Open Mic Recap @ The Tree House

I’m going out of town this weekend, so I better get this recap up fast. I thought the night was going to be slow, since few people signed up ahead of time and a lot of the regulars (Sarah, Jason, Forest Greens, etc.) weren’t signed up. I ended up having a great time, even though I was the only one who did a Talking Heads cover. I think we may need to set a number at how many different Talking Heads covers are playing until we switch to next month’s winner. So far there have been just two and I think if we get 6-8 covers that should be enough for the first try at this thing. Talking Heads was a tough band for the initial trial of this thing, but hopefully it will be fun.

1. Ben Garvey – I played too many songs to name them all. I did a 5 or 6 song set at the end of the night and the people hanging out at the Tree House seemed to be into it. My cover of the Talking Heads’ “And She Was” wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be for having spent only a day or two on it. I’ll try it again next week.

2. Bob Michel – He helped me out by playing early on. He made a joke about his dog eating his Talking Heads cover, so I’ll have to deduct one letter grade.

3. Eric Schank (Schenk?) – A guy from Vorhees who did some interesting acoustic rock. He couldn’t describe his music, but I’d say he sounds like Jack Johnson a little bit.

4. Brian Evans – It’s a good thing Roz hadn’t shown up during Brian’s cover of “In Your Eyes.” Roz has been known to terrorize In Your Eyesers. Brian sounded good though.

5. Johnny Miles – Johnny comes around every few months and kicks ass every time. He’s just great. He’s playing at the Collingswood Farmer’s market on Saturday morning.

6. John and Dan – Still no band name for John and Dan. Here are some suggestions… The Frets, JD Power and Associates, The Anvil Dodgers, The Forest Blues, etc. They played a few country blues songs tonight

7. John Shaughnessy – John did his “Cigarettes wil Kill You” song and the eternal crowd favorite, a Britney Spears medly. He’ll be playing the Collingswood May Fair on May 29th.

8. Pat Hipp aka Kilpatrick – His voice is so freaking loud. I think it might be louder than Roz’s. He playing a Cursive song and a pretty good version of Nirvana’s Polly. He finally caved and brought back the acoustic Thong Song, too.

9. Roz King – He’s playing Saturday night at the Court House Tavern in Mt. Holly. He borrowed my guitar tonight after failing to get Pat’s guitar into a playable condition.

10. Jarrod Schafer – Thankfully he was bluffing when he threatened to play some Hootie and the Blowfish. Instead he played that Refreshments song, “Banditos” and “Running Down the Dream” by Tom Petty. Supposedly he’s going to learn a David Byrne song for next week.

11. No Joy in Mudville – I checked out their website before the open mic and realized one of the guys probably lived about a mile from the house whereI grew up. Josh was a few years younger than me, but his brother Chris was in my grade. I didn’t expect to see Mark Simone there hanging out, who I can’t even remember the last time I saw. I used to be great friends with his older brother Matt way back in elementary school. Josh and Kevin were awesome, especially with their cover of Tenacious D’s “Tribute.” I was super impressed and I think Tina is probably going to try and book them at the Tree House for a gig.