"Open mikes tend to be noisy and fleeting."

Our club meets every Friday night and it is a lively pub session but doesn't really get going until 10pm to 10:30pm once the dining is finished. Several years back we started an earlier open mic at a different venue on the same evening which runs from about 8Pm to 10pm. Some go mainly to the earlier event, some to the later, and a few of us go to both. I find the open mic is better for doing my own songs because it is less noisy and people are there to listen. The pub session tends to be more songs the audience knows and the other performers can easily play along with and tends to be material that can cut through the background noise