Just One More (The Gig from Hell)

Wow, a triple-post day. Either I have no life, or the combination of bad weather and the flu-thing that's sweeping UNT has cancelled my usual racquetball match with Halfling tonight and given me all kinds of spare time (I'm voting for the latter, of course).

Anyway, I just read a post that deserves mention. I've written before about my experiences on a so-called "wallpaper" gig (i.e. one where the music is strictly a background presence and not the focal point of the event). At least that gig was a relatively pleasant one; John Murphy writes about a party he played over the weekend that didn't turn out nearly so well:

(W)hen it was time for you to get everyone's attention so that you could read what you found out about the wine in Wine Spectator, or to introduce the chef so that he could tell everyone about the Texas Kobe beef and the artisanal cheeses from California, you didn't wait until one of our short selections was finished. Instead, you tapped on your glass to get everyone's attention, and then one of the guests (who would make an excellent gym teacher) shouted "Yo!!" in such a way that his voice echoed off the walls and bare floors of your large living room (which, by the way, is decorated in an extremely tasteful contemporary way).
This brought our music to an unexpected halt in a way that I found upsetting. And it happened numerous times. I was too embarrassed to call your attention to it as it was happening. Embarrassed both for myself, since I was playing background music rather than foreground music, and for you, since your obvious cultivation in matters of wine, food, and visual art apparently does not extend to music.

Ouch--the gig from hell. Read the whole thing...

UPDATE: I noticed a few days later that this post is no longer up on John's site; I hope that he didn't receive any pressure from above to do that. With any luck, he and the person who hired him for the gig (who was not at all mentioned by name) were able to work things out amicably.