So this week I “rediscovered” the joys of performing at open mic nights. Back in my grad school days, solo open mic performance was one of my favourite leisure activities. Since moving to Vancouver, it has been a much more rare occasion to see me perform without the aid of my band-mates (even before Even Handed Odds formed, Stu and I used to hold down open mics as a duo). In an effort to boost the band, however, I went to a open mic this past Monday and was once again bitten by the bug. While I definitely prefer to play music with other people, there really is something about being up on that stage by yourself.
Anyway, this Wednesday I picked up my guitar and tromped to a local spot that does open mic. I had a buddy there, who filmed this song for me:
I was a little rusty – I’ll probably take a run at this again sometime. Once again, apologies for the sound quality. Here’s the original if you’ve been trapped under a rock for the past 15 or so years and haven’t heard it. Also, one of the greatest music videos of all time:
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That was awesome! Now do Jay Kay’s dance, please.
It was almost like you knew what you were doing.
Ah yes. Nostalgia trip back to the ’90s.
Jamiroquai was great, but so were Squeeze. “Hourglass” also has some interesting visual trickery.
That song always reminded me of a Stevie Wonder tune, or like the writers were very influenced by Stevie.
When I first moved to SF I went to and eventually ran, a couple of open mikes and club showcases of acts culled from the open mikes. It was mostly a blast, but I tell ya something, if I ran THIS open mike, I’d be making the loudmouth audience STFU a lil’ bit.
It’s hard enough to get up & do your 3 minutes/two songs/two poems or whatever, without having to FIGHT thru the noise of drunken chatter. Luckily, the club where we did our thing had several rooms & bars so we could chase out the noisy folks.
Good fun!