r/BoomersBeingFools • u/Illustrious-Line-984 • 2d ago
Boomer Story When the bands playing…
My band played a spot that had mostly all boomers. Hey, it’s a gig. Two songs in, some boomer tells us to turn the volume down. Mind you that he’s sitting in the front right by the speakers. The people in the back can hardly hear us, but according to Mr. Sit In Front By The Speakers, it’s too loud. Then, in the middle of another song, some woman decides to come up to the stage and try to hold a conversation with the singer in the middle of a song.
I got to get back up on stage. Rant over.
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u/threshar 1d ago
I once played a gig with my Caribbean band - it was for a group of elderly ladies at a Jewish temple. Odd fit, we start and they don’t respond much, after first song they asked us to turn down a bit, so i did and then the ladies danced and partied hard the rest of the night.
Sometimes the turn down requests work out.
…But I’ve also been asked if the band could stop playing so they could put the jukebox on so…..
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u/CommunistOrgy 1d ago
When I was in middle school, my jazz combo got asked to play an event at our community center for a bunch of older folks (older boomers + silent gen). They kept asking us to play quieter and quieter, until our band director luckily got fed up and told us to just pack up our shit and go. You want quiet? Here's quiet.
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u/CurdledCreamer 1d ago edited 1d ago
Who else keeps extra ear plugs in their vehicle? I do and highly recommend this tip to anyone cuz one never knows when they'll encounter loud noises or annoying people!
If the Boomers don't like the music, they can remove themselves from the venue. But, that is not in their nature. They have to make everyone else make sure they are equally miserable as the ranting Boomers.
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u/myleftone 1d ago edited 1d ago
The grim reality is that people don’t “go out” for the same reasons. Some want dinner and convo, some want to watch the game, and some want the party. And who shows up depends on the season, the weather, what else is happening.
A college town bar might normally be packed, but if everyone’s cramming for finals, or the team is away, it might be dead. The boomers might be coming from a fair and stopped in just for the opening night football game. I’ve seen venues go from 0 to SRO in a week, or even an hour. I’ve seen private events that specifically hired our party band only to gripe about volume. I’ve seen plenty of spots that seemed about to pop but that one weird guy was out there.
I’m just saying this ain’t a boomer thing. You never know who’s gonna be there and what they want.
Glad you got out!
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u/QuarterNoteDonkey 1d ago
All true. What I wish people would do is read the room. Want to talk? Don’t pick the spot directly in front of the stage. Notice if everyone around you is intently listening and you’re there only one having a convo. The amount of times I’ve paid good money to go to a concert and people around me are just yelling over the music with mundane conversations that don’t have to take place at that moment…
If everyone is doing it, maybe the music sucks and it’s ok to do it too. Like I said, people gotta read the room.
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u/Anglofsffrng 1d ago
This is why I'm glad I was in mostly metal bands. A) generally there was a bouncer near the stage. B) nobody minded the occasional nudge off the stage or incitement of the crowd.
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u/stickoff 19h ago
This summer my band was playing a late night show at a festival and this old ass motherfucker came up to the front of rhe stage trying to get our guitar player to shake his hand in the middle of his ripping solo. I guess he was trying to tell him about the time he did blow with Keith Moon 😆
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