Lindsey and I periodically like to go to Borders or Barns & Noble for hot chocolate, cheesecake, and free reading. She opts for the celebrity trash mags while yours truly hits the business and game periodicals. It’s nice to get away now and then, and for some reason we both enjoy being around strangers in public.

Well last Friday we went to Borders. About an hour into our free reading, and two cups of the best hot chocolate later, a one-man band started setting up shop in the corner of the lounge. “Okay,” I thought, thinking it would be cool if he sounded like Iron & Wine, but he didn’t. No offense to the dude playing, but bands and bookstores don’t seem to have the same target audience. Rarely do they mesh well. No one in the lounge came to listen to music, and a band usually appreciates if the audience is digging their sound.

So are bands and bookstore/coffee shop affiliations just tradition, or does the shop and musician both benefit from the relationship? I know Lindsey and I left early cause we couldn’t get the peace we sought after with a band playing in front of us.