I don’t know that we’ve ever had an open mic turn around so dramatically on us… and I mean that in a good way.
We arrived at Ham’s Restaurant and Brewery at around 9pm in the hopes of signing up early with Someone’s Sister and heading back for an early night. Heather’s still working her way through the tail-end of her cold, and we’d just as soon keep taking it easy. Unfortunately, we arrive to find the list mostly full, and we land ourselves a position that will get us on stage around 12.30am.
I try to remain optimistic, but in the face of the first act… This guy comes up to me and asks if I’m wearing a Motley Crue t-shirt. I respond “not Motley Crue… Muppets”. I don’t know that this guy would’ve known a Muppet if it bit him in the ass (as they are wont to do) but he continued on his quest for knowledge and asked the dreaded question “what kind of music do you play?” I tried to explain, handed him a postcard and he responded with “Oh, so you’re gonna play all in key an shit?” He’d met his compatriot in sound earlier in the week and this was going to be their first experiment together as “Just a Test”.
And so the night began. I didn’t have much faith in my environment – and though Just a Test was pretty cool (what with their grungry rock cover of Brittney Spears’ ‘Toxic’) they were also pretty loud and through that gleaned the great displeasure of the host, Travis.
And so the night wore on. Crappy food, loud audience – I went back to Georgia’s house (of Someone’s Sister – where we were staying) and snagged her Scrabble game, and Heather and I played three games over the course of the next several hours. High points included a particular woman’s tanktop and another guy named Rob (he and the host performed a couple of really nice covers including “New York State of Mind” and some Crowded House on piano and guitar) and a really strong vocalist who reminded me of some creature out of a vampire novel with ripped jeans and suit jacket and waistcoat. He performed a flawless rendition of Shinedown’s (?) cover of “Simple Kind of Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
God, I’m losing all my cred because I don’t think I’m spelling Lynyrd Skynyrd right.
Is it okay that I mention tank tops? I’m not a lech… I just like nice visuals, and up till then one of the only high points had been me opening a game with “Barf”. An inauspicious opening move that nonetheless gleaned me 18 points. I didn’t feel right about that for the rest of the night.
Anywho – original music was sorely lacking through out the night, and I was of the fear that we would be too different for anyone’s tastes, and Heather was of the faith that since we were different we’d blow their minds.
Heather won that one. We had an awesome night, with people shouting for more tunes by the time we were done. We made a lot of connections and all in all probably were right to spend that extra night in Greenville.
Oh – and probably one of the more important aspects of the night, Rob and Travis both were “professional musicians” with Rob supporting himself (and hoping to do better) and Travis making 6 digits and driving a big shiny red truck that even Heather’s father would respect.
There’s hope.
Heh… if we learn covers. Sigh.
Got back, tired and smelling of smoke, tossed and turned my way in to a dreamless sleep – which was fortunate (see the Quotes Page)…
Ok – back to updating the Musician Resources Pages.
