Open mike stories! Yeah, I've got a few. I started attending the Side Door Coffeehouse in 1994. I became a member, organizer, and partner in it around 1996. that is a story in and of itself. If you aren't cautious these things will suck you in and consume you.Early on we couldn't get much in the way of performers. quite often it would be up to me, my girlfriend and one or two others to carry the burden. Over the years we grew into one of the finest coffeehouses around.
Last year my girlfriend and I broke up and she kept the coffeehouse. I found that losing her and the coffeehouse was too much so I started my own in a neighboring town. The Mocha Cafe is now where we were with the Side Door back in 1994. I hope it will grow.
The format for both is the same. There is an open mike followed by a featured performer. At the Side Door the hard and fast rule is that the featured performer must have played the open mike. They only broke that rule once and that was when Gordon Bok was the feature.
Mocha is more relaxed. I would like to draw my featured performers from the open mike but I don't want to close the doors on anyone.
Stories... There is always a problem with time. We give the performmers 8 minutes or two songs. If the performers are quick then you can hear up to 10 people before the break. If they all sing long songs or take too long to set up then you may only get 8 people up there. There is at least one person in town who is still mad at us because we didn't enforce the 8 minute rule and he ended up missing his chance. I guess he figured we shuld have a big hook and we should yank people off of the stage at the 8 minute mark.
Another time we had a bunch of high school kids show up with a drum set and electric bass. We let them set up to go first so we didn't have to worry about setup AND tear down during that crucial time slot. They called themselves Pod V and played a very passable jazz. Their trademark was the sax player who wore two saxes, tenor and baritone, around his neck and played them both in a song, one at a time, switching them as the mood moved him.
Then there was the time I got to the coffeehouse to find an entire rock band setting up on the stage with amps, cords, electric guitars, drums, a keyboard, bass guitar, mikes, etc. I explained they would only get two songs and that they would have to connect through my board rather than use their own sound system. I also explained that the room is very "live" and didn't need much sound to drive it. They explained that they were a quiet band. Well, they were neither quiet or good. And when they were done they packed up and left. They did not hang around to enjoy the other performers nor did they do anything else to support the coffeehouse.
Outnumbering the negative stories are the ones where someone climbs on to the stage, nervous, knees knocking together, and then proceeds to play or sing something that just slays the audience. Or the little kids who get up there to play their recorde or flute. At times like that the audience leans into the piece and becomes part of it. You can hear a pin drop and when the kid finishes the crowd erupts in cheers and applause.
One night three women met at the coffeehouse and began to talk in earnest. Then they went outside. They came back in and signed up to sing a song together and that was the beginning of Other Voices. They sang in such beautiful harmonies and with such haunting ethreal quality that we hired them on the spot for a featured position.
One night there was a chorus of women, with stong feminist songs and ATTITUDE. The audience was full of women who sat together holding hands with tears in their eyes. Then at the end one of the audience members announced that a good friend of a majority of the group had been burned out of her home by an accidental house fire and that her pet had been killed in the blaze. That night I witnessed the largest group hug I have ever seen. Unfortunately I felt very excluded. It was probably my imagination.
I love it. I sit there at the sound board each month, look at how much the people are enjoying the show and it makes me feel all warm and good. If you don't go to open mikes on a regular basis you should have your heads examined. If you do go, and the experience is bad, then you should start your own.
Whew, I could go on but I have to go fix the dryer so I can get some laundry done.