Day 82 - June 1st 2009
I woke up this morning with a weird email in my inbox. My boss at World Café Live sent me an email asking me if I’d rather host an open mic at Johnny Brenda’s another club in town. A thousand thoughts run through my head at 8 AM. Why would they think anything like that? Are they firing me? Are they moving Philly Rising to Johnny Brenda’s? Turns out one of the local TV stations is having an internet poll about which venue is the best venue in town World Café Live or Johnny Brenda’s. Someone posing as me wrote ’I wish I was hosting an open mic at Johnny Brenda’s instead of World Café Live.” Not cool. I assured them that I definitely think WCL is the best venue in town.
I got a phone call from Steve from the Absolute Zeros reminding me that I agreed to host his open mic tomorrow, we made arrangements to get my amplifier to the venue without me having to take it via public transit. Hearing from the Bang Camaro crew a little bit more as Rocklahoma approaches. I’d really love to do that if my schedule dictates. It’d be cool to hang out with the boys again.
I left a little later for Philly Rising (Open Mic) than usual but when I got there around 5:30 the line was already to the sound board. Things have finally gotten back to normal around here…lol
I’m often inspired by the things I see at Philly Rising. From Pezzettino from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who sings and plays the accordion, she always stops here when she’s in Philly. Damon Hamilton, who’s grown exponentially since I met him there a year ago (he’s playing one of my HYPE! Shows at World Café Live Thursday) to Wyldlyfe to the Kawabunga Rage Crew. Every week I see musicians that are hungry to get anyone to listen to their music. It keeps me grounded and reminds me of how far I still have to go.
I especially love it when the Divas pay us a visit. We get a lot of aspiring pop princesses/queens/tarts that roll up to the open mic. She walked in entourage in tow at around 7:30 (mind you the line is full at 5:00, sign ups are at 6:30, and the open mic actually starts at 7) she talks to a hostess who points her in my direction. As she suanters over to me she’s focused on getting what she wants, a spot on the list. I turn around as she approaches me at the bar. Pretty girl, pleather tights, classic. She bats her eyes and asks if there’s room, I politely tell her no but she could sign up on the alternate list if she liked (basically we let people sign up and if theres room or time they can get on) she turns up the heat, I am impervious to her charms, she goes away. I’ve spent the majority of my life in show business around beautiful girls (my high school was crawling with them) and most of my female friends are mind-blowingly gorgeous I’m wired a tad different than most men. She made her presence felt the entire night. Yelling “I wanna go up” as often as she could. Almost convincing someone to give up their spot so she could go.
She ended up going at the end of the night (we had some time) she was pretty good. I won’t waste your time with critique, but I will offer this advice to all aspiring performers. Be realistic about your place in the world and realize no matter how good you might be or how famous you get, it doesn’t give you the right to be rude to people. Real pros are personable, even when they make ridiculous demands. The entire time I was with Camaro I never heard a guy at a venue say anything bad about the band. A wise man once said “You can be an asshole if you can play like Miles Davis” and since no one at an open mic (including the guy that’s hosting it) has those kind of chops doing their respective thing people should spend time getting better and being focused.
We picked 2 winners since we’re gonna be gone the next few weeks. They’ll move onto the monthly competition.
I went home and caught Conan’s first Tonight Show. It was pretty funny. After the show was over I hit the sack. Long week ahead. Guitar lessons tomorrow and Open Mic at the Tritone,
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