I like the idea of the pub kitchen - we used to have great late night sessions in the Cross Keys kitchen way back when. When the 'official' session finished Eamonn used to get the musicians into the kitchen with a big feed and a load of drink and we'd play to the wee small hours - brilliant!!
Okay, showaddy, what does it say about you that you’re one of the twelve people in the world who remember that there ever was a “Hoyle’s Steady State Theory”?
In theory, probably the kitchen. It's all in theory with me these days, cause I'm not attending any sessions - but in a kitchen I might just consider it.
I was thinking the other day how some folk just love going to the pub, y'know. The very mention of one gives them a rosy glow. And not just the big drinkers, either. I don't think I'll every feel like that. Although once the no smoking laws go through I intend to make an attempt.
If sessions are folks playing for their mutual enjoyment, does this mean the only reason to play in a pub is access to drink, or maybe avoiding the clean-up afterwards?
I don't think so personally. I suspect some part of the motivation to be in a pub is to have punters present.
Your years of toil,"
Said Ryle to Hoyle,
"Are wasted years, believe me.
The steady state
Is out of date.
Unless my eyes deceive me,
My telescope
Has dashed your hope;
Your tenets are refuted.
Let me be terse::
Our universe
Grows daily more diluted!"
Said Hoyle, "You quote
Lemaitre, I note,
And Gamow. Well, forget them!
That errant gang
And their Big Bang --
Why aid them, and abet them?
You see, my friend,
It has no end
And there was no beginning,
As Bondi, Gold,
And I will hold
Until our hair is thinning!"
I prefer pub sessions, because if things get out of hand, I just have to escape with my instrument and my life; if things get out of hand in my kitchen, I have to get mean and kick some arse--for which I'm known well in these parts--and I simply cannot spare one more of my chairs to be broken over someone's unruly spine.
I also enjoy the departure from my troglodytic existence by getting out and seeing/meeting other people, even if they don't care to see me. Though I like having folks over too, mainly because I'm a beginner, and only in my own dwelling may I dare to exhibit the full depth of my ignorance. (But there would be no kitchen sessions without first gathering folks at the pub.) I like the randomness of it too, never knowing who'll be showing up, what will be played, how brilliant or lame it will be, etc. It's a true lesson in uncertainty. To quote Brian Conway, "One of the great things about playing Irish music is that you get to meet really great people whom you would probably never have met otherwise." Or was it DK that said that? T'is true, regardless.
To get off the issue of cosmology (how did that get started, anyway?) I prefer pub sessions. Although if you count me and the wife playing together at home as a kitchen session, then that is a lot of fun also.
If you have musicers in the family, then home sessions are much easier and oftener because you don't need to arrange for people to come round. Me and the lad often play together, and he and the missus play quite often. Sometimes (but rarely) we all play, and the girl, and Dan from over the field.
I notice that no-one chose to pick on the lace handkerchief.
Maybe this belongs in the How Old Are We topic, but when I was in school, there was still some debate going on between the Steady Staters and the Big Bangers. They should have known better than to argue with a sausage.
I haven’t played a lot of pub - or otherwise public - sessions, but they tend to feel a bit more like a performance to me (a low-commitment performance?) and the noisiness tends to dictate a slightly different set than a home session, where a voice or a guitar playing melody can actually be heard and taking chances is less risky. I like both.
Now folks, I know Bob himself used the "p" word (performance that is), but lets not start the Great Debate again (for those of you new to this forum, the discussion thread about whether or not a session in a public place consituted a performance generated one of the longest threads ever). That discussion made the Steady State versus Big Bang and Evolution versus Intelligent Design controversies seem like mutual admiration societies.
A shiver passed through me when Grego said something about wanting punters in the room....
I've said it before, and I'll say it again (though it amazes me how many people refuse to believe me): pubs provide the serendipity factor--you never know what other musicians will walk in the door. It's not about the punters, an "audience," or even the free beer. It's about having a public place where Bob the fluter from down the road or Jimmy the whistle player from Westport might wander in. One week to the next, you don't know who's going to sit at the table with you, and that adds interest to playing tunes together. Period.
I don't know quite how it occurs, but in the pub I frequent the most, the punters are a nice bunch, and the regulars are an interesting collection of folks. And even when we get a request for an old chestnut, the request is usually respectful and not obnoxious. And Sunday, when we have our session, seems to be the evening for taking the kids or grandma out for dinner, so there is a bit of a family feel to things, especially earlier in the evening.
So our session is, I think, very lucky.
