Lots of bars & clubs have them. One or two nights a week they open the stage to whoever wants to perform, you get(most of the time) a mike, an amp and an audience.
After divorce #2 I started practicing with my guitar a lot, and one night a friend told me I ought to hit a place she went to; she went there for karoke two or three times a week(shut up), but on Tuesday nights they had open mike. So I finally went.
Lady named Melanie was the host, she'd do two or three songs, then have someone come up and do one or two, sometimes three, then she'd do a couple more. Met some nice people, heard some good performers and generally was just the place I'd needed to find.
One night I was talking to someone(maybe Melanie, but I don't remember) and they said I ought to bring my guitar and give it a try. I said I didn't think so, I wasn't that good, and they snorted and said "Hell, nobody cares, we're all just here to have fun." Which sounded nice, so I started practicing a bit more. And one night I did it.
Badly.
Actually, that doesn't even begin to describe how it went. First, I'm not the best speaker in front of people(unless I'm pissed, then I can sometimes damn near channel Churchill). Second, my guitar had no pickup, so had the mike halfway between face and guitar(every tried to play, let alone play AND sing, while hunched over? Bleah). Couldn't get my fingers to go to the right places, couldn't get my voice to sound normal...
I cut it short, cased the guitar and got a beer. And while I was sitting wondering why the hell I'd talked myself into this, a guy named Randy came by. He was a damn good performer, almost always playing slide, mostly blues. I said something about 'that was bloody awful' and he said "First time always is. It'll be better next time"
"Next time my ass!"
"Give it another time, it'll be better."
So a couple of weeks later I gave it another try, and amazingly, it was better. Not a lot, but I actually got through three songs in half-decent manner, and felt much better afterward.
So I started hitting the place almost every Tuesday, sometimes performing, sometimes just listening(there really were some damn good musicians who showed up there). I found a pickup that fit in the sound hole, which helped. And I found I really enjoyed it.
Later on started going to another place called Galileo's in the Paseo district. The 'artsy' part of town, if you will. Their open mike was on Thursdays. Having a much bigger crowd, met some nice people, including a guitar maker who put a real pickup in for me and- the big hazard- some of the bleepin' worst musicians/performers you'd ever hope not to see. Not nervous like I was at first: bad. BAD. Like the guy who had a Strat and his own amp, with the volume and distortion turned ALL the way up, with a heavy hand and even less talent than I, who really and truly believed he was Heaven's gift to music. Which caused Brit- who ran the thing- to cut him off early, because people were actually leaving. But there were others who made up for it. Like the 17-year old who had a voice like young Patsy Cline, the aforementioned guitar maker who was a very accomplished classical player, and others.
Between time and other things, finally stopped going. The first place had gone downhill, the lady had started doing one song, then having other people perform for as much of the time as possible; just didn't seem to want to do it right anymore. Galileo was still pretty good, but I just didn't have time anymore, and it'd gotten so packed that I could never get a slot to play, so stopped going there. One of these days I'll have to make time to find another place, maybe give it another try.
No comments:
Post a Comment