Open Mic Recap @ The Tree House

First of all, I want to say that this week was a lot of fun for me. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly and the night was filled with diverse, interesting performers.

Second, I want to highly recommend you all to buy some food at the Tree House. I’ve always kind of liked their food back in the Living Room days, but now they’re sandwhiches are what I like to call, “super-delicious.” On Saturday I ate a spinach wrap with chicken, swiss cheese, spicy mustard and lettuce, and then Nicole toasted it in their grill. Feel free to add bacon like I did the first time I tried this sandwhich the week before. I don’t think I’ve had a better wrap in my life. Jarrod claims the sausage, egg, and cheese on croissant is the best sandwhich he’s ever had in his life. They’re serving up life-changing sandwhiches folks, and if you don’t try one you are missing out. And no, the Tree House didn’t pay me to say all this and I have no ulterior motives other than I like to see good work recognized.

1. Ben Garvey – I played a bunch of songs, including “99%,” “The Genius of it All,” and “All My Dreams are in Cartoon.”

2. The White Witch aka Joe – Belted out 2 Megadeath covers, which was maybe a little too much for 7:45PM.

3. Johnny Miles – This guy came out once before. He’s got a great rythmic style and hopefully he’ll be back again. Johnny has a CD coming out soon, too.

4. James Cuartero – James did a few acoustic songs that I really enjoyed.

5. Jason Vertucio – I really liked the Beatles cover.

6. The Forest Greens + Sarah Allen – Eric couldn’t make it, but Sarah stepped in on guitar and the Forest Greens played some great Celtic music.

7. Jenn Kutney – She did a decent cover of Spark, by Tori Amos.

8. Sarah Allen – Played some great tunes on the piano.

9. Matt Winn – According to Matt it was a Sterling High School reunion for him at the open mic. He put on a great performance as always.

10. Bob Michel – Another solid set by Bob Michel.

11. Luna Theater Company – The highlight of the night! They did a 10 minute Shel Silverstein play about a park bench, a small box, and the struggle between blind and informed authority.

12. Kilpatrick – I didn’t get a chance to ask Pat who wrote the first song he played. It was freaking awesome. I can’t remember any of the lines or even the tune, but I remember thinking to myself, “wow this sounds really good.”

13. John Shaughnessy – John came out to promote his show and play some songs. Sadly, my mind is drawing a blank on what he played.

14. John Quinlan – The slower song that John usually does is kind of interesting.

15. Chris Ward – He’s a great guitarist and on top of that he can sing, too. You don’t need much more.

16. George Hillman – George busted out a Travis song this week.

17. John and Dan – John Brennan is surprisingly good on the slide guitar. They should be covering “Death Letter”, an old blues song by Son House that the White Stripes do.

18. Jarrod – He’s been hosting an open mic at some restaurant in Woodbury on Tuesday nights. If I had more information I’d give it out.

19. Roz King – He spited Rob by playing Rob’s anti-request.