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I am not sure if this counts as a sucky customer or a sighting.
I play Irish music in an Irish pub here in town. The group has been playing there for probably close to ten years. If you aren't into Irish music, then I'm thinking maybe an Irish pub with the habit of having a live band every sunday night for a decade is not the place for you. At least on Sunday night.
We are not employees of the pub, nor are we a paid band. 10 years ago, the pub owner arranged to have an open forum for the Irish music scene one night a week in an effort to boost business. Apparently, it worked. The place is usually packed out on Sunday nights. To keep us coming back, we eat and drink anything we want, as much as we want. In addition, the pub prepares us goodies that they don't even make available to the public. So they are clearly happy that we are there.
So some time back, after we had broken up for the evening, me and another guy, JM were hanging out chatting in the musician's area/dartroom when this guy comes up. Looked to be 50 ish or so, and dressed like Jules and Vinnie in the "Beverly " scene of Pulp Fiction. Which is to say he looked, to paraphrase Quentin Tarentino, "like a dork." He sidles up to us and starts in about how we needed to quit with the music by at least 9pm. 9pm was a long as anyone should have to listen to Irish music, and he was doing us a big favor by telling us we needed to pack it in when he said. He said he'd been coming to this pub for a while, and he was tired of listening to it.
Now, normally, I would have told him maybe he ought to find another pub to drink in, if he had been coming several weeks and every week didn't like the climate, and then told him to shove off. However, I felt like since I was a guest of the pub, it wouldn't be gracious of me to verbally abuse one of their customers. JM and I just stared at him, then I just said, as contemptuously as I could muster, "Well, why don't you go talk to the owner, if you have a problem with the pub." Then I simply turned my back on him and continued my conversation with JM.
He stood there awkwardly for a moment, said, "Uh...well, I intend to mention it to the manager."
I kept on talking to JM as if the dork wasn't even there.
He stood there a moment more, shuffled uncomfortably, then left.
The next week, he approached us again while the group was playing (I had told them about him earlier) and addressed our bagpipe guy. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I remember it was some clumsy, passive-aggressive attempt to insult our playing again. Why he chose our piper this time is anyone's guess (these were Irish pipes, not Scottish Greatpipes. So no, it's not like they are loud, obnoxious pipes. I like Greatpipes, just not inside a pub.)
After that, he never came back again. He badmouthed us to the owner, and the owner showed him the door as a result. The owner was none too pleased to discover some loser was hassling his FREE HOUSE BAND every week. Loser was probably expecting that since he was the Allmighty Customer, and we were the lowly "employees", that we'd get in some trouble. That, unfortunately for him, was very much not the case.
I play Irish music in an Irish pub here in town. The group has been playing there for probably close to ten years. If you aren't into Irish music, then I'm thinking maybe an Irish pub with the habit of having a live band every sunday night for a decade is not the place for you. At least on Sunday night.
We are not employees of the pub, nor are we a paid band. 10 years ago, the pub owner arranged to have an open forum for the Irish music scene one night a week in an effort to boost business. Apparently, it worked. The place is usually packed out on Sunday nights. To keep us coming back, we eat and drink anything we want, as much as we want. In addition, the pub prepares us goodies that they don't even make available to the public. So they are clearly happy that we are there.
So some time back, after we had broken up for the evening, me and another guy, JM were hanging out chatting in the musician's area/dartroom when this guy comes up. Looked to be 50 ish or so, and dressed like Jules and Vinnie in the "Beverly " scene of Pulp Fiction. Which is to say he looked, to paraphrase Quentin Tarentino, "like a dork." He sidles up to us and starts in about how we needed to quit with the music by at least 9pm. 9pm was a long as anyone should have to listen to Irish music, and he was doing us a big favor by telling us we needed to pack it in when he said. He said he'd been coming to this pub for a while, and he was tired of listening to it.
Now, normally, I would have told him maybe he ought to find another pub to drink in, if he had been coming several weeks and every week didn't like the climate, and then told him to shove off. However, I felt like since I was a guest of the pub, it wouldn't be gracious of me to verbally abuse one of their customers. JM and I just stared at him, then I just said, as contemptuously as I could muster, "Well, why don't you go talk to the owner, if you have a problem with the pub." Then I simply turned my back on him and continued my conversation with JM.
He stood there awkwardly for a moment, said, "Uh...well, I intend to mention it to the manager."
I kept on talking to JM as if the dork wasn't even there.
He stood there a moment more, shuffled uncomfortably, then left.
The next week, he approached us again while the group was playing (I had told them about him earlier) and addressed our bagpipe guy. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I remember it was some clumsy, passive-aggressive attempt to insult our playing again. Why he chose our piper this time is anyone's guess (these were Irish pipes, not Scottish Greatpipes. So no, it's not like they are loud, obnoxious pipes. I like Greatpipes, just not inside a pub.)
After that, he never came back again. He badmouthed us to the owner, and the owner showed him the door as a result. The owner was none too pleased to discover some loser was hassling his FREE HOUSE BAND every week. Loser was probably expecting that since he was the Allmighty Customer, and we were the lowly "employees", that we'd get in some trouble. That, unfortunately for him, was very much not the case.
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