Music in restaurants RFx

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

What's worked? What hasn't? What shouldn't have but did? Do you prefer live accompaniment to your chewing and sipping and wiping your hands on the napkin? A combo of bass and electric guitar off in the corner, maybe, intimating some post-bop smooth jazz? Have you ever tried bringing your own walkman to dinner, and your partner(s) the same? It might lead to some angular conversation. Or perhaps you prefer no music. You're not afraid of the sound your own silverware makes, or the smacking of your teeth against your gums. You might be distracted by the music, for instance. The old annoyance, that you never knew the last word in the chorus to "Winterville", makes you forget your place in the conversation just long enough for your partner to look at you for an extra moment and wonder if you're paying attention (which you're not). You refocus. What were you saying again?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Random siotar music in Indians = classic.

― Pete, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a (hip) japanese restaurant last weekend. They had a jazz combo (guitar/bass/drums) playing - which was cool because it didn't overpower the room & it just added to the mood. But when they took breaks, the bartender put on some techno/disco shit that was just the worst.. But it did help the converation: "Disco sucked in the 70's - now they've brought it back and renamed it techno - and it's FABULOUS!" "A drum machine and some moaning - you'd think there would only be about five different ways to make a record out of that - but there's a neverending supply."

Jazz combo => good.
Techno => bad.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Radio 1 in an Indian restaurant in Brackley certainly didn't work.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bah, I was going to write something on this for CTCL, and now it will seem like a mere ripoff! *beats Elisha down* But I have a back-up plan. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a Mexican restaurant here that has a professional Mexican- Polka-Kareoke artist that performs next to the front door and he loves him some reverb.

― Joe "PappaWheelie" Gonzalez, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A great little hippy place in my town Called The Little Grill has a Sunday morning breakfast thing, and I remember them playing David Byrne's Look Into the Eyeball all the way through. It was a beautiful Sunday morning because of that.

― Brock K, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned you probably mentioned it this weekend at brunch and I most likely subliminally filed it away while trying to identify some artist or another playing on the sound system...

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave225 - why do you think jazz goes better with public dining than techno? Though I listen to a lot more techno than I listen to jazz I think I agree with you for some reason I'm just not sure why.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I like jazz better because it's a less complex sound? maybe? I mean, fewer instruments & more separation, not simpler compositions. Or maybe jazz sounds better at low volume than techno does. Or maybe it's the slower tempo. Or the lack of some wailing vocalist - seems like techno vocals are usually louder (I can only think of really old songs like "I Will Survive" or that C+CMusicFactory song "Everybody Dance Now!" - I guess I don't really know any techno songs by name.) The voice is a bit unsettling. If Barbara Streisand or Celine Dion sang Jazz - aside from the fact that they would choose awful songs - their voices would drive me insane also.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave you failed miserably at falling into my trap; I wanted you to say jazz sounds more "organic" and is better for digestion or something but u R too smart for that (tho you need to get more up-to-date examples for techno, since most of it doesn't have any vocals any more)

Why don't they play modern hip hop in restaurants, even in black neighborhoods? I mean, there's an element of "enjoying your money" that would dictate what goes in the CD player at the waitress station - so I could imagine "I'm a Thug" or "C.R.E.A.M." as even more thematically appropriate than Sonny Stitt or Hooverphonic - even if you don't hear the words you know what that nu-synth hip hop sound means - "young people gettin paid" - which seems perfect! But it doesn't happen.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Why is "Getz/Gilberto" obviously the ultimate restaurant music?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Restaurants: where rockism goes to recharge its batteries?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have mixed feelings the music in restaurants thing, especially jazz. If I walk into a place with a jazz combo, I think it's really cool, although I want to be able to talk without raising my voice, etc.

When I'm playing jazz, though, I sometimes feel like I'm playing against that I can't go through as far as playing louder, playing more rhythmically complicated stuff, playing more 'out' etc. Granted, there's a time and a place for different kinds of playing, but it can suck to be playing specifically for an audience that doesn't want to really hear you.

― Jordan, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Search: Local radio in a greasy spoon where they deep-fry the tea.

― Ben Squircle, Tuesday, 19 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the restaurant was empty and quiet. they played a tape of bryan ferry songs from the slave to love period...on repeat.

― erik, Wednesday, 20 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

craziest shit i ever heard in a restaurant, or at least a chain burger place happened tonight at red robin. usually they play a kind of 80s mix (adam ant, depeche mode, clash) that occasionally delves into siouxsie and joy division; once i swear i heard a later period chrome song and something by xmal deutschland... but tonight: suicide "ghost rider" and something by section 25 from the key of dreams. whoever programs their music is clearly enjoying themselves.

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 03:04 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.