August 2002 – bengarvey.com

I Saw BB King @ The Mann

Last night I caught BB King at the Mann Music Center. Like most people I’m not a huge BB King fan, but I respect his talent and career immensely. He’s 76 years old and can’t play forever, so I decided to check him out and it was well worth it. The weather was horrible, but luckily they don’t check your tickets at the Mann. At first we sat up in the balcony and the sound was awful, but I was blown away when we finally moved downstairs. BB King and his band are great showmen and awesome musicians.

My web host, ipowerweb.com, has great statistics that give me information on how people find and use this site. If someone types something into a search engine like Google or AllTheWeb and visits my website then I can tell what search terms were used. Typical ones are “open mic in philadelphia area” and “open mic night coffee house collingswood nj.”

Listen to this one: “went to a nudist party tonight and had a great time seeing ever” My website is the 2nd result if you search for this text on Google and I think what pushes me over the top is one of my Deep Thought quotes in the top right corner about sitting on Santa’s lap in nudist colonies. I also saw two people came in searching for information about the new Collingswood restuarant, Tortilla Press. I read my old comments about it and I realize I was a little harsh. My food has always been terrific there and I can’t wait to go back again. The Tortilla Press is awesome!

Open Mic Recap @ The Living Room

This is actually a recap of last Monday’s open mic at the Living Room in Collingswood. I was late in getting there, so I missed Broken Bones, the featured artists this week. Many of the regular performers were sick or at least pretended to be, but you couldn’t tell from the performances. Jason, Adrien, Willie and the guy Greg sounded great. The standout performance was definitely Cathy’s. I’ve heard her play a few times and she definitely played at a higher level than usual on Monday. She sounded terrific. She’s headed off to college, but I’m sure she’ll be around as long as the Living Room doesn’t go out of business while she’s gone (that’s what happened to all the places I played in high school).

It Rained at the Unlimited Sunshine Concert

The Unlimited Sunshine concert rocked last night at the Mann. Modest Mouse, Cake, De La Soul and the Flaming Lips put on a great show and although I liked everyone I think the Flaming Lips impressed me the most. They came out wearing rabbit and frog suits and showed movie clips during their songs. Using their TV appearences the Lips showed Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart introducing them on their respective shows (Stewart’s being his old MTV show, not his current Comedy Central show, but not his really really old show Short Attention Span Theater that no one remembers anymore).
Cake played really well, too and I liked hearing a few songs from their only album I own, Motorcade of Generosity, even if they didn’t play any of my three favorite songs from that album (Rock and Roll Lifestyle, I Bombed Korea, and Jolene).

The oddest thing about the whole show as how quiet the music was. For the first time in my life I came home from a concert wishing the music had been louder. I had no problem carrying on a conversation with anyone around me. I’m going to see BB King there next week so I’ll see if it’s the standard practice for the Mann.

Who cares if it rained? No one at the Mann enforces seating restrictions.

How I Would Run an Open Mic

I’ve played at dozens of open mics and I’ve seen the good, the bad, the dead, the crowded, the annoying, etc. There are a few things the host should always do when hosting an open mic.

The sign up sheet should be available well before the show starts. Ideally the open mic has an Internet sign up, but I understand why venues want the people to come out in person.
The host should always be on time (20-30 minutes before the advertised start time). This prevents anything from slowing down the start of the night.
The host should play no more than the other performers and should either go on first, last, or not at all. When the host treats the open mic as a weekly gig, don’t be surprised if people don’t show up to do his sound check.
The host should make sure performers know when they are going on. Many hosts do not do this enough and it creates a show where you hear a lot of tuning and stage preperation. This also includes the host asking what the performer needs (sitting or standing? Does his guitar plug in or need to be miked?).
The host should make sure the performers know how long they can play. I have been to open mics where they would have limited Bob Dylan to two songs but let your average teenager playing Indigo Girls covers railroad the host into playing three.
The host should encourage the crowd to support the performers. Jason Wheatley @ the Living Room does this better than any host I’ve ever seen.

