Open Microphone: Part 2
As I mentioned yesterday, we checked out a new open mic last night in Sunnyside, NY. It was a little coffee shop and it wound up being packed which we weren’t expecting. At first it seemed like it was only going to be a few performers but it turned out that everyone is all buddies and crap. It felt a lot like college as the other half of MPF pointed out. Everyone was very nice and supportive for the most part. It’s hard to find situations like this so that was a pleasant surprise. I was reminded of some of the other stereotypes of open mics. Here’s more to add on to the list:
1. “Emo guy” is a frequent open mic spectacle. They generally come in one of two variations. The first being the guy all in black with the hood of his hoodie up who will probably say less than 10 words while up on tha mic. He’ll probably play something by New Found Glory or Fall Out Boy and say, “This is a cover. You probably don’t know it.” But of course at least 75% of the audience does in fact know the song because it’s on POP RADIO. Then he’ll play an original probably about how no one understands him. The second variation usually looks like Rivers Cuomo or Conor Oberst. He’ll probably play two originals that each contain 500 different words. He will talk the lyrics more than sing them and he will probably be borderline yelling at some point to show his emotions…and stuff.
2. Comedians! It still bugs me that you come to open mics when you have your own comedy open mics the night before at the SAME venue. I don’t come down to where you work and slap the rooster out of your mouth! I’m assuming that you comedians work at some sort of slaughterhouse where you hold cocks (I’m talking about roosters) in your mouth as they’re GETTING their heads chopped OFF. If I want to hear a bunch of “what’s the deal with…” and “I find it funny that…” kind of 9th grade humor I’ll go ask my prepubescent cousin to repeat some crap he saw on Comedy Central. And since I’m ranting about comedians, how about we start a no notebook/paper with notes on it rule? You can’t remember 10 minutes worth of words? If you need some middle school kids to teach you memorization techniques let me know. I’m just kidding though. I love comedians especially amateur comedians! Keep up the good work gentlemen and you insecure ladies!
Whew! I’m about spent like a buffalo nickel after that. There was some stuff that resembled cool and a lot of junk in terms of performers. We ran in to issues with the lame sound system and request to play lower than our 7 inch voices so as not to disturb the neighbors. We seem well received though and some people asked for our compact disc. We’ll probably check this place out again in about month and be much better prepared for their limitations.
There's nothing like a blue spotlight to make someone look healthy.
Jackercrap 