I met with a number of very old friends last week in a local pub that features live music. We gathered about an hour and a half before the performer was scheduled to begin, and we were sitting around a table very near the stage because, well, that was the only table in the place large enough for all of us.

The evening's entertainment was a solo act, acoustic guitar and vocals. (Well, plugged-in ~ and fairly loud ~ acoustic.)

Most of us quieted down as soon as the fellow began to play, but one individual ~ the biggest, strongest, loudest, and perhaps drunkest among us ~ was completely oblivious to the singer and totally involved in our conversation (well, in his participation is said conversation). We all gave him the "hairy eyeball" and tried to use every non-verbal (silent) means to advise him to pipe down, because we didn't want to add more noise, more loud talk, to his.

Our strategy eventually worked and our old buddy got the message that he really ought to lower his voice, if not shut up altogether. But it took a few minutes, during which I was a little embarrassed and felt kind of impotent at my inability to fix the situation more quickly.

Lest anyone misunderstand, this was not a concert hall, nor even the kind of bar where silent attention to the entertainment is generally practiced and expected. It's a place where people normally converse, laugh, maybe sing along, and generally behave in a moderately rowdy manner, whther or not the live music is underway. The sound system is deliberately set up LOUD to accommodate the usual hubbub.

But we were right square in front of the stage, and our friend was very very loud ~ made the rest of us uncomfortable. Thankfully, the worst of it didn't last very long: One of our party had the presense of mind to start bantering with the performer as soon as the first song was done, making requests, etc., and engaging him in some back-and-forth dialog, and that was the end of the competing and offending offstage conversation.