There's something about drunken die-hard country music fans; if you play the Hank or Merle or whatever, they might like you briefly, but will probably ignore you and continue to be obnoxious. The words are coming out of their mouths automatically but they're not listening. (And yeah, they don't want it "hippie style". No surprises please, we're rednecks.) They'll make a bunch more noise, and you'll only hear from them when you stop playing and are at the end of the gig. With management wanting to close down, that's when they throw a big act about wanting to hear more.

SharonA, I think your ex-boyfriend has something going for him!

And oh, if you're playing a Steve Earle song to a biker crowd, you better get it right.

Most hurtful criticism I ever got about a performance though involved somebody's fist connecting with my nose. Wasn't my playing he objected to but my reaction when he tripped over the (borrowed) mixer while coming up on stage in the middle of a song. (See the old old "Gigs from Hell" thread.

Willie-O