bigtop" tent over the roof wwith tarps. He had a couple of those old cone shaped orange "chalet" woodstoves on the perimeter so he could stay open into the fall of the year. As we played a guy started shouting "Pancho and Lefty" after every song. It wasn't really the kind of music that we were playing so we ignored it.
but he persevered. Finally I said to the gyts, "I think I know it. So we played it, first two verses, I forgot the last verse so we just did the chorus a couple of times and wound it up. A loud voice said "You forgot the last verse". We couldn't see where it was coming from at first, then we saw him. He had shinnied up the main support pole of the tent and was hanging from a ceiling rope.

Same night- we were supposed to play until 2:00 am At about 1:30 everyone was gone but a couple who were (barely standing up) dancing and three guys huddled around one of the stoves.. Even the owner had gone home leaving 1 bartender. In the middle of a song our leader turned around and gve us the throat slash gesture so we stopped. The couple kept dancing, the guys kept talking, the bartender kept washing glasses and we packed up and went home. I remember thinking " we paid our dues for this?

Such is the life of the pub musician

Kasper

[Chief]

Kasper- you must be talking about Tom's Burned Down Tavern on Madeline Island. I've played there and also had some interesting experiences. The place itself is a trip, and it draws an interesting mix of people. We played there once on biker weekend, when the place was full of about 150 bikers- and a handful of tourists with their kids.

[Ken Olmstead]

#The funny thing is I notice everything but the one time my Mom comes down from Alaska and watches a session I totally miss her catching the cloth napkin on fire at the table and causing a scene.....go figure http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
Keith
What scene? We all light of our cloth napkins on fire here in Alaska...don't you?? #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Allen - I bet it is safe to say that the pay for musicians has not kept up with inflation! $50 a night for all that? Righteous bucks!!

[JeffD]

Somewhere in Edinburgh, Spring 1989

[Bertram Henze]

Somewhere in Edinburgh, Spring 1989
Now doesn't that look authentic - more like 1889 http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

I can only contribute that pub session (http://galerie.pixelbunker.de/main.php?g2_itemId=55) I already posted elsewhere.

No spectacular incidences to tell - just a few times when audience chatter was so loud the melody instruments had to sit very close together to be able to hear each other and keep in sync or else two would start different tunes and never notice.
And the odd person asking me what that instrument (my OM) is called every now and then - why is it always me being asked that question and nobody else?

Bertram

[Brandon Flynn]

What kind of music do you guys play in pubs?

[Bertram Henze]

What kind of music do you guys play in pubs?
Mostly Irish Trad. with the odd Contradance/OldTime in between.

[epicentre]

Bertram quote:"And the odd person asking me what that instrument (my OM) is called every now and then - why is it always me being asked that question and nobody else?"

Been there:

I tellem it's a ukelele.

"Oh, really, thoshe ukeshes sounds good eh"....not my slur.

Whatever.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Links]

Here is one of my favorite "pub playing" moments. It was taken in the "Dungeon" (downstairs pub) at Adare Manor in Ireland, Guess who the "guest singer" is?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/linksmkr/scan0001.jpg

[fishdawg40]

Dr. J!

[Jim Broyles]

That is Julius Erving, is it not?

[jim_n_virginia]

I hate playing in pubs, bars, clubs whatever you wanna call them. I just have a low tolerance for drunks and people that act stupid ... drunk or not. Also I am a non smoker and it's not worth knocking 5-10 years off my life breathing in someone else's second hand smoke.

Played in one bar and some dummy decided to jump on the unused drums behind us to play along with us while we were playing bluegrass music. The lady lead singer I play with took care of him fussed him out all the way back to his seat.

Or this past St Paddy's Day when two drunks grabbed up a Bodhran and a set of bones and started smacking them all over the place.

I don't do many bars much rather stay with more family friendly places. Lot more fun and a LOT less stress!

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[JeffD]

Somewhere in Edinburgh, Spring 1989
Now doesn't that look authentic - more like 1889 #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif
Yes it does look timeless. But can attest, cuz I was there. (And that is a buddy of mine with his fingers in the air.)

