December 6, 2011

Not-so-quiet night at the bar

I have a special post for the morning, but in the meantime I have me a bit of a rant.

Tuesday is my Toastmaster meeting and it is common for a group of Toastmasters to go across the street to a bar for a drink.  Now there are three bars which qualify as "across the street", but let's just say we go to the most appropriate one for a mixed group such as ours.

We do this often enough that the bartender reserves our usual corner of the bar just for us.

Tonight we are doing the normal having some drinks, maybe getting something to eat, and generally talking about this, that, or the other.  After we've been there for maybe an our this much larger group comes in.  Our bartender warns us....evidently this is a large barbershop singing group that has come from some event.

Sure enough these guys start singing, which really pisses me off.  It's not that they suck....in fact they sing quite well, but when they sing they sing rather loudly.  Much too loud to be able to talk or watch the game or pretty much do anything but listen.  While I could not speak for the rest of my group or the various other patrons of the bar, I can say with 100% certainty that I did not come to the bar to listen to a barbershop group.  Had I wished to do so I would have chosen to seek them out.

By their third song I was adamant about leaving.

Anytime one group so callously decides that their enjoyment is more important that those around them.....and said enjoyment is a big "pay attention to me".....I think they deserve the attention whore moniker.  This isn't much different from someone putting a crappy song on the jukebox, getting the volume cranked up so loud we can't hear ourselves talk, and then climbing on the pool table to do an air guitar solo.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If they were singing well, maybe they were just trying to share what they do well with the bar patrons? Unless they were busking it doesn't seem too out-of-place in a bar, generally considered a louder establishment.

Singing volume is often more about acoustics and good vocal tone than trying specifically to sing loudly; it could have simply been a more live area than they're used to, especially versus outdoors.

If they only sang a few songs, not an hour set with lighting and speeches, then I don't really get the attention whore feeling from the description.

Sorry, I'm on the Quartet's side, I enjoy good Barbershop and I honestly think they were just trying to give the gift of free, live music to some bar patrons.

Christopher Stogdill said...

They were obviously singing for their own benefit. I have no idea how long they sang because I wasn't going to sit around and wait.

They were drinking and singing...and had their wives with them. It was a social gathering, not a recital for us poor patrons.