Because a pub session is public and open there's opportunity for good things (the performers from next door wander over after the show, the out-of-towner musicians who really make your day, the crazily entertaining punters, whatever) but conversely there's little hope for regulating the annoying things (whistle player who's there every week for 5 years but can still only play 8 (barely recognizeable) tunes, non-entertaining punters, the guy who *must* start a new tune set if there's 15 seconds of conversation, all the bad ettiquette we complain about constantly)
One of the nice things about the kitchen session is the opportunity to invite your absolute favoritest fellow musicians and hang around playing whatever you darn well please, be that new tunes, weird tunes, faster or slower than the local pub speed, whatever, and whenever fits your schedule. The offshoot is when you sit around all evening eating nachos and gossipping because there's no non-musicians who need entertaining, which is sometimes good & sometimes bad.
And when a good band performs on a Friday night, there's no hope of a pub session afterwards. Perhaps only an American problem, but weekends, the "Irish pub" can make most money by becoming a fratboy meat market that serves Guinness, and not only would they refuse to allow a session, you wouldn't want to go there anyway. So that's when you slip maps to the band and all your friends, and throw a kitchen party.
there's something about live ''kitchen music'' i can't quite put my finger on . . .
i love it and rarely do it anymore but it can sometimes be a bit mad on occasion
just a kitchen session years ago in Peckham springs to mind where the banjo player unexpectedly threw a black kitten out the window _ ground floor mind and the cat was grand, i took it home with me for the girlfrind and she was delighted
and that family pet lived to a fine old age (for a cat) and is buried in the garden now with the others
. . . strange things them 'kitchen' music sessions
Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
The session with just a group of musicians in a private home, or the pub session. Which do you like best and why?
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by grego
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Which is better: a lace handkerchief or Hoyle's Steady State Theory?
Do we really have to choose?
Can't we just like both of them?
(coming soon for UK viewers on on Channel 5 - The 100 Best Lists of 100 Bests)
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Pub kitchen sessions
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Bren
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Depends on the pub, and depends on the home.
I quite like both, as long as there's a session.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Cath
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Pub session without a doubt. Usually a lot more fun.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Gorgash
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Music is better in kitchens, beer is better in pubs. Depends on what you're after.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by lastnitesfun
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
This thread discrimates against living rooms, parlours, halls, streets, hotel conference rooms, and other possible venues.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by continuo
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
I vote pub, I just love beer far too much
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by bb
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
I like the idea of the pub kitchen - we used to have great late night sessions in the Cross Keys kitchen way back when. When the 'official' session finished Eamonn used to get the musicians into the kitchen with a big feed and a load of drink and we'd play to the wee small hours - brilliant!!
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by breandan
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Okay, showaddy, what does it say about you that you’re one of the twelve people in the world who remember that there ever was a “Hoyle’s Steady State Theory”?
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
In theory, probably the kitchen. It's all in theory with me these days, cause I'm not attending any sessions - but in a kitchen I might just consider it.
I was thinking the other day how some folk just love going to the pub, y'know. The very mention of one gives them a rosy glow. And not just the big drinkers, either. I don't think I'll every feel like that. Although once the no smoking laws go through I intend to make an attempt.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by kris
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Twelve? Blimey, I thought it was just you and me.
I like Hoyle's SST - it illustrates fear so elegantly.
I keep it beside schrodinger's cat.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Heh, heh. But seriously...
If sessions are folks playing for their mutual enjoyment, does this mean the only reason to play in a pub is access to drink, or maybe avoiding the clean-up afterwards?
I don't think so personally. I suspect some part of the motivation to be in a pub is to have punters present.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by grego
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Your years of toil,"
Said Ryle to Hoyle,
"Are wasted years, believe me.
The steady state
Is out of date.
Unless my eyes deceive me,
My telescope
Has dashed your hope;
Your tenets are refuted.
Let me be terse::
Our universe
Grows daily more diluted!"
Said Hoyle, "You quote
Lemaitre, I note,
And Gamow. Well, forget them!
That errant gang
And their Big Bang --
Why aid them, and abet them?
You see, my friend,
It has no end
And there was no beginning,
As Bondi, Gold,
And I will hold
Until our hair is thinning!"
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Pub sessions every time. Everyone secretly enjoys smiling with embarrassment when the punters clap.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
i like the ones under a tent at around 2:00 a.m. on a cool summer night.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
I prefer pub sessions, because if things get out of hand, I just have to escape with my instrument and my life; if things get out of hand in my kitchen, I have to get mean and kick some arse--for which I'm known well in these parts--and I simply cannot spare one more of my chairs to be broken over someone's unruly spine.
I also enjoy the departure from my troglodytic existence by getting out and seeing/meeting other people, even if they don't care to see me. Though I like having folks over too, mainly because I'm a beginner, and only in my own dwelling may I dare to exhibit the full depth of my ignorance. (But there would be no kitchen sessions without first gathering folks at the pub.) I like the randomness of it too, never knowing who'll be showing up, what will be played, how brilliant or lame it will be, etc. It's a true lesson in uncertainty. To quote Brian Conway, "One of the great things about playing Irish music is that you get to meet really great people whom you would probably never have met otherwise." Or was it DK that said that? T'is true, regardless.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by grymater
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Steady State!!!! He is a Warlock! Burn him! Tie him up with String Theory to the stake and Buuuuuuurn him!