In fact some Edinburgh locals who are on the cafe will recognize him and say "ohhhh no, you were his friend?"

Here are some pics of other places I played in those days, the top one in Edinburgh, near the university, and the bottom one in Dublin.

[JeffD]

I hate playing in pubs, bars, clubs whatever you wanna call them. I just have a low tolerance for drunks and people that act stupid ... drunk or not. Also I am a non smoker and it's not worth knocking 5-10 years off my life breathing in someone else's second hand smoke.
While I respect your opinion, and know many who would agree -

That being said, when a pub session is right, it is sooooo great. What ever life "minutes" the second hand smoke may have taken from me were much more compensated by the life "moments" I absorbed. Infinite moments contained in a finite number of minutes.

When your playing is on fire, and everyone is just into it, and between songs you laugh so hard your ribs hurt, and you know in your bones you are a small part of something huge, timeless and indestructable, something casual, but so very human and very important.

You can't purchase those experiences off the shelf at the discount store. And if part of the price is the occational obnoxious drunk or the second hand smoke, well its still a very small price.


Besides, the years of life I might have saved are at the end, when I am incontinent and drooling. If you told me I would miss part of my 20s, well then I could agree more. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[JeffD]

Or this past St Paddy's Day when two drunks grabbed up a Bodhran and a set of bones and started smacking them all over the place.
I attended this huge session in the basement bar of some restaurant in Scotland. There were perhaps 40 people there, and at least 15 of them were playing bodhran, or bones, or spoons, or using a bodhran beater on a conche shell.

The jigs and reels, if you could hear them, took energy from the incesant drumming, the natives were restless, it was percussion city, it was a celtic drumming circle, it was loud and spooky, it was glorious.

[Links]

Yes - that is Dr. J!

He sat at the table next to us at dinner and my wife asked him and his party to join us in the pub. We stayed that night until 3:00 AM and the next morning, as we arrived at Ballybunion Golf Club, a good two hours away, at 9:00 AM, Dr. J had just hit his ball from the 3rd tee. He (or us) couldn't have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep. We did the same thing the next night, but got in a little earlier (at 2:00).

I can see where Jim is coming from, but when the whole pub is involved and having fun, there is nothing like it! We even had the owner of Adare Manor (a retired Marine Fighter pilot from New Jersey) and our bus driver singing!

[Jim Kasperson]

[quote=jim_n_virginia,April 30 2008, 10:43].

When your playing is on fire, and everyone is just into it, and between songs you laugh so hard your ribs hurt, and you know in your bones you are a small part of something huge, timeless and indestructable, something casual, but so very human and very important.
Well said. Isn't this what it's all about

And Chief- you got it. It was Tommy's Burned Down Cafe on Madeline Island

Kasper

[jim simpson]

Before moving back to WV, I lived near Phila. for close to 30 years. The Mermaid Inn in Chestnut Hill was a must play for local musicians. The audience was usually great, usually including friends who would make it a point to come out. The anti-smoking laws were not yet in place at the time so plenty of smoke in such a small place - had to shower as soon as I got home! The Wookie Hole pub in New Britain (Bucks County - outside Philly) was a hole! Smoky and usually really crowded. Once a couple of recording artists came to the pub and hired us for a big party of mostly NY music types. The party turned out great and several players sat in with us to add to the fun. A lot of good private gigs would come out of the so-called due paying playing in challenging environments. I haven't played a pub in quite a while, don't miss the smoke but do miss the bohemian atmosphere.

[MikeEdgerton]

New Jersey is now totally smoke free in bars. It does make it easier to play.

[old9600]

Six or seven months ago my band was hired to play at a sports bar. It was supposed to be a tame gig because there wasn't much going on in the sporting world. Then everything changed a few days before the gig when the NFL opened the broadcast of the New England Patriots last regular season game. Then the owner learned that the Ulimate Fighting Championship was also on that same Saturday night. The guy, blinded by the big dollar opportunity, apparently forgot he hired us and heavily promoted the evening with all his regulars.

