Many of us have been doing ITM sessions for years, some for a short time, and some just beginning to get their feet wet. But in every session around the world, there are always those people who “join in”, uninvited, not knowing or following session etiquette…session-crashers… and although aggravating at the time, it can make for some entertaining reading.
Our weekly session is pretty laid back and we always welcome players who know some ITM or at least know enough session etiquette to know when to lay out if they don’t know a tune or song. But we have some very experienced players who don’t appreciate uninvited session crashers. And we’ve had some excellent experienced players join us. But on the other side, we’ve had everything from tambourines to kazoos.
The last “crash” was a woman from the crowd who decided to run to her car to get her tambourine and join us. We’d just started a set when she came back in, stood over the table and started banging on that thing, so we endured it until the set was over then politely asked her to sit on her tambourine for the rest of the evening. Then she started singing in keys that don’t exist in this galaxy, making up words to songs she didn’t know. She obviously thought we were just another country music band who’d think her antics were cute and didn’t mind if she sang the words to “The Gambler” while we were playing Inisheer.
Then there was the mad guitarist who knew nothing but bad jazz chords who before playing claimed, “Oh, sure…I know a lot of Irish stuff.” That should have been our first clue. He played obscure jazz chords in a Bo Diddley rhythm in keys nowhere close to ours. And he didn’t play…he BANGED loudly. Well, most of us have been playing together long enough that we’re pretty much tuned in to each other, and on cue as he was wildly banging away, six of us looked at each other, nodded, and on the beat, stopped playing. Dead silence except for his wild banging. He continued banging away, never noticing everyone else had stopped playing. When he finished his solo, we collectively asked him to leave the area.
Then there was kazoo girl who appeared out of nowhere; another banging out-of-tune guitarist who attempted to take over the session…and lost; a drunk attention-starved girl who somehow crawled under the round table and was making the “rounds” (don’t ask 
); a woman who grabbed one of our bodhran player’s bodhrans when he wasn’t looking, started banging on it and nearly put a hole through it after dropping and stepping on it (an expensive Vignoles). On more than one occasion, we’ve had a well-saturated person walk up to the table and just start singing Danny Boy, no matter what we’re playing.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve enjoyed many fine guest players over the years and have great, uninterrupted sessions 99% of the time. But that other 1% has been interesting.
I’d love to hear some of your stories.