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by grymater
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
To get off the issue of cosmology (how did that get started, anyway?) I prefer pub sessions. Although if you count me and the wife playing together at home as a kitchen session, then that is a lot of fun also.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
If you have musicers in the family, then home sessions are much easier and oftener because you don't need to arrange for people to come round. Me and the lad often play together, and he and the missus play quite often. Sometimes (but rarely) we all play, and the girl, and Dan from over the field.
I notice that no-one chose to pick on the lace handkerchief.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Because...c'mon...that's a given! Lace? Who doesn't like lace!
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by grymater
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
LOL -- I like both. They both have great things about them. And you can play music at both of them, too.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
You can play music at a lace handkerchief, but you can't make it listen.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Maybe this belongs in the How Old Are We topic, but when I was in school, there was still some debate going on between the Steady Staters and the Big Bangers. They should have known better than to argue with a sausage.
I haven’t played a lot of pub - or otherwise public - sessions, but they tend to feel a bit more like a performance to me (a low-commitment performance?) and the noisiness tends to dictate a slightly different set than a home session, where a voice or a guitar playing melody can actually be heard and taking chances is less risky. I like both.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Kitchen sessions, if you have a small amount of people who you know well. Believe me, it's great.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Zazzaliss
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Now folks, I know Bob himself used the "p" word (performance that is), but lets not start the Great Debate again (for those of you new to this forum, the discussion thread about whether or not a session in a public place consituted a performance generated one of the longest threads ever). That discussion made the Steady State versus Big Bang and Evolution versus Intelligent Design controversies seem like mutual admiration societies.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
I admit to clicking the "post" key with some trepidation after using that word.
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
A shiver passed through me when Grego said something about wanting punters in the room....
I've said it before, and I'll say it again (though it amazes me how many people refuse to believe me): pubs provide the serendipity factor--you never know what other musicians will walk in the door. It's not about the punters, an "audience," or even the free beer. It's about having a public place where Bob the fluter from down the road or Jimmy the whistle player from Westport might wander in. One week to the next, you don't know who's going to sit at the table with you, and that adds interest to playing tunes together. Period.
(I also like kitchen sessions.)
# Posted on August 23rd 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
But Will, is it a performance in the kitchen? - sorry wrong thread..........
# Posted on August 24th 2005 by Donough
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
I don't know quite how it occurs, but in the pub I frequent the most, the punters are a nice bunch, and the regulars are an interesting collection of folks. And even when we get a request for an old chestnut, the request is usually respectful and not obnoxious. And Sunday, when we have our session, seems to be the evening for taking the kids or grandma out for dinner, so there is a bit of a family feel to things, especially earlier in the evening.
So our session is, I think, very lucky.
# Posted on August 24th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
Because a pub session is public and open there's opportunity for good things (the performers from next door wander over after the show, the out-of-towner musicians who really make your day, the crazily entertaining punters, whatever) but conversely there's little hope for regulating the annoying things (whistle player who's there every week for 5 years but can still only play 8 (barely recognizeable) tunes, non-entertaining punters, the guy who *must* start a new tune set if there's 15 seconds of conversation, all the bad ettiquette we complain about constantly)
One of the nice things about the kitchen session is the opportunity to invite your absolute favoritest fellow musicians and hang around playing whatever you darn well please, be that new tunes, weird tunes, faster or slower than the local pub speed, whatever, and whenever fits your schedule. The offshoot is when you sit around all evening eating nachos and gossipping because there's no non-musicians who need entertaining, which is sometimes good & sometimes bad.
And when a good band performs on a Friday night, there's no hope of a pub session afterwards. Perhaps only an American problem, but weekends, the "Irish pub" can make most money by becoming a fratboy meat market that serves Guinness, and not only would they refuse to allow a session, you wouldn't want to go there anyway. So that's when you slip maps to the band and all your friends, and throw a kitchen party.
# Posted on August 25th 2005 by concertinette
Re: Kitchen Sessions vs Pub Sessions
there's something about live ''kitchen music'' i can't quite put my finger on . . .
i love it and rarely do it anymore but it can sometimes be a bit mad on occasion
just a kitchen session years ago in Peckham springs to mind where the banjo player unexpectedly threw a black kitten out the window _ ground floor mind and the cat was grand, i took it home with me for the girlfrind and she was delighted
and that family pet lived to a fine old age (for a cat) and is buried in the garden now with the others
. . . strange things them 'kitchen' music sessions
# Posted on December 5th 2005 by lisaniska