"Don't hang around with..." was my way of dealing with a moron who blighted a trad Irish music (pub) session I used to go to. He played so much louder than anyone else, it was impossible for me to hear my own instrument. A not inconsiderable pleasure in a pub session is hearing all the threads of music coming together but all you could hear was Dan (shall we call him?) on his deafening fiddle. A really strong bow-arm this man had and any applause from punters after a rousing set would be claimed by his ostentatious beaming acknowledgement. A 'great night' was measured by how much attention he personally pulled in. Requested to tone it down a bit, he soon ramped it up again. Impossible to participate yourself when you can't hear your own contribution. I certainly didn't want to spend more time with him, so stopped going. But I've since regretted not 'having the conversation' - tackling him about what he thought a session was (a Dan performance?). I've even felt sorry for him for being so desperate for attention that he had to obliterate the magic of mandolin, guitar, whistle, concertina... Just to say "Look at ME."
"Don't hang around with..." was my way of dealing with a moron who blighted a trad Irish music (pub) session I used to go to. He played so much louder than anyone else, it was impossible for me to hear my own instrument. A not inconsiderable pleasure in a pub session is hearing all the threads of music coming together but all you could hear was Dan (shall we call him?) on his deafening fiddle. A really strong bow-arm this man had and any applause from punters after a rousing set would be claimed by his ostentatious beaming acknowledgement. A 'great night' was measured by how much attention he personally pulled in. Requested to tone it down a bit, he soon ramped it up again. Impossible to participate yourself when you can't hear your own contribution. I certainly didn't want to spend more time with him, so stopped going. But I've since regretted not 'having the conversation' - tackling him about what he thought a session was (a Dan performance?). I've even felt sorry for him for being so desperate for attention that he had to obliterate the magic of mandolin, guitar, whistle, concertina... Just to say "Look at ME."
Music Maid