General Music Chat

Yeah, its sometimes tough to get friends to come hear you play when you are only doing a few songs. The event almost has to be able to 'stand on its own', that is people come to hear the music, not knowing who the performers are going to be, but knowing that good talent does come regularly.

Monday night before the open mic Im involved with. I stop by GC to check out a wah wah pedal Ive been wanting. Im sitting there with it plugged into a little amp and I hear a Vai song playing in the background, I just assume its canned music in the store, then I think I hear Satchs Boogie, again I think its canned music, so finish up with the way, Im considered a VOX Jerry Cantrell wah if anyone cares, great wah. So I walk around the store and low and behold this dude is sitting there playing all of this stuff.

I stood back and finally I walk up to him and I say "Who are you?" His name is Jon Wefel. So he starts playing Pride by U2 he cant hit the higher vocal part so I sit there and harmonize it with him. Hes grinning, I said man Im headed to an open mic, I want to hear you play some more. He says well I dont have any gear, I said you can use mine.

This guy shows up and just totally rips the roof off the open mic, He kept asking me did I want to play, I said no way I just want to hear you. We wound up letting this guy play for 3 hours, I mean they went thru everything under the planet. Started with U2 the Police, then into some Ratt, then of course crazy train and paranoid with this younger guy that want to sing them. Then they start getting into Rush, Subdivisions, Tom Sawyer YYZ. I even got to sing Whole Lotta Love with them.

There were some pretty major players in the house. Pete Mendelo, he actually tours with Jefferson Starship, then a bunch of local musician and we are all just listening to this guy with our mouths open.

Honestly Ive seen Eric Johnson, Ive seen Vai and Satch and this dude was just killing it, the only guitarist that I can think of that plays on a upper level than this guy would be Jeff Beck.

Crazy man, he broke a string on my guitar and I replaced it so they could keep going.

You never know who might wonder in, Im lucky that our open mic is on a monday, and most local musicians arent playing and come out, so I get to see and play with some of the best in the city in the rock vien.

Sounds like a fun time. The bars around here with live music aren't even open on Mondays!

Success!
Had 11 players show up (quite a few last-minute cancellations, so hoping they'll all show up next time), so everyone got to do 3 songs, plus those who wanted to got a 2nd round of 2 songs. I did 5 to start the night and 5 to finish out.
The house soundman who was supposed to show up to show me how to hook into their full sound system didn't appear, so I just unplugged the main feed to the ceiling-hung main speakers and plugged from my mixer to those, didn't need the subs the soundman was insisting be used.
The bartender (hot redhead) who had set it up was pleased with the crowd size, will do it again in 2 weeks and then let the bar decide if they want to continue at my regular fee - for $60 cash and a burger, it was a lot of work!

mike, as you know....sometimes you eat the burger/sometimes it eats you.

hopefully it turns into a steady deal. good luck.

For the guy who wanted to see the 'hot bartender'.

Pic from last Halloween.

We're getting about 9 players at the coffee house, on Friday, and about a dozen at the performing Arts Organization, on Mondays.
I'm running that one tonight; we occasionally get a capella women, a violinist, sax, harmonica, bass . . . got a Grand piano there .
I try to keep my performance down to less than 20 minutes, and then sit back and drink coffee for the rest of the night, introducing folks and adjusting volumes and such.
I usually close up with just a couple songs.
The less I play, the more I can hear others play, eh?
(hey, I can hear ME anytime!)
There's some really good folks there, from widely diverse back-grounds; We always have people staying after I've shut down, just talking about music, until they kick us out.

P.S.
Yep; that bartender is sexy!

Tryout #2 tonight. Wish I hadnt caught a cold from my partner at work.

Cautiously optimistic because I noticed that they have already added the May Open Mic nights into their online calendar!

SUCCESS! Had 16 players/bands play last night, plus 2 guys who showed up late but couldn't stick around long enough to play. Now have 2nd & 4th Wednesdays of the month as a regular open mic at this club.