They Were Showing WHAT At A New York Bar?

Musicians have to deal with a lot of different things while performing, especially at a bar. Recently has not been easy with the all Eastern Conference Finals games, as bar-goers were glued to the TV screens, praying for their NY Rangers to win. I performed a show recently where the Rangers game was on, and when the Rangers scored, the bar would erupt in applause. I joked with the audience, saying, "I'll pretend that the applause is for my music. Thank you."

I went to see a couple of friends perform a little while later, and again, they faced the same kind of issue. Everyone was so concentrated on the game that they barely paid any attention to the music. That got us talking afterward, asking ourselves, what was the weirdest distraction any of us had ever had at a gig? Immediately, my mind went to a gig I had just done a couple of months ago. I couldn't believe that this one bar was essentially showing softcore p***!

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How Could I Possibly Perform?

I was loading up my gear into a bar about two months ago. Nothing out of the ordinary, it was to be a straightforward two-hour gig. Once I got everything inside, I started setting up. In the area I was performing, there were four televisions in my line of vision from where I was to perform. With a half-hour left before the show was about to start, a program came onto one of the televisions. It was a documentary on Girls Gone Wild. And of course, the documentary was showing numerous clips from the Girls Gone Wild's videos. Yes, things were being blurred out, but barely. Those censors were doing just as good of a job covering things up as a white T-shirt does at a Wet T-Shirt Contest.

And this TV was right in front of me! How was I supposed to focus now? Looking back in hindsight, I probably should've just asked someone to change the channel or turn it off. What I did; however, was take off my glasses. Even that didn't help all that much, so I spent the first half-hour or so of the performance with my eyes closed so that I could concentrate on the words I was singing and the chords I was playing. Frankly, I think I would've taken a drunken heckler over that uncomfortable situation.

What's the most distracting thing that you ever had to deal with while working? Let us know on Facebook or Instagram, or write in through the App.