open mike report

[jfb]

The Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 2003-11-18


I came slowly to folk music. It wasn't until the second time I moved to California that I went regularly to any folk club, and the one I started going to was the Freight & Savage, a non-profit club in Berkeley. I used to go whenever Peter Mulvey or Kris Delmhorst or Jennifer Kimball or the Nields or a bunch of other people were on tour, although these days they often play at the Espresso Garden, which is much easier for me to get to. It takes two hours to get to the Freight alone during rush hour. But I still go when I can rouse myself to it, and I've been a member for a few years now. (In my current salary-free state I'm considering a lapse.)

Where was I? Oh yeah. The Freight has an open mike on Tuesdays--some Tuesdays--but solo performers only get to play one song, and you have to pay to get in, and driving two hours to pay $4.50 to play for four minutes has never seemed like a good deal. Actually I did go once, but I didn't bring an instrument. I was there only to see what it was like, before I risked embarrassing myself onstage. (I was less secure back then.) I brought xythian so we'd qualify for the carpool lane. It was fun, but we left early.

Where was I? Oh yeah. So yeah, who's gonna drive for two hours just to play one song? But having driven two weeks and back to pay $5 play one song at Club Passim--well, okay, there were other reasons--when I got back it seemed like maybe it was time to brave the hassle in my own back yard. But then there weren't any open mikes in October, so I didn't have a chance until Tuesday.

So I drove two hours, got there early, signed up for slot #4, played "Snowblinded" (pretty well, but not my best), and stayed for the full three hours, 24 groups and soloists. There were a bunch of good musicians, most of whose names I didn't catch or didn't remember. I liked the song about the circle with no end, and the quintet that sang a Macedonian song a cappella, and the country song "There's A Woman Trapped Deep Inside My Body" (I think), and the piano rendition of "The Boys of Summer", and the last guy, and plenty of others.

The thing about the Freight open mike that is almost unique--although I think Club Passim had a similar policy--is that you're really not allowed to talk. "This is a listening room," said the host, and it really was. This had a definite up side--it's nice to know you'll be heard, with no din of conversation and clinking glasses. But on balance I think it's actually a negative.

I go to open mikes these days primarily as a networking exercise; if you're not allowed to talk, well, you can't network. (Club Passim had a space outside the listening room where people chatted and sold stuff.) And, you know, it turns out I don't care that much about being heard if I can't tell whether people liked hearing me. Of course, you can tell something from applause, smiles, and two-word whispers between other people's songs, but then you can't have a longer conversation with them. I guess it just boils down to networking again.

So yeah, you know what? It really isn't worth driving two hours to pay $4.50 to play one song. And yet, mysteriously, I'm thinking about going back next week. If I can find someone to carpool with.

Comments

[artname.livejournal.com]

I'm busy this coming Tuesday, but find me some other week. It'd be great.