Open Mic Hosts

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Comment by Rusty Winz on April 18, 2010 at 11:10pm

Heheheh....That's the other good thing about living in the big city.....never a dull moment. :) I do tend to shy away from strip joints and drug dens though. (La Bare being notoriously both) They tend to attract the kind of problems you mentioned. I've been here for 26 years and have never had a run in with anyone, which is more than I can say about other states/cities I've lived. I did have a cop here get mouthy with me one time because of my liberal leaning bumper stickers. I simply smiled and asked if the bogus warning ticket he gave me had all of the information I needed to file a complaint against him. He just turned and walked away. Sorry your experience was not so good.

Comment by Flash on April 18, 2010 at 9:59pm

that was my point, what becomes most important and what has become all important in this 'modern' society? money. it is what talks in almost every situation & what it typically comes down to. it is what dictates almost evrything that we are exposed to...what SELLS?! or what it is that people are buying into at the moment that does? that puts us who believe strongly in the arts & the freedom of expression into difficult situations at times, having to decide between what we believe in & our integrity, or unfortuantely having to compromise such for the almighty dollar. for as in MANY situations, we are forced to compromise what we believe in for those in control to get their way & us to be able to feed ourselves and our precious families, and i'm sure even i "have my price". but if we continue to allow money to dictate our actions when it comes to the arts, we will continue to undermine our society as a whole, for it allows those in control to be able then to dictate every aspect of our lives. i have lost many gigs as a result, but i refuse to compromise that which i feel so strongly about and take so very seriously. i do this for the art, for the expression, and for the therapy of the people who wish to have an open forum to express themselves freely. i do not do this for the money and we fortunately have no boss, owner, or overhead to have to accomodate.

i also have no problem with truth in advertising. if your open mic is an open mic geared towards comics, then call it a "comedic open mic", if it is a blues open mic, call it such...but when you list your open mic as an "OPEN MIC", that is what people expect and it is unfair to those who take the time to come down to have to find out that it is anything other than "open". we are limited in the open mic department here, and you often have to travel several miles to get to one. i'm sure it is comforting to all who come to ours to know that we are what we advertise, an open mic open to everyone, in a church, in bangor, maine.

btw-thank you paul for your "agreement" with "most everything" i write. and thank you rusty for your thoughts and words...and no offense, but i spent 3 years in houston 1 week, worked at a place called "la bare's"...heard of it? had a cop put a 45 to my head and threaten to throw me off a freeway overpass. has it changed much?

Comment by Rusty Winz on April 18, 2010 at 8:54pm

Thanks for the feedback. Flash, you make some really good points. I'm really glad that you are able to adhere to a true "open" mic. Here in Houston we have scores of open mics every night of the week. Most have their specific angle. I doubt seriously that the "spoken word" open mics would allow my classic rock band to come and perform. The "blues jams" I go to don't allow solo acts on stage. The "comedy" mics don't allow musicians unless it's a comedy act. And, most of the "acoustic music" mics discourage drum kits and guitar amps. There are a few "true" open mics, but every host and every venue has their own perspective on how an open mic should be run. That's a wonderful thing about being in such a diverse city. Nobody seems to care that an open mic is specific. There is probably another one not that far away that may be more to their liking anyway. Everybody get accommodated somewhere.

I run my open mics as a business. I run my band as a business. I'm all about art and music and expression, but I also like to buy groceries now and then. When a venue owner offers me a gig he becomes my client. When he tells me he wants me to do my job in a certain way I have to decide if it's worth keeping him as a client. The venue owners know that I hustle people (musicians and audience) into their establishments so they don't usually ask for anything unreasonable. But when 75% of your clientele, made up mostly oil and gas men, threaten to take their business elsewhere if they have to listen to Hip Hop or Rap, it leaves the owner very little choice. On the other side of that, I will defend any player on my stage against the hecklers and moaners. Flash you are absolutely right about variety at open mics. If you don't like what you hear stick around it's fixing to change any minute. It's hard to convince a roomful drunks that each drop a few hundred bucks a night of that.

As for the karaoke issue, yep he's playing the flute and I love what he does. The problem stems from the regular request from rock star wannabees coming in with a CD player wanting to sing over some back tracks. It IS nothing more than karaoke. Now don't get me wrong. I don't have any problem with karaoke at all. There are 5 of them within 10 square miles of anyplace you stand in Houston. Go there and sing....I do it all the time. ;) I'm going to keep the flute player around though... it's too good.

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and feedback.