If a host follows these rules and the venue has a decent sound system the open mic will be a success. Is that enough? I think the open mic format can go beyond its typical form into something more interesting. One thing I have never seen at an open mic is a theme, although I’ve heard the Point does a Bob Dylan night on his birthday. I think it would be fun if the host said, “Next week let’s all play songs with the word ‘death’ in the title” or “Blues songs.” They’d always be optional, but how would you encourage people to participate? I would bring a large notebook with me to each open mic and write down the name of any performer who hadn’t played there before. Each time they came back another night I’d put a star next to their name. If they participate in the theme they get an extra star. “What the hell good is a star,” you ask?

3 stars and I’ll post a link to your site from the open mic’s webpage (oh yes, we have one of these with lists of who played each night).
15 stars and I’ll sign up you early so you don’t have to come down, but you may get put in any spot on the list.
25 stars and I’ll sign you up early on the list wherever you want.
50 stars and you get invited to play at some sort of “Open Mic Regulars” gig.
100 stars and you some sort of status when introduced. It could be “Legendary”, “Notorious”, “Infamous”, “Critically Acclaimed”, etc.

There are obviously tons of things you could do with this idea. If you sign up early and don’t show up, I’d have to take away some or all of you stars since that is the ultimate in rude open mic behavior. I’d also give bonus stars to anyone who covers another regular artist at the open mic. Maybe I’ve give a bonus to the artist being covered, too, since she wrote such a good song.

Maybe this star idea is lame, but that’s how I would do it.

I’ve played at dozens of open mics and I’ve seen the good, the bad, the dead, the crowded, the annoying, etc. There are a few things the host should always do when hosting an open mic.

The sign up sheet should be available well before the show starts. Ideally the open mic has an Internet sign up, but I understand why venues want the people to come out in person.
The host should always be on time (20-30 minutes before the advertised start time). This prevents anything from slowing down the start of the night.
The host should play no more than the other performers and should either go on first, last, or not at all. When the host treats the open mic as a weekly gig, don’t be surprised if people don’t show up to do his sound check.
The host should make sure performers know when they are going on. Many hosts do not do this enough and it creates a show where you hear a lot of tuning and stage preperation. This also includes the host asking what the performer needs (sitting or standing? Does his guitar plug in or need to be miked?).
The host should make sure the performers know how long they can play. I have been to open mics where they would have limited Bob Dylan to two songs but let your average teenager playing Indigo Girls covers railroad the host into playing three.
The host should encourage the crowd to support the performers. Jason Wheatley @ the Living Room does this better than any host I’ve ever seen.

3 stars and I’ll post a link to your site from the open mic’s webpage (oh yes, we have one of these with lists of who played each night).
15 stars and I’ll sign up you early so you don’t have to come down, but you may get put in any spot on the list.
25 stars and I’ll sign you up early on the list wherever you want.
50 stars and you get invited to play at some sort of “Open Mic Regulars” gig.
100 stars and you some sort of status when introduced. It could be “Legendary”, “Notorious”, “Infamous”, “Critically Acclaimed”, etc.

Maybe this star idea is lame, but that’s how I would do it.

Open Mic Recap @ The Living Room

The Living Room has a great mix of regular performers these days, although I’d like to see someone new once and a while. The inbreeding is getting a little rampant and I think someone needs to come in and throw something new into the show. I think my favorite point of the night was when four youngish teenagers came in wearing sunglasses at 9:30PM. I thought to myself, “These guys need to start a band and call themselves the Fishstick Overlords. That would be great.”

I saw Girl Upstairs for the 2nd time last night and they seemed a lot more solid. I loved their last song and hope it was an original. Somewhere along the way Maria has gone from a quiet performer to someone I wait to hear play/speak every night. I like hearing people get better over time. Roz King, Mike Scanlon, and Keith Lewis’s new band “W Bench” did some great stuff although the keyboard was really drowned out. James Collins played some great covers, but I’d really like to hear what this guy’s own material sounds like. Jack Sparks did a couple of covers as well, including “Hey Jealousy” by the Gin Blossoms. I can’t stand the song, but it reminded me of when I saw them at the Y-100 Feztival years ago. They were horrible live and I think Jack did their song better than they did. Willie Tapps has a show this Saturday at the Living Room (8:30 – 11:00PM). Adrien and Cathy are opening up for him and I assume playing during his break. I won’t be able to make it, but it should be a good show.

I played “Thesis” and “Why Now Satan?” And honestly, Why now?

