Open Mic Recap @ The Tree House

Happy Halloween! Wednesday was another busy night at the Tree House open mic. A few new performers came out as well.

1. Ben Garvey – I played with a bongo player for the first time in my life. John Shaughnessy brought his bongos and played along to “I Hope I Die on the Moon,” “All my Dreams are in Cartoon,” and “The Genius of it All.” Later on I played “99%,” John Prine’s “That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round,” and “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees, but sans bongos.

2. John Shaughessy – I liked my joke about John being lucky he came out of each farmer’s market gig unscathed. He covered John Faye’s “Deathbed” which sounds perfect for John’s voice.

3. The Forest Greens – Eri confused me during their first song by switching from violin to guitar pretty quickly. Somehow it looked as though violin and guitar were coming through on the same channel, which doesn’t make sense. They sounded good though and even brought a few fans with them. Thanks goes out to the girl who helped me untie the mic chord!

4. The MDs – Bowie’s “Major Tom” Space Oddity got a nice treatment from the MDs. Of course, the first time I heard the song I thought Bowie was singing, “Ground Control to Major Tongue,” which makes almost no sense.

5. Bob Michel – I think this guy is winning fans each week.

6. Sarah Allen – A mellower night for her, but still great.

7. tomjohn – I half expected this guy to start telling me about how I could get free money from the government to start my own business like that guy with all the dollar signs on his coat. I liked his song about the movie theater closing and a pharmacy opening up in its place right across the street from another pharmacy. There are a lot of freaking drugstores these days! Also, I miss the old Eric Theater that used to be on Cuthbert. I saw the Shawshank Redemption there for $1.50.

8. Haiku Riders – Their 2nd time out and I think I got configured their setup a little better this time.

9. Transitions, featuring C-Lovett and Akademics – I’m not sure but this may have been the first hip hop act since I started hosting. These guys from Camden expressed their politics and social concern through rap.

10. The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers – I’d describe these guys as two trucker hat wearing, soul selling, acoustic rocking, anti-folk musicians.

11. Entheos – Following the Crawlspace Brother’s song about Satan came Tina, Randy, and Jarod’s Christian set. It’s good to balance things out. Tina’s voice sounded awesome.

12. Chris – Sorry Chris, I can’t read your last name on the sign up sheet. Hopefully you can still hook me up at Starbucks in Cherry Hill. Chris improvises his songs on stage, but hopefully he’ll sing louder so we can hear his improvised lyrics better.