Comment by Paul Douglas openmicatlanta on April 18, 2010 at 7:53pm

I tend to agree with Flash on most everything. With this exception ~ I view the manager/owners of the venue as friends who are supporting the arts. But they have a business to run. I do my best to operate my Open Mics in such a way that their support of the arts is rewarded with more business. It's a symbiotic thing...and I love it :)

Comment by Flash on April 18, 2010 at 7:06pm

@rusty winz
how can it be "karaoke" when he is not singing? tell your crowd to lighten up, close their eyes, & pretend there is a drummer there if it bothers them. would they deny imogen heap to perform? he's playing the flute, is he good? let him play. this is about the music & the art, not people's personal preference and anal mentality.

i have a huge problem with ANY "open mic" that refuses certain people, acts, or genres merely because "their audience dosen't like it". it simply can NOT be called an "OPEN mic" if you deny anyone who wishes to perform as long as their act is not lewd, too loud, or too long, merely because the audience is biased. how fortunate & funny that i live here in the "backward state" of maine, putting on our OPEN mic in a CHURCH for the last 11 years, 6 of which i have hosted where we are OPEN to ALL acts & ages (amatuers and veterans alike), getting upwards of 20-25 performers a night including bands, rappers, hip-hop artists, and (oh no mr. bill) we even allow performers to curse!...and yet our OPEN mic keeps growing. we know that not every act will be enjoyed by all, but we give people the opportunity to be exposed to many different kinds of art. if they don't happen to like a particular act, step outside for 10 mins and have a smoke, or play your stereo in your car until the act is done, odds are you'll like the next act; we provide something for EVERYONE and would deny no one simply because some may not "like" them. everyone gets their 10 mins of fame, they deserve it and THAT is what OPEN mic means.

our open mic is usually "plugged in", but on the first thursday of every month we have "acoustic night". no drum kit, no PA, no amps EXCEPT that few bassists have acoustic bases, so we do provide a bass amp for bassists to accompany acoustic sets. we of course control the sound accordingly and it has been extremely popular & successful.

i think far too many people are losing site of several things. 1. this IS about the music & the art, even though for many open mics it is about keeping the owner happy and making MONEY! which destroys the entire concept. 2. open mics should be for the people & performers and the art & creativity, not the host or the bar/restaurant owner. if you are going to place conditions on the open mic because of politics & personal bias, then call it something other than an 'open' mic, for it is not. want to see a truly OPEN open mic? come to the union street brick church 126 union street in bangor, maine, every thursday night at 7pm. call 207-991-8484 for more info or go to youtube & type in "the brick open mic".

Comment by Rusty Winz on April 18, 2010 at 5:59pm

Not to stray to far from the origin of this thread, but this raises another question . How do you handle folks with back tracks. I have a Native American Flute player that plugs in drum tracks to play over. I personally like it, but other musicians have expressed disdain claiming that it's no different from karaoke. What do you think.

Comment by Rusty Winz on April 18, 2010 at 5:55pm

As a rule of thumb I do not allow drum kits or guitar amps at my "acoustic music" open mics. There are a lot of great band jams in Houston they don't need to be rattling my "acoustic" open mics. I will make exceptions providing the musicians have the courtesy of checking with me in advance, and agree to keep the volume and style appropriate for the audience. (One of my venues has banned Hip Hop.... the middle aged, middle class white guys that hang out there just simply don't want to hear it)

One of my venues uses my open mic as an audition platform for bands. I handle this by; 1) auditions are required to schedule with me in advance (I only allow one per night) 2) insisting that they set up and ready to play on time for the first set. 3) they get absolutely no more than 30 minutes to play and 10 minutes to get their gear off the stage. I make it clear to them that compliance to these rules is a big part of the audition. The venue owner needs to know they are reliable and cooperative, and he ALWAYS asks my opinion of a band before hiring them. Heheheheh....don't mess with the open mic host.

Comment by Maurice Brines on April 15, 2010 at 3:33pm

Agreed, dinner crowd and especially folks ordering at the bar are the ones complaining that they have to shout to get their words heard. The last open mic we did this past Monday went alot better.

We also cater to single/duo/trio acts or full bands, so we're able to cover what the musicians need !

Comment by Flash on April 15, 2010 at 3:33pm

we have always allowed full bands to perform. we are fortunate to not only have a full house kit, but also house acoustic, grand piano, bass amp, and we are working on getting a house electric & bass. this allows more people to potentially perform even if they don't have their own, or may motivate someone to perform who may have not had the instruments not been available.

full bands are requested to use our kit, but many drummers are anal about their kits. i used to make exceptions when our open mic only had 6-10 performers in a night, but now that we have grown to 20-30+performers, that is unreasonable due to time restraints. as it is, we start at 7pm and do not get done until almost midnight with performers allowed 2 songs, including full bands. so if it worth it to a band to play our open mic (and it if course is) then bands will accommodate us as we do them.

i fully agree on the volume level no matter who is playing, far too many bands think that because their amps go to "10"...it is of course not about what the bands want, but what is best for sound quality, the crowd, and my sanity.

Comment by Craver on April 15, 2010 at 3:27pm

Volume is usually an issue when the venue has a 'dinner crowd' in the building. It's a struggle for the owners to balance the restaurant and bar patrons. The more we pay attention to this issue, the better the chances of our open mics surviving.

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