Open Mic Recap @ the GSP

The GSP open mic hasn’t been this good in a long time. Adrien drove up with me to Grape Street for the first time and she sounded amazing as usual. Jeremy Hollis’s song about making out with “two chicks at one time” had a great vibe to go along with the material. Leroy Montana must be seen to be believed. Take Dennis Leary, raise him by wolves, and lock him in a barn until he can play guitar. That’s Leroy Montana. The night’s featured artist Mutlu did a great Prince cover along with his G-Loveish originals. He’s so easy to listen to. Heather G did a couple of really interesting songs with her drum machine backing her up. Honestly, there were so many good performers I nearly stayed the whole time. If you weren’t there you missed out on a great night.

I played “I Hope I Die on the Moon” and “All My Dreams are in Cartoon.” If getting in late wasn’t tough enough on my night’s sleep the noise my air conditioner started making certainly was. In the middle of the night I found myself pounding on it before eventually shutting it off. It has since been fixed so I anticipate some uninterrupted sleep tonight.

Beck, Strange Caves, and Where I’ll Be Tonight

I missed a Beck show the other night because I didn’t hear about it in time. I have been kicking myself ever since I missed him at the Troc in 1996 (I was visiting Syracuse University at the time). Fear not because I will be going to the Unlimited Sunshine concert on Thursday with Cake, the Flaming Lips, De La Soul, Modest Mouse, and more. That should be a awesome show.

My girlfriend and I went for hike in Wissahickon and we stumbled across the cave of Johanes Kelpius, a famous hermit from the 1600’s. It was really spooky and if I would have died if someone jumped out of it wearing a wolfman mask.

I’m probably heading to the Grape Street open mic tonight.

Open Mic Recap @ The Living Room

I was the featured artist yesterday at the Living Room’s open mic and overall the show went pretty well. My sound was a little screwy at times, but that happens. I played a new song called “DRM Sucks” about how Digital Rights Management could possibly invade our privacy and limit our freedoms, but unfortunately the only thing that sucked was the song itself. Poor sound, crappy songs: Sounds like a great gig so far doesn’t it? The rest of my set was fine, although I was sweating like a filthy animal up there in the 100 degree weather. My set list was as follows:

“The Genius of it All”
“I Hope I Die on the Moon”
“Why Now Satan?”
“DRM Sucks”
“All My Dreams are in Cartoon”
“16-18”
“The Cut in Half Blues” by Beck
“Get Miles” by Gomez

Great performances were put on by Keith, Roz, Jason, Willie, Maria, Matt and of course, Adrien, who ripped out an amazing cover of “Walk Like an Egyptian” in the honor of her fourteen year old Bangles t-shirt. Matt took about 2 hours to tune his guitar up there, but I always like his stuff so I didn’t mind.

What’s up with the guy who always comes in wearing those tiny grey cut off sweat pants shorts that are beyond tight? He semi-heckles the performers and distracts people with his package practically busting through his shorts.

I don’t have any more gigs lined up, but that’s ok with me for now. I got a little burned out promoting the last one and I think I’m going to try and write a ton of songs. I should be able to get at least a one worth playing.

Thanks for Coming Out

Thanks to everyone who came out last night. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. Once again they booked four bands downstairs cutting me off a little early, so for the first time in a while I didn’t play “The Genius of it All” and a few other originals. Next time I’ll have to space my set out a little more. I killed a lot of time buying shots and drinks, too. Jake got some pictures and videos of the night, so I’ll post them up here sometime soon.

Just a reminder about Monday: I’m going to be the featured artist at the Living Room’s open mic at 8:00 – 8:30PM. The Living Room is on the corner of Haddon and Collings Ave. and has been getting some great performers lately. Since it’s a coffee house it’s open for all ages, too. See you there.

Open Mic Recap @ The Living Room

Adrian is so far above everyone at the Living Room (or almost anywhere else) that it’s almost embarrassing. I had to follow her tonight and even I would have rather seen her play another song. A ton of other great performers came out tonight, too(Keith, Roz, Maria, Willie, Lee and great keyboard player named Alan).

I played “Why Now Satan” and “Get Miles” by Gomez and it seemed to go over very well. The Living Room is definitely one of the most supportive venues I know and I think that’s why I like it so much.

I noticed a flyer on the wall promoting a music and arts festival and Roz King was one of the performers. They listed him as “grizzly, woodsy folk” and I found that pretty entertaining.