We show up the fateful night and are we totally surprised. He was totally embarrased. We ended-up playing in the room showing the Ultimate Fighting Championship--the sound was turned off but there where plenty of cheers for every punch. We could also hear the screams from the other room everytime there was a big play in the football game. Imagine singing Gram Parson's "Love Hurts" and looking up to two bloody guys on the 3 big screen TVs beating the tar out of each other. Needless to say, the night was a disaster! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[Keith Newell]

Jim Simpson! You brought back a good memory of the Mermaid Inn. I Moved to PA back in 1999 for 1 1/2 years and searched out all the pub sessions for Irish music but was reluctant to drive to The Mermaid Inn from Newtown Square.
One day I got a phone call from an old friend in Portland Oregon saying he was coming out and gave me a date and wanted to play a session. Mermaid Inn was perfect for the date so I gave him directions and said I would meet him there.
It was an interesting evening, we both arrived and the place had one person..the bartender. We had a beer and waited around and nobody showed so we had another beer and thought we would call it a night. About half way through the second beer people started to arrive. Next thing you know it's 11:00 at night and there is standing room only, whole familys are there with kids and all. The 12 session players would take a break every 5 sets for someone from the crowd to sing a song. The night was one of the best sessions I remember at the Mermaid Inn in Germantown PA. My friend still mentions it once in awhile. After a year and a half I moved back to Portland Oregon area (East coast is another world) and appreciate my little neck of the woods much more.

Keith

[mandroid]

Washington sent the smokers to the sidewalk and beer gardens ouside .
January 09 Oregon will do likewise

with cigs and beer at the video gambling machine a significan state revinue we shall see what the year brings to the game.


Pub session in south western Ireland is more casual than the one with all the sight readers in this town, Is the Grass greener ?, well its raining a lot here too.

[jim_n_virginia]

You can't purchase those experiences off the shelf at the discount store. And if part of the price is the occational obnoxious drunk or the second hand smoke, well its still a very small price.
I agree and I DO go to pubs for sessions and jam but usually their held on a slow night like Wed evenings and there is not many people in those places.

And I can tolerate the smoke as long as someone in not next to me smoking. There were a few times that I (and others) had to leave because some bozo parked right behind and started smoking a bif fat cigar. Once THREE guys parked behind the sessiona and ALL three smaoked cigars and pretty much EVERYONE went home early that night. But like you said it is rare and the fun more than makes up for the trouble.

[jim_n_virginia]

New Jersey is now totally smoke free in bars. It does make it easier to play.
Man I WISH Virginia would do the same. Their talking about it!

[sgarrity]

Cigars, beer and mandolin music. Sounds like my kind of fun!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[JeffD]

Cigars, beer and mandolin music. #Sounds like my kind of fun!! # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
All you need is the chili and cornbread and you might think you had died and gone to heaven.

I have friends who are allergic to second hand smoke, so I understand Jim's point, believe me.

But my associations with second hand smoke, especially cigars and pipes, is positive. My Dad smoked a pipe, even while he played his ukulele. So when ever I smell pipe smoke I think of him, (and that ukulele - a Martin Concert uke). And I always have a cigar when I am fishing or canoeing. How can you not? And then there was this guitar player in college who would stab his still burning cigarette on one of the string ends coming out of his guitar tuner. How cool was that!

Most of my musical friends do not smoke, so I am polite and honor them by not smoking around them at parties and jams, and so I have never figured out how to do a cigar and play at the same time. But I sure would if I could!

[Michael H Geimer]

When I was making my transition from Band Life into "Hey, I'm just a guy who picks and sings"-Life I cut my teeth playing casually at the pub on the corner with another guitarist in the neighborhood. It served me well, and I got more and more comfortable with spontaneous performance. Eventually, we worked up enough songs to become a regular event. Good times.

I was happy to move into the mellower coffee-house arena, after I grew weary of folks who "over indulged".

