Live music as background music can be unpredictable. I have an instrumental duo with a violinist/fiddler (I play guitars) and sometimes we're essentially ignored by diners when we do dinner music and sometimes folks will eat and listen intently. We don't do anything different in each scenerio, it just seems to be the feel of the room. We don't try to engage the diners either, figuring it's not called for during dinner music, so we just bang out the tunes. It does seem like folks are more inclined to converse during slow tunes and airs and more attentive during swing and other uptempo tunes.

In defence of the noisy patrons, they don't always know there's going to be music when they choose where to eat.

Peace, Mooh.