The last time I went to the Grape Street open mic was May 13th. For some reason I thought Jeremy Hollis was going to be the spotlight artist last night, but it turned out to be John Faye of Ike, who I’ve been meaning to see for a long time. I’ve heard John Shaughnessy cover Faye’s song, “Deathbed,” a few times and now I’ve heard it from the source. Faye has a lot of talent and enough guts to use a phaser pedal in an acoustic act. I also liked Nick Annis who just moved to my old residence. Maybe DC is better these days or maybe I just didn’t know what was going on, but from everything I’ve heard the Philly music scene destroys DC’s. John McManus also played a few good tunes. Someone came up to me and asked if I was the guy with the website who writes all love songs. heh. I played “All My Dreams are in Cartoon” and “The Genius of It All,” and I think I may have been a little out of tune. I tuned my guitar three times before I went up, but I was nursing a string I added 10 minutes before I left and they don’t always want to stay where they’re supposed to.
Manayunk’s best kept secret, or most ignored event, has to be Sound Man Mike’s movie night. Every monday he shows various anime and sci-fi flicks at 8:00PM to a tiny crowd. If you’re into this thing at all you should definitely be there. The movies look awesome and sound even better on Mike’s high end equipment. Last night he showed the Fifth Element and the insane, but very funny, Excel Saga. Excel was so crazy I felt tired after watching it, as if my brain had to run to keep up with everything. Supposedly an even better screen for showing the movies is on the way. Mike said the new screen will reflect 25% more light which is hard to believe after looking at one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen.
As I sat waiting for the open mic to start I read the latest issue of Origivation with Burning Brides on the cover. I’ve had their CD for a while now and it’s pretty good, but after looking at their picture on the cover I’m almost positive I saw the singer at Tom Drinker’s Pub two weeks ago. I should have bought him a $2 PBR.
Comments
6 responses to “Open Mic Recap @ the Grape Street Pub”
Or I coulda bought hima $4 PBR down here.
-Brian
If you have any affection for the genre sometimes called “Power Pop”, you should really pick up the IKE CD. (I could never get enough of Heavy Rock with great melody.)
…I must sound like I’m on JFaye’s payroll by now.
J
That’s ok, I bought a $4 Yeungling at Grape Street on a Monday night.
Wait til ASCAP hears you’ve been covering his songs…
Wait till Courtney Love realizes how much the chord progression in “Artic Snow”‘s verse sounds like Kurt’s “Opinion.”
I don’t know how much you can claim for the chord progression in a song you never got around to really recording. The only version I’ve heard of Opinion is from a radio show where Kurt said he wrote it in the car on the way over.
It is the same progression, though.