Scott Andrew - lo-fi acoustic pop superhero!

I did my first real honest-to-goodness open mic last night.

The cafe managed to cram sixteen performers, mostly soloists with a few duos, into a two-and-a-half hour block. Names are drawn at random. I was lucky thirteen. Which gave me plenty of time to fret and generally stress out before I took the stage. Ramped up on adrenaline (and with no alcohol in my system this time), I stammered through a introduction, plowed through One Sure Thing at warp nine, said a bunch more stupid stuff, burned through Brickyard Bend and was outta there. My heart finally ceased pounding in my ribcage about two sets later.

As articulated by my new friend Travis, who went on just before me: “these hours are never lost!” It’s true. You can learn a lot by just watching different people perform, just being there. It’s never a waste of time.

Immediately following me was Meredith Tanner, extremely talented, who also happens to be the keeper of the very same open mic guide where I discovered this particular event. We chatted a bit afterwards. Like me, she’s been away from it awhile, and getting back to it slowly.

Earlier, a performer named Erik Ostrom introduced an instrumental song as being inspired by – no kidding – Where is Raed? (Turns out Erik has a weblog of his own and has been following the blogger from Baghdad for a little while now.) While Erik was attempting to explain this concept in six words or less, someone in the crowd shouted “LiveJournal!” Okay, that’s just weird. Maybe these two worlds should not intersect so closely.

Plus a ton of other talented people, from twentysomething students to greybearded instrumentalists.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to hit an open mic in the Bay Area ever since I moved here, and I’m glad I didn’t flinch and went through with it.