Hey everybody! My Open Mic went awesome! There were, of course, nerve related screw ups – but overall it was a win. Shaun L. and I showed up around 7:30. We took a seat in the back and played Party Scrabble (more about that later) and let time pass as we waited for my turn at the mic. Unfortunately, the decision to arrive 30 minutes after the start of the event was dumb. I was the last on the list – and thus there was a long time to wait.
Before long we started chatting a bit with the neighboring table, including a friendly guitar repair guy. The host came over to our table around 8:15 and asked which one of us was Mike D.- apparently, the crowd at the Pine Loft is full of regulars and strangers like us stand out. In general, the guitarists playing were very seasoned guitar players who performed some strong originals and a wide variety of excellent covers. Most people seemed to perform in pairs or trios; solo artists were a little less common.
Come 9:15 or so, I took out my guitar to finger through some warm ups in hope that I would soon get a chance at the mic. My guitar quickly attracted a wealth of attention, and with it expectations of a good performance. I did what I could to undermine some of those expectations – still, the crowd purposefully stuck around just to watch the new guy with the flashy guitar play.
I finally got on stage around 10:30. I played my songs and, in general, they went well – I botched some lyrics as well as the first riff of the night, but felt comfortable by the third tune at which point I finally felt like I was playing freely. Shaun took some video and when I can eventually get around to doing some video editing, I might post some of the performance here on the site. The crowd seemed pretty responsive. Afterwards one guy offered me some free recording opportunities, and another recommended some other open mics that I should check out in CT. The best compliment came from a cool bassist guy whose first words to me post performance were: “expectations met.”
I’ll have to learn some more tunes, and perhaps start writing more of my own. I’m excited at such a positive first time experience! Hopefully I can use this as a springboard to meet some new musicians in Connecticut and improve my performing. And maybe Dave and I will even be able to find more players for our Karaoke band! The possibilities are endless!