Wannabe guest harp player nut case?

cdaniel · #1 05-17-2010, 10:10 PM

Just a short tale and rant.
So we're playing a gig last Saturday at a local watering hole. The crowd is light, but we're jamming pretty good. We start into Stormy Monday and it's clicking along well.

Suddenly this guy comes to the stage and is flashing me this pouch full of harmonicas. I've got no idea what they are at first with the stage lights in my eyes. With monitors blaring in my face I can't understand what he's saying either. He was selling cell phones or lighters for all I could tell. He keeps yelling and waving this pouch. I finally get what he's saying, he wants to join in the song with his harmonica. By now I'm distracted and loose my place in the song, I shrug my shoulders and turn away so I can catch up to the band. So he goes over to the other two guys on stage. They have the same confused response so he storms off shaking his head like he's all pissed off.

At the end of the song he's nowhere to be found. Not wanting to appear dismissive to a potential fan I call out over the mic to find him. No response. Oh well, we may have actually worked something out. We've had guests on stage before.

What gets me is this idiot comes to the stage unannounced, in the middle of a song and wants to "jam" on his harp. He doesn't even know what key we're playing in to pick the right harp! Then he's pissed because we ignored him until we had a break.

What the hell is this guy thinking?

Harpitard?

5StringBlues · #2 05-17-2010, 10:13 PM

Yes,it happens all the time.At least your guy had more than one harmonica,which is a good sign.

When they show up with one harp and tell me they can play it in any key..............

RED5 · #3 05-17-2010, 10:17 PM

What the hell is this guy thinking?

Harpitard?[/quote]

Harper's Syndrome. You play blues? you MUST want him to make it real. Happens all the time at jams locally. Guys grab a mic and start breathing rapidly into a blues harp...constantly, repeatedly,worse than novice singers. On the other hand? we got this one guy who plays harp like a horn player, puts it in,then holds it back. Him I'm glad to see.

5StringBlues · #4 05-17-2010, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RED5

Guys grab a mic and start breathing rapidly into a blues harp...constantly, repeatedly,

AKA: Donkey Harp

cdaniel · #5 05-17-2010, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RED5

What the hell is this guy thinking?

Harpitard?

Harper's Syndrome. You play blues? you MUST want him to make it real. Happens all the time at jams locally. Guys grab a mic and start breathing rapidly into a blues harp...constantly, repeatedly,worse than novice singers. On the other hand? we got this one guy who plays harp like a horn player, puts it in,then holds it back. Him I'm glad to see.

Yeah I can only imagine the chaos ensuing if this guy got a hold of a mic before someone could grab a fader on the sound board. Our drummer would probably sever his head with a cymbal (his PA).

ric stave · #6 05-18-2010, 06:42 AM

I'd love to see someone ask if they could sit in and jam on harp, and when given the thumbs up, walk out and come back in wheeling a real harp up to the stage.

john m · #7 05-18-2010, 06:49 AM

I had a guy walk up on stage w/tenor sax. We were playing some blues in E. He could barely find notes that "fit".

He could jam on his own in keys like Bb and F (this puts him in C and G)- a hack player. The next 3 song we played were in
B natural, C#, and F#---- that got rid of him.

LOL
john m

Bassman18 · #8 05-18-2010, 07:05 AM

Even as a Blues harp player myself, i really do find this annoying. But at least he was asking and didn't just get up without consent. There is a general etiquette when it comes to sittin' in with bands.

*Yeah, there is nothing worse then an out of tune horn player, and a harp player who plays the wrong Key harp.

MC

mpm32 · #9 05-18-2010, 08:15 AM

LOL, that guy must be traveling around, I thought he was just in CT.

The_Basstard · #10 05-18-2010, 12:16 PM

cdaniel a little off topic, checked out your band and if anyone wondered what it would look like if George Lucas and John Goodman's character Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski) ever had a love child, you will find it the "Rock Land Band's" drummer.
Uncanny!

The_Basstard · #11 05-18-2010, 12:17 PM

^BTW http://rocklandband.com/mainpage1.htm

troy mcclure · #12 05-18-2010, 12:29 PM

That is nothing...we had a guy ask if he could use our singers harmonica so he could play along. Singer said " Dude, harmonicas are not something people share"

Richland123 · #13 05-18-2010, 05:47 PM

Oh yeah. I know guys like this too. We cringe when they show up. It's a good thing we don't play the blues though and have a steadfast rule about only certain people are permitted to sit in with us and only if we invite them.

Jazzdogg · #14 05-18-2010, 06:01 PM

I was playing a blues session several years ago when a harmonica player waded throught the crowd wearing a shimmering gold "sharkskin" suit with matching hat and boots! To make matters worse, when he unbuttoned his jacket, he was wearing a harp player's ammo belt around his waist loaded with a wide range of diatonic harmonicas.

Not only was this guy a legend in his own mind, but he never stopped playing - he noodled incessantly, irrespective of what anyone else was playing.

New rule: if you can play a chromatic harmonica, we'll give you a song to prove yourself, otherwise, stay off stage unless and until explicitly invited.

My new definition of a gentleman: "someone who knows how to play the harmonica and refrains from doing so."

Phalex · #15 05-18-2010, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazzdogg

he never stopped playing - he noodled incessantly, irrespective of what anyone else was playing.

That guy horned in on my gig once too. The sound guy killed my mic (that the harp player appropriated) so nothing was coming out the FOH, or the monitor. The dude "sat in" on three songs like nothing was wrong.

It was kind of funny in a pathetic sort of way.

Jedisan · #16 05-18-2010, 06:23 PM

Harmonicas are like accordians, they both should be illegal.

cdaniel · #17 05-18-2010, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Basstard

cdaniel a little off topic, checked out your band and if anyone wondered what it would look like if George Lucas and John Goodman's character Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski) ever had a love child, you will find it the "Rock Land Band's" drummer.
Uncanny!

Not the 1st time I've heard a similar comparison,

Not something I would mention to him personally

MooseLumps · #18 05-18-2010, 06:56 PM

We were playing in a cowboy bar, and some intellectual resident harp player liked the blues tune we finished at the end of our second set. He asked if he could jam with us on harp, and we told him that we did not have any other blues tunes coming up. Regardless, we were playing our second song of the third set, and this genius strides on up on stage and grabs a mic. The soundguy grabbed the fader, but this particular song had 2 key changes. This poor jerk wandered around blindly for a minute or so, shot us all dirty looks and stormed off.
The van's driver side mirror was busted when we went to load out.

I don't mind harp players, but I can't stand jerks

RED5 · #19 05-18-2010, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5StringBlues

AKA: Donkey Harp

Yeah!! I'm borrowing that one!

cdaniel · #20 05-18-2010, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MooseLumps

I don't mind harp players, but I can't stand jerks

That's exactly what I'm saying. Our guy was so indignant when we didn't drop everything and let him in.