Banjo Intrusion.

[Turp]

Had a unique Open Mic experience. A banjo picker just figured he would jump into my set and accompany me.

Problem: I wasn't exactly playing "banjo" music and the songs were my improvised fingerstyle arrangements. I explained this but he persisted.

He never got my well mannered hint or quit playing. After a couple of songs with his fumbling banjo blaring into my ear (I play by ear), I just launched into a TE influenced version of Classical Gas, which he attemped to play through.

He played a bluegrass set with his group and then came to me to offer a stupid explanation. I reported it was screwd up and his reply was he thought he could play with me after hearing Before You Accuse Me and didn't know I was going to play some different stuff, like my own music. I reminded him I had explained without being an blank blank or rude on stage. He still didn't get it.

Of all the things that could explain this I'll just mark it off to ignorant and rude.

Banjo players still screwing up guitarist, first influencing the guitar from a 12 fret to 14, and now this!

[HHP]

Man, never fails, you never have a rocket launcher with you when you need one.

[RustyAxe]

Banjo player ... well, he thought he was at a bluegrass jam, where any and all comers play along. I get VERY annoyed when someone takes the stage during my open mic set, and have stopped and told the offender to take a hike. Usually more diplomatically, but no less clear.

[endpin]

Just thank your lucky stars we live in a country where banjos are still legal!

But seriously, I recently saw an acoustic duo perform which is normally quite lenient about guests sitting in for a song or two. They met their match however, when a guy gets up there and drags on and on trying to tune a guitar that was handed to him in tune. To get the thing moving they handed him a second tuned guitar which he proceeded to de-tune (he may have been a real musician but a little tipsy). They finally got the guy off stage and afterward they told me they were re-thinking their sit-in policy.

[Aaron Smith]

Whomever was hosting the open mic should have gotten control. It's their job to ensure that all participants are comfortable on stage, and can play without (too much intrusion). Aside from that- never trust a man with tinted glasses or a banjo in his hand.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Turp

Had a unique Open Mic experience. A banjo picker just figured he would jump into my set and accompany me.

Problem: I wasn't exactly playing "banjo" music and the songs were my improvised fingerstyle arrangements. I explained this but he persisted.

Well, Turp, part of the problem here was the cluelessness of the banjoplayer, no question about it. But the biggest part of the problem was that you let him stay onstage with you, instead of making it unmistakably clear that you didn't want him playing with you.

I've had similar situations occur, and you just have to put your foot down and refuse to proceed until the uninvited musician gets off the stage. It goes without saying that such a person is going to be pushy and unlikely to take a hint, so you have to be crystal clear about it.

What I've done is folded my arms and said something like: "I'm sorry, but I've got some original arrangements here that I'm going to play, and I don't have time to teach them to you. Some other time, perhaps." If that's met with "Hey, we all just always sit in on each other's sets here" (which is a line I got once,) you just continue with your arms crossed and repeat: "Some other time, perhaps." And if that doesn't do it, you've got a microphone: use it to call for the emcee and to say to the crowd that you're going to play solo as soon as you can get the banjoplayer to understand that.

I've never actually had to take it that far, though I have called for the emcee. Refusing to play and telling the interloper that you refuse to play until he leaves has always worked, though sometimes it takes a while to get it through their thick heads.

Anyway, it's not likely to occur again any time soon, but don't let someone like that roll over you. When it's your time slot, it's your stage.


Wade Hampton Miller

[blue]

Could be worse... Could have been banjos...

[Sgt. Pepper]

Usually it's the harmonica guys that do this.....I don't think I've ever heard of a banjo player being the offender.

I did hear of from a friend of mine once about someone who showed up with a Marshall half stack and set it up in the back of the bar......and then proceeded to "jam along".....and it was *not* an open mic.
Some people.........sheesh.

Remember in the old cartoons when the big hook/cane would come in from the side of the stage and drag them off?

[banjar]

Uhh...dont you have to sign up for open mike? I would have asked him what the h*** he was doing, then told him to get the h*** off the stage.

if I ever had the guts to do open mike, that is.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Sgt. Pepper

Usually it's the harmonica guys that do this.....I don't think I've ever heard of a banjo player being the offender.

Yeah, the banjoplayer part is what's unusual here, I agree.

There definitely seems to be a subset of drunken harmonica "players" who are actually just barflies who carry a few harmonicas around with them. What can be tough when you encounter one of those is that they tend to be regulars at the bar where you happen to be, and get egged on by their drunken buddies in the crowd.

The way I've usually dealt with that is to play one blues number to let the guy play on so he can achieve his daily attention needs, then proceed as a solo from there.


whm

[Bingoccc]

"When you want genuine music - music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pinfeather pimples on a picked goose - when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!"

- Mark Twain

( I don't really feel like Mark )

[Rick Jones]

Gah....I play a regular set at one place where one of the colourful licals has a Harmonic braided into his dreadlocks......which he insists on using to play along with any song I play, heedless of key, time signature or tuning!

I have on many occasions told him it annoys me...nowadays I just have to block it out and carry on!

I feel your pain brother!

[McCawber]

I haven't done anything like open mike in years, but regardless of house rules, that seems like the epitiome of tackiness. I would sit in with someone I knew - with his or her permission, but would never think of jumping someone else's gig without an invitation. I don't know how I'd handle someone pulling a stunt like that on me, but I doubt I would exemplify a model of decorum and diplomacy . . . .

[Turp]

This open mic has been slow so no sign-up and the propietors aren't very structured; kind of a "mind yourselves".

I think the banjo player will be his and maybe the open mic undoing. I didn't mention it but I heard he did another uninvited "set in" previous to this one.

I didn't get pointed with the guy because I didn't care if he looked foolish, as it turned out I just wasted my time performing.

I'm thinking of carrying an old rag guitar and see if he does it again. I'll give him a chance to leave, if not, I'll perform a nice improv of "Stupid banjo player blues".

[Turp]

Originally Posted by blue

Could be worse... Could have been banjos...

Dangit now I have to watch it tonight.