The Open Mic Blog

On any given night in this country, people pack up an instrument, a lyric sheet, and a little bit of courage and head out to play in front of an open mic crowd. The idea behind this blog, or maybe it's mission statement if you will, is for me to go out once a week to a different open mic, give you a feel for the place and for the type of musician who's playing there. Heard about an open mic at a new club and wonder if it's any good? I'll see what I can do to give you an answer.


Friday, February 11, 2011

Tempest Lounge, Tacoma

The Tempest Lounge (913 Martin Luther King Jr Way  Tacoma)   is an awesome little bar located in the Tacoma Hill Top area.  They've been having Thursday open mic nights for almost a year now and bring in a pretty eclectic group of musicians.  The have a decent area for the performers and a PA system provided by Maurice the Fish Records who co-sponsors the event.

Kim Archer, who along with her acoustic partner Nick Sandy, has been hosting this open mic since April of 2010.  Music runs from 7 to 10 pm with the signup sheet usually out by 6:30.  Standard three songs per musician but due to fact there were only 8 or 9 performers on the night I was there, they ran through the list twice. 

On this night Kim and Nick didn't stick around for the music as they had a gig somewhere else, so my new friends Kim Walen, Evy Cox and Steven Perez who I met last week at Dirty Oscars Anex's open mic were the nights host.  They're just about the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.  Now they just need to work on a few jokes... 

I thought the best of the night was Peggy Gordon who had some well written songs and a good voice.  She also brought the best cheering section hands down.  

How do I Rate it?

I think it would be hard to beat this open mic on a Thursday night in T-town.  The bar serves some of the best drinks in town and Katie the bartender keeps the orders moving.  They also have a full dinner menu and the under 21 crowd are welcome until 9:30. The music ranged from Mike Couccules who played with a trio of guitar, saxophone and djembe, to your standard folk cover-song fare.

Adding a light or two would be a big improvement so that the musicians aren't just playing in the dark.  This always strikes me as such a cheap fix I'm amazed that more businesses don't do it. The PA system is good, but the addition of a stage monitor would be a big help, it’s just so hard to hear what you’re doing when you’re playing behind the PA speakers.

I did have two people give me their cards which kind of threw me.  I guess I should think about bringing something to pass back so I don't get caught in that awkward somebody-just-handed-you-something-you-should-hand-them-back-something kind of moment that tends to leave me blinking and dazed.  Business cards just seem so...business...and that just seems sort of the opposite of where my head is at at one of these things.   Maybe I should look into getting some picks made with my contact info on them, something someone might find useful later on. Too ostentatious?

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