Open Mic Recap @ the Tree House

The summer is officially over and I know this from the Tree House open mic’s tiny crowd last night. From 8:00 to 10:00 it wasn’t too bad, but from 10:00 – 11:00 there were only 8 people including Rob who works there. Roz, Pat and I still had fun playing to the regulars at the end.

1. Leo – I’ll have to ask Leo if he ever writes any music for classical guitar.

2. Ben Garvey – I played a few times last night, making up for two weeks ago when I didn’t play at all. I started off with “Headstart” and “All My Dreams are in Cartoon.” Later on I added Beck’s “Lord Only Knows,” Todd Snyder’s “I Can Drink Any Woman Pretty,” The Pixies’s “Mr. Grieves”, Gomez’s “Get Miles,” and my own “I’m a Lesbian Trapped in a Man’s Body.” Yeah, it was a weird night.

3. Cynthia – I think she should start using Drop-D tuning.

4. Sairy Allen – The battery on her pickup went dead and instead of having no juice I got a full signal of static on the board even with the gain turned all the way down. I lent her my guitar and hopefully a battery replacement will fix it. I have to admit that I haven’t replaced my battery in forever and I doubt it’s still any good, but my guitar still plays fine.

5. Ray McGeehan – He has a gig there on the 27th of this month. Ray played that sixties song that goes, “Come on people now smile on your brother. Everybody get together try to love one another right now. Come on people now, smile on your brother, Everybody get together, try to love one another right now”

6. Pat Hipp – It would have been cool if Patt ripped into Territorial Pissings right after Ray’s “Get Together,” but instead he played the best cover of Nirvana’s “Opinion” I’ve ever heard, although its not the kind of song you hear between “She Hates Me” and “All the Small Things” at Finnegan’s Wake. Patt’s originals were pretty good, too. I finally got around to listening to the Wawa Protest song on his site, and it consists of him saying “Wawawhy?” overtop guitars and random sounds from cash registers, toilets, etc. The only thing it needs are a few lines mentioning the new gas pumps.

7. Willie Tapps – You missed an extended set by Willie that included some tunes he hasn’t played in a while. I like, “Go on with your Bad Self.” Rumor has it Willie once wrote a song called, “www.fricken.com,” and if that’s true I’d like to hear it.

8. Roz King – He honored my request to play “Folsom Prison Blues” and it reminded me of why I never play the song at the Tree House. Roz’s cover is freaking great.

9. Tony – He stopped by for a little bit to play a couple of songs other than “You Don’t Have to Grow Up to be President.” I still haven’t figured out who wrote that song.

We have to figure out a way to draw more people now that the summer is over. If you have any suggestions, feel free to make them and if you know any musicians, poets, comedians, or performers, tell them about the open mic.