we play this one place where we basically set up at the back of a restaurant, with a walkway right past me as i play. there is enough space for 2 ppl to walk by at the same time without touching me as i play. but, our fans gather, put their drinks on my amp, talk to me, put their arms around me, and even pinched my a$s as i played (yes it was a girl, and my wife was in the audience, so no it wasn't cool). i had to stop once to prevent my amp from being shoved off my stack. i have no idea how to deal w/ this without being rude. i mean, our fans get all excited, and i don't want to discourage it - but it was incredibly frustrating.
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fan interference while playing
- Thread starter hgregs
- Start date
A sign that says "Keep your effin drinks off my amp!" They'll think it's funny...and get the point!
Have the bar owner buy some inexpensive Rope and Stanchions (about 60 bucks) and run it down the walk way. This will define your stage space and most people will not cross it. Here is a link to some cheap ones.
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Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
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- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
Go to the thread about farting on stage ... let a few paint peeling farts and maybe they will give you more space
Someone made an hilarious post in this forum about how a simple string of cheap rope lights serve as the perfect drunk bastard barrier, it is like kryptonite.
It's funny because it's true.
It's funny because it's true.
On a similar note, I hate it when someone comes up to ask you for a request while your playing and you have to try to hear them over the music and it messes with your rhythm. Just my rant.
+! on that. Especially annoying because I have IEM's and I have to take one out to hear them and it's always during a song where I don't have a second's rest to put it back in.
I had to laugh at this because I had the same problem. This is definitely one of the downsides of using IEM's. When we first started using them, people would walk up to the stage and start talking. Since you can't hear them, you have no idea what they are trying to say. If you're in the middle of a song, you can't even stop to pull one out. I end up just nodding and smiling which works for most drunks in a bar.
That is so incredibly annoying that I find it very hard not to show my displeasure. I remember one dumb woman actually tugging on my left sleeve to try and get my attention, right in the middle of a tune. She looked quite shocked when I turned round and barked "**** OFF!"
Yeah, I know I shouldn't have done that, but this was in my younger days and I just couldn't stop myself.
Playing a hole-in-the-wall in Chicago long ago. 100% original music. Dood saunters up on stage in the middle of a song and screams into my ear "Do you guys know any Gin Blossoms!?!?"
"GET THE **** OFF THE STAGE!!!"
He got the point. Luckily for him he moved faster than my left boot.
This is why I now setup at the back of the stage. Let the guitar players and singers deal with that crap.
"GET THE **** OFF THE STAGE!!!"
He got the point. Luckily for him he moved faster than my left boot.
This is why I now setup at the back of the stage. Let the guitar players and singers deal with that crap.
Yeah, same here. One recent show, some dude walks up to me and hands me $5 while I'm playing and says something. I have no idea what it was since I had my IEMs in, but it was probably a request for Freebird. I played the rest of the song with that fiver in my hand. On the plus side, if you're going to be annoyed by someone talking to you while you're playing, you might as well get paid for it.
I'll probably never actually do it, but sometimes I just want to wave the whole band to a trainwreck stop, & announce over the PA that some joker has something that's so important we need to stop the music & deal with it right now. My hope is that the joker would be totally humiliated, booed loudly by the crowd while they slink away hiding their face, & nobody would ever try such a thing again, but I'm afraid that isn't likely.
People who don't play anything like to get reeaally close to me while I'm playing the upright, staring at my hands. They're not touching me, but it's unnerving. It's only people I know, though. They're just impressed with the fact that it has no frets and it's big.
On electric, I sometimes get hugs. I don't mind those though.
On electric, I sometimes get hugs. I don't mind those though.
Year ago we had this gig in a club in east Finland and half of the gig some drunken(as in so drunk that can't walk..) dude was tapping my arm and saying "I need to come to sing" (we are an instrumental band...) I just used special "bassmoves" to get him off me.. It was bloody hilarius! the audience saw it too and had good laugh.
It was bloody hilarius! the audience saw it too and had good laugh. 
I can't remember having someone try to talk to me during a song, though I'm sure it's happened before. At our band's last gig, I did have some inebriated woman come up and start asking me if we knew any Dave Matthews Band (we don't do or sound anything like DMB). I said, "Nope," so she proceeded to ask if we did any Earth, Wind, and Fire, or a bunch of other bands not in our genre (we're pretty much a standard bar rock cover band). I had to just turn away and start tuning up until she got the hint and sauntered off.
