Bernie's again

Went to Bernie's again for open mic. This time, first up was some (adult) students of "School of Rock" with their band. For some reason it took them a really long time to get ready to play. Might have been problems getting the house board ready, a substitute for the usual board, which is being repaired. So the open mic got off to a late start.

I went second, played solo using the Nord Stage 2. I ran stereo to the board but for some reason the output to the speakers was mono anyway. I did Morning Rain (Fleetwood Mac), Shadows on the Street (Gentle Giant), Bell Boy (from Quadrophenia), and Get High (Brandy Clark). I was pleased that Shadows on the Street came out well. For that tune I used all three sections of the Nord: a B3 on 88800000, a wurlitzer piano, and a sawtooth wave with a slow downward filter sweep with some resonance. I put the piano across the whole keyboard, the organ on the top half, and the synth on the bottom half. The song is based on an ostinato on the piano, with an overdubbed organ part holding down chords. Then, I disabled the sustain pedal on the piano, and enabled it on both the organ and synth. Holding the sustain pedal down on the organ simply causes the played notes to be held forever, so in essence the organ held down the same notes as were in the ostinato.

After me, I stayed on stage for a few more tunes featuring an African drummer. He had a djembe with a couple of jangly metal plates sticking up from it, and a couple of congas. Really interesting.

I like Bernie's but the open mic seems to have shifted to a later time slot since the changeover of MC. It's really punishing to get up for work the next morning. So I'll be going less often.

Bernie's with new host

K.C., who has been kindly hosting the open mic at Bernie's for some time now, is taking a break. There was a new host starting Aug 4 so I went down to check it out and give support.

The role of host at the Bernie's open mic consists of the following apparent tasks:
- set up the house sound system and operate it all night
- show up early enough to start the o.m. on time
- keep track of who wants to play, and control who plays in what order and how long they play
- stay till the end

It started a little later than usual, but not too bad. First I accompanied the second player on his last song (Pink Floyd's Breathe, without Time in the middle). Then I stayed up there solo and played Sitting (Cat Stevens), Trip Face Boogie (Little Feat), and Requiem (Jethro Tull).

All in all there were some interesting players there and the night went pretty well.

Bernie's open mic with tack piano sound

Went to Bernie's for the open mic. This turned out to be a good one: there were a number of good musicians performing.

I went second, and played Halfstep Misissippi Uptown Toodleoo (Dead), Novim's Nightmare (Cat Stevens), Grantchester Meadows (Pink Floyd), and Just Trying to Be (Jethro Tull). I chose Halfstep because I wanted to try out the tack piano sample from Nord that I had just loaded onto my Electro 3. It sounded great!

A couple of musicians I knew happened to be there in their own right, and I sat in when they played. Did a couple of blues numbers and a couple of originals of theirs.

Still going to open mics

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this blog. I all but forgot about it. I've started going to Open Mics again, so I promise to start updating again.

Rhythms in Manville NJ

Rhythms is a large venue in Manville NJ whoch has an open mic on Thursdays. The place is big -- it used to be a country place called the Yellow Rose and before that, I'm told, it was a roller rink. Good stage at one end and the whole place is dancefloor-quality flooring.

I had the chicken wings -- they were excellent. 4 out of 5.

Went there with my band, to audition for a possible Saturday night gig. The host, Nasty Ned, was quite affable. He explained that, as the showcase band, we'd be given a half hour slot after the first two bands.

Well, the first two bands were excellent. Number one was country originals with some pickup musicians, and number two was electric blues. After hearing them, I wondered how good a reception our band would get, as we're not exactly down in that country genre. But we cranked out our tunes well and got an excellent reception.

I don't think I'd ever go to this open mic to play alone, but for an original band, it would be a good place to try out material on a good, friendly crowd.

Black River Barn

Went back to the Black River Barn, and actually played this time. The house band had no keyboard with them, which was a good thing, so I could use mine. They had a substitute guitarist, and they let me play along during the warmup set at the beginning of the open mike.

The guitarist was a bit inexperienced, so he forgot I was there. As a result I just comped, played no solos. I played through the house sound system (a necessity because there was neither time nor room for my own amps). This made it difficult because the house system has no monitors at all. Just three PA speakers, two at FOH and one 12" one in the rear near the ceiling (a fact which I discovered later). So I could hardly hear myself, and played by Braille. I'm sure I was playing in the wrong key at times.

There weren't too many people raring to play. When my turn came I played solo; I did New Frontier (first time playing this for people), also Hello It's Me and Big River. I did the best I could; the mike was extremely hot and the keys sounded distant. I didn't get much of a reaction, but was glad I came. I was able to load out before the night got too long.

Black River Barn

Went to the BRB to see how the open mike is progressing. It is still hosted by Hoi Polloi. Music starts at about 10PM on Wednesdays, with the house band playing a few numbers and then getting out of the way.

There is now a signup sheet; the sheet is organized into two sections: one for solo/duo acts and the other for bands. Each act as it signs up lists the titles of the three songs they intend to play. This level of organization bodes well, and even though I did not sign up or play this time I'll come back. This would be a good place for me to try some of the stuff that I like to do but my regular band can't do.

Difficult load-in and tiny stage so make sure you scope the place out before showing up with keys, drums, or a band of any size. Good house sound system; you could play the keys through that.

I stayed to listen to a couple of acts. First there was a kid playing Stairway to Heaven on acoustic guitar. Before you laugh, let me say that the kid was a pretty good player, so it was sort of impressive. Then there was a keyboard player who played a couple of original tunes (he used a DX-7 MIDIed to a Yamaha Motif head). I could tell that he was an experienced player; unfortunately, the fact that his material was all unfamiliar to everyone left them flat (polite applause). When the subsequent act, another kid with an acoustic guitar, took the stage at about 11PM, I knew it was time to go.