Mandolins and elevators

[Chris Travers]

Where was the weirdest place you ever played an instrument(specifically mandolin)? For me... an elevator.

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

[Austin Koerner]

I play the mandolin while on the toilet pretty regularly (no pun intended.. unfortunately...)

[billkilpatrick]

in front of a computer! ... can you believe it?!?

[John Flynn]

In the "quiet room" of an American Airlines Ambassador Club at the DFW airport.

[allenhopkins]

[1] In the park across from the White House during the Easter egg roll.
[2] In a small shopping mall, as accompaniment for a guinea pig race.
[3] Behind the ice machine in the kitchen of Jazzberry's, Rochester NY, learning Rain Forest Crunch just before playing it onstage.

[Brandon Flynn]

I saw someone playing one on a very rural road. He was sitting on a bench in front of a post office, which was the only building around. If I had mine I would have joined him. As for me, it gets no weirder than the house.

[Dena Haselwander]

On the roof of my school. A dare from my students to really be a "Fiddler on the Roof"...


Dena

[Mike Snyder]

The Gazaway Mountain Boys played a fall harvest festival type gig in Yoder Kansas, and ended up in the entrance area of the public toilets in a futile effort to get out of the wind and rain. I told Jim G. that I thought we'd eventually end up in the crapper, just not so soon. It was so cold the car show guys had gloves and stocking hats on.
I've actually seen elevator jams occur at a couple of winter time festivals held at hotels. It's kinda become tradition at the Hilton in Wichita, during the Kansas Bluegrass Assn. winter fest.

[MikeEdgerton]

The train station in Black Mountain, NC one day for several hours. I was the only one there.

[Leigh Coates]

Allen:

I have to know, who won the Guinea Pig race?

[Ted Eschliman]

http://jazzmando.com/images/TedTwister.jpg

[allenhopkins]

I have to know, who won the Guinea Pig race?
Well, to start with, guinea pigs are lousy racing animals: they have no interest in running on command, even when coaxed with lettuce leaves. #The race was for three pigs representing Rochester radio stations, and my old bluegrass band, the Flower City Ramblers, was hired to provide suitably peppy background music. #The three pigs looked bewildered, refused to "race," wandered around on the track for a while, finally were coerced and tempted with produce to enact some semblance of competition. #The pig representing WAXC, I think, "won," for whatever that's worth. #The manager of the French restaurant outside of whose doors the race was staged, came out frequently to complain that the music was too loud. #All three radio stations are now out of business, their frequencies sold to Clear Channel or some such. #The Ramblers, who I believe were paid $25 each for performing (this was in 1973) broke up 32 years ago. #The mall went into bankruptcy. #Wars, famine and plague have devastated the earth, generations have died and others have been born, the universe has evolved closer to entropy, and Monty Python's Flying Circus has come and gone in the interim, yet this still remains one of the strangest episodes in a fairly conventional life...

[Dena Haselwander]

Ted, you win! #How are you even smiling??



Dena

[B. T. Walker]

For me, nothing has beaten playing on NASA's C-9 "Weightless Wonder", unofficially AKA the Vomit Comet.

[Chiledog]

Brian, you have to be kidding right?

[Ted Eschliman]

Brian, you have to be kidding right?
He's quite serious. Unlike mine, his experience wasn't Photoshopped in:

[DryBones]

Ted, you win! #How are you even smiling??



Dena
photoshop allows everyone to smile! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[TonyP]

We played on an endcap at the back of a Target store for their grand opening. The owners had no idea how we'd go over, so they put us in the back, facing the back of the store. I think it was at the end of the children's toy aisle, facing the women's clothes section. What was funny was somehow people seemed to be coming from the back of the store and stand amongst women's clothes racks to watch. I woulda thought they'd come from the front of the store. They never clapped, just stood there staring. They didn't leave either. Was spooky, like they had just popped out of a box too. After our set was over, in total silence with the "watchers" standing around watching us pack up, the owner came up and said, "you're a hit, can you play another couple of sets?". We looked around at the watchers, and warily said sure. No claps, no smiles, just three hours of stares. But we got paid.

[RandyMolson]

They never clapped, just stood there staring. They didn't leave either. Was spooky, like they had just popped out of a box too. After our set was over, in total silence with the "watchers" standing around watching us pack up, the owner came up and said, "you're a hit, can you play another couple of sets?". We looked around at the watchers, and warily said sure. No claps, no smiles, just three hours of stares. But we got paid.
LOL...that's just funny. Looks like you broke the mold of shopper expectations and left them dumbfounded and speechless.

[danb]

There are a couple of very old stone churches near where we live in rural England that have fantastic acoustic and very rarely have anyone visiting on weeknights. It's something else to hear a fine mandolin or OM fill a place like that with the resonance and sustain from the stone floors & walls.


Then, of course, there's the chicken coop...

[Bertram Henze]

A home for appallic syndrome patients. We played for some 50 patients in wheelchairs, all intubated and gurgling away. It was disturbing and absurd - you could feel they hated it, unable to say so.

Bertram

[Joel Spaulding]

My wife and daughter's Post-partum hospital room. Nothing too weird about that - except that my wife actually encouraged me to play for our little girl.

While in college on a singing tour back in the 80s, we ended up in D.C. and my quintet was politely asked not to sing the second verse of "Seven Bridges Road" in the Library of Congress - A building with acoustics like that should not be reserved for "QUIET" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Fretbear]

Down at the crossroads......

[Mr. Loar]

A couple had me play in a justice of the peace's office for their wedding. The room was no more than 12 feet by 12 feet and I was literally singing into their faces.

[Tim2723]

While we didn't actually play it live, our first album Patriot Spirit was voted the most popular CD on the Holland Tunnel public address system on Staint Patrick's Day, 2005. I guess you could say that was the weirdest place our music had ever been played.

[tree]

There are a couple of very old stone churches near where we live in rural England that have fantastic acoustic and very rarely have anyone visiting on weeknights. It's something else to hear a fine mandolin or OM fill a place like that with the resonance and sustain from the stone floors & walls.

Likewise, the swimming pool at the Hampton Inn in Berea, KY on the morning after Christmas is generally deserted (except for my boys) and very reflective (as in reverb). #But I imagine it is not nearly as pleasant a place to play as an old stone church in England, by any stretch. #If I had one of those near me I bet I'd practice a LOT more.