* * *

I have put more than ten years distance between me and my last cigarette! I was a greater then pack-a-day smoker for over a decade. Quitting was extremely difficult. I consider it the smartest decision I've ever made ... until I asked my wife The Question, that is. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

- MG

[Mike Snyder]

Tonganoxie Kansas, musta been about 1978 or 9, don't remember the name of the place. Just like Bob's Country Bunker in the Blues Brother movie. The chicken wire was rolled up in the corner. We played raggedy hippiegrass on a Sunday afternoon and the blood and beer wasn't dry yet from Saturday nite. My mis-spent youth.

[Mike Snyder]

By the way, congratz to MG for kicking the habit. As a respratory therapist, I see the grusome results of lifetimes spent in a haze of smoke. Don't smoke, don't allow yourself to be subjected to sec/hand, and don't allow your 8-string best friend to come home smelling like a butt can.

[Jim Kasperson]

This may be mildly off of the "pub" topic but I think you will see why I posted it here.
About thirty years ago when I first started playing in public I was teamed up in an acoustic trio with a young Dr. and a Church music director who was trained as a band teacher. We played acoustic folk and light country mostly. The Dr. and I both played guitar and fiddle and the teacher played upright bass and a great swing style clarinet. We decided to cut our public teeth on some nursing home gigs. Pubs have nothing on those in the matter of unpredictability. I did most of the vocals but I finally talked the Doc into singing a couple of songs. About halfway through a gig. he started singing for the first time in public (one of two songs that he had prepared to sing). A little lady who had been asleep in the front row , opened her eyes and started yelling "SHUTUP". He looked at me, I nodded for him to continue, and she began a regular "SHUTUP" mantra until a nurse cam and wheeled her back to the room. We took a break and I talked him into trying the second song when we started again. As he first started singing another woman in the front row went into some kind of seizure. We kept playing ( I was waiting for him to stop and take care of her) until the medical staff rused in and wheeled her away also. When he finished the song he looked at me and said "that's it. no more singing for me." I honestly replied (maybe in bad taste)"Why not you were slaying em today. He later became a much better singer than I. The pubs seemed tame after a year of those gigs.
Kasper

[Pen]

Late last year, our band was booked to play a bar in downtown Denver. #Well, for those of you who are baseball fans, you will remember the Rockies incredible run to the World Series. #Our gig was on a Saturday which ended up being game 3 of the World Series here in Denver.

On top of that, our "backdrop" was a huge window which looked directly at Coors Field. #Needless to say, we had to get creative with our gig. #Instead of us starting on time, the crowd sang along to the national anthem (you could hear it in the bar from the stadium). #Once the game started, every patron only cared about the game. #We'd sneak in songs between innings, but didn't start the gig till the game was about over.

Unfortunately, the Yankess won (or was it the Red Sox? #I can't tell the difference between them anymore. #Neither are teams - just a collection of overpaid all-stars). #Rockies fans drank their sorrows away once the game was over and the gig ended up being fun.

But yeah, my band's not gonna win out when competing with the World Series!

[Jim Yates]

Fortunately, Ontario pubs no longer allow smoking except on open air patios. I recall coming home from bar gigs and being told to take my clothes off in the back yard. My wife told me that it took longer to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of my case than to get the smell of cat piss out.

I have often been in the situation that Tim Bowen found himself in. Our standard line is,"We need some chicken wire...stat!"

[Keltic Fiddler]

My first experience playing in pubs was in the Mermaid Inn in Philly back in the late 80's and early 90's. I learned alot of Irish tunes there.

One of the funniest times I ever had was when I was playing in an Irish Session at the Blarney on South Street in Philly. This one very drunk woman staggered over to where we were playing, took one look at my mandolin, and said "That's the cutest cello I've ever seen."

For the next hour she kept shouting out from the bar, asking me to play a cello solo.

[B. T. Walker]

I always thought that Dwight Yoakum's portrayal of Doyle in "Sling Blade" was inspired by having watched drunken rednecks in the clubs and dance halls where he played.