Open Mic at Pete's Candy Store...

Well, the open mic night was a success. Good turnout and the songs we performed were pretty solid. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the experience.

We got to Pete's at about a quarter to 5, me with my guitar and Lacy with all her luggage in tow. Before the open mic, some sort of church service goes on in the music hall section of the bar (something called the Revolution Church...a Christian church aimed at those with alternative lifestyles). So we had to wait out in the bar area but eventually the hall cleared out and the clipboard with the open mic signup sheet surfaced. So, I signed us up for the number 2 slot while chatting with one of the people who was there for the church service. The crowd of guitarists and other performers was growing slowly as I finished my first beer, so I eventually took a seat in the music hall with Lacy. She had already grabbed us a seat and, in the process, met one of the other performers, Macy, who agreed to video us with Lacy's phone.

We played two songs, opening with "In the Garden" and closing with "White Lion," (one of the audience members thought Lacy said "White Line," but we assured her it was not a song about cocaine use). Lacy may post audio at least from one or both of the songs as the video was a little blurry.

I stuck around until Macy performed but left at that point because I had to take care of some things before leaving for work and wanted to meet Lacy back in the city for a drink before she left town. So I got to see a handful of the other performers, very few of whose names I remember. The opener, who went before us, I had seen last time we went. He played guitar and harmonica and sang (a bit like Bob Dylan, in fact he covered a Bob Dylan song, too). We were followed immediately by a fellow playing guitar by himself and doing some fancy alternate tuning slappin' and tappin' guitar playin' that I was pretty impressed with. I wish I had gotten his name as one of his tunes was exceedingly catchy. There was a rather tall Indian gentleman who's last name was Gandhi and who was in a band named Gandhi. He sounded a bit like Cat Stevens or Donovan. After him, there was an older gentleman who played some folky Simon and Garfunkel styled stuff (he also covered a Simon and Garfunkel tune). And of course, Macy did really well. She played a few original tunes in her soft sultry voice that were rather captivating.

Anyway, it was great getting to perform along side these folks and get out some of that energy. It's been something I've needed for a long time and hopefully we'll be doing more of it pretty soon. We're hoping to play another one in April.

Next weekend is the jazz choir concert and my folks'll be in town as well. The concert will be pretty big I'm hearing, with tons of other acts besides us and a half hour long intermission (something that tells me the whole night might go on for 3 hours). If you would like to come it's in the chapel at 7pm Saturday, the 26th of March at the Brooklyn Unitarian Church on Pierrepont and Monroe Sts. in Brooklyn Heights. It's a $20 donation to support the youth group and there will be dessert and drinks there, I'm thinking maybe even dinner but I can't remember. I will find out for sure and add a comment to this post.

For now, I've gotta get going on studying some Middle Eastern music theory for the next project! Wish me luck!