Two open mikes in one night

Two great open mikes, two 20 minute+ sets, and two pretty good crowds made for a fun evening.

Ragtime is a sports bar in Arlington with a pretty simple setup. One mike, one monitor, two PA speakers. Works fine, sounds good, and incredible talent. The host before me and the guy after me were both real acoustic rockers, doing all sorts of funky hand-muting, interesting, quick-changing chord shapes all over the neck, and were great singers to boot. I was outclassed severely, but I played well for me and had a good time doing a pretty long set:

Brown Eyed Girl
The Bridge (one of mine)
Two Coins (by Dispatch)
Sweet Child O' Mine (messed up the intro, as expected, and treble notes were hard to make out)
The Weight

Then I went on over to Ireland's Four Courts (where I went a week ago, incredible PA system (although the mixer couldn't do the eq I needed. A belt-clip preamp--there's another piece of gear I relish the thought of buying myself once I'm good enough to merit it)), and played a ridiculously long set (the advantage of being second to last), which went swimmingly:

Brown Eyed Girl
Wish You Were Here
Blackbird
Friday (one of mine)
All Along the Watchtower
Yesterday (Problem: I sang it in F#. Forgot I was down-tuned only a half step. Note self: never try to sing a song higher than Paul McCartney does)
Two Coins
The Weight
Rocky Raccoon

Brown Eyed girl finally clicked tonight. It's a very good opening number because it's instantly recognizable and everyone knows it. If you're lucky, it can even be a sing along on the sha-la-las (although that's much more likely in a coffee house than a bar, unless the bar patrons are quite drunk and quite friendly). I like my arrangement, which is just strumming whenever there's singing going on, and interesting (but easy stuff) when there isn't. Watch for it on ESD. I can't sing like Van Morrison, but I can get a very enthusiastic groove going, complete with occasional half-speech-half-singing, rather than just singing the tune straight.

It was really gratifying to be back at the same open mike, to be a bit more comfortable and to really just sing. The guitar was mostly autopilot for that second set, and I felt I was really interpreting the songs. I also got to look out at the audience and see smiles, which was great. I can't imagine what it's like to play a solo concert, to watch people out in the audience who came out there to see YOU. I don't think I'll ever make it that far (or try, for that matter), but the rush must be incredible.

Goals for open mikes in the future: learn more uptempo/happy songs to split up my mournful numbers (maybe even write one), polish fills and solos so that I can be musical instead of itching to get back to strumming the verse, figure out what to say between songs and how to interact with an audience, make the endings of my songs more clear.

Eventually, I'll stop posting every open mike success story here, but if you are interested in performing eventually and can play and sing three songs pretty well, start playing out as soon as you feel remotely comfortable with it. I could have started a year ago, enjoyed myself, and been a much better performer today, so don't wait to "get good" before you start playing out. Starting in coffee houses or book stores is probably a better bet than bars, since the talent at the former seems to be a bit more spread out, and people are more supportive (really small places may not even require amplification, which is a plus; I was very bewildered the first time I plugged and sang into a PA).

Now I can tell all my friends I had an awesome night bar hopping, and then confuse them by telling them I didn't drink, meet girls, or talk to anyone.