Open Mic Night (And a Night on the Town with Jenny!!)

Well, originally I was planning to write a post entitled "On Death and Dentistry." With a title like that I'm sure you wish you could read it, but trust me, this post will be WAY better.

For those of you who don't know my brother and sister have been involved in a homeschooling co-op called Lighthouse and as part of that were involved in a performance of Willy Wonka Jr., a musical type thing featuring most of the music from the first Willy Wonka movie but with the book-faithfulness of the second movie. Elizabeth was Mrs. Gloop and Peter was James, one of the kids in the candy store with the candy man. All that awesomeness aside, it is through this performance that I found out about open mic.

The performance took place in the Union St. Brick Church, a Christian forsaken old church that has been converted into a public place of awesome, housing plays and....AN OPEN MIC NIGHT!

As we pulled up to the old brick church we saw a group of...teenagers? College kids?...standing outside smoking. Their dark clothing, psuedo-rasta hair, piercings, tattoos, and slightly reddened eyes told me that I was definitely at an open mic. One guy in a black shirt and trucker hat covering his matted hair lifted his shirt and scratched his belly as he walked in.

After dropping $4 into the donation box Jenny and I found seats in the second to back row and chatted a little until the first act was ready.

A black guy in tight bleached jeans and a blue T-shirt that said Newport Beach in fading letters got behind the mic and grabbed his guitar. He began to strum with a sort of alternative rock feel and sang just far enough away from the mic that I couldn't make out what he was saying. Despite the overly loud guitar and the nearly a mumble singing I really enjoyed just getting into the feel of an open mic.

As he played I looked around the room and took notes in my pocket-sized black notebook so that I could write about it all later. The stage was set up with fake potted trees shrouding the giant concert speakers. Our trucker-hatted friend with the itchy belly sat on the floor in the back tweeking out a little, shaking and rocking back and forth, his mouth convulsing into odd shapes. I was amazed by the diversity in the audience. A guy with a receding hairline and a tight, white ponytail sat with a chihuahua in his lap. Behind me and Jenny fuckin' was said every other word by some twenty something guy talking to three middle-school boys. The hosts, a late twenties guy with glasses and a cute daughter on his shoulders and a forty-something guy with a pony tail, wore the left over oompa loompa wigs from the Willy Wonka production.

Next up was Jules (I want to spell it "Jewels") Davis, an apparent veteran of the open mic, a girl with a guitar and a nice smile. Jenny aptly pointed out that if I weren't engaged I would have probably hit on her. Both the hosts were flirting with her as they gave her an epic introduction. Jules explained that both of the songs she sang were new ones and that the first, "There's a War Coming," was inspired by the idea of a wolf howling at the moon. The second song was an excellent song about gender relations and began "I say the sky is pink, you say it's blue..." with a chorus of "When we fight, it doesn't feel right, we can't see each others side..." Ms. Davis was probably the greatest talent we saw last night as she had a strong voice, entrancing lyrics, and a good stage presence. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance.

The rest of the night went on in this fashion. A girl got up with her guitar and did covers of "What's up!" by 4 Non Blondes and "Don't trust me" by 3OH!3 while the crowd rocked out and sang along and nobody got high-horse offended as we sang "Don't trust a ho,/Never trust a ho,/Won't trust a ho,/Won't trust me." It was awesome.

The two most surprising performers were a girl fresh from her high school graduation, complete with cap and gown, and the guy in the trucker hat. The girl sang a song from Phantom of the Opera and then jumped off her stool and sang something from Rent while doing that dropping to the floor sexy pole-dance esque thing that people do. I don't know what it's called and that description makes me sound very lame. I obviously don't dance much. Our friend from the back got up on stage with his guitar and was introduced as Henry Wildflower! When he announced that he would only be doing one song one of the hosts jumped up and said that we (the audience) were clearly being shortchanged by only getting one song. Mr. Wildflower's pitch was slightly off and his words were a little slurred but his guitar was steady and the crowd seemed to love him and he left the stage amidst cheers and applause.

Then, finally, a poet! I was extremely excited when a guy got up and read 2 poems. The poems were okay. I wish he had spoken a little louder because I couldn't hear too well. The reason I was so excited is because I was so interested in an open mic because of the possibility of reading some of my own stuff. I have been part of a writers' circle for a while now with some of my best friends at Houghton and now that I'm more comfortable sharing my poetry I'd really like to. Especially because one of the poems I shared at the writers' circle was considered "kind of like slam poetry," which made me feel really cool and want to perform it someday. Maybe I will...It was an open mic!

(For those of you curious about slam poetry, check out this video. This is a really powerful example. I'm not sure I'm quite that good, she's pretty excellent.)


This is my dream life minus the beanbag bed. Open mic nights and hanging out with my fiance. Oh, and it gets better...

Guess who was playing the Bangor Waterfront last night? <---- Ray Lamontagne! Guess who listened in for free? Jenny and I! The way the waterfront concerts are set up it is super easy for anybody to just chill out in the park next to the stage and listen in for free, which is, of course, exactly what Jenny and I did! With the romantic backdrop of Ray crooning Jenny and I sat and talked and generally had a really nice night. After sitting for a little while Jenny and I went for a walk by the waterfront and listened to the concert echoing off the water. It was a great night.

Bangor really is one of the best cities ever.