Get Out of Town, part III--RMG in NYC
So it’s time to report in on some of the results of my own little open mike tour, while I bounce around the country as a traveling consultant.
In my last blog on the subject, I had told you about Don Mak’s idea for booking an “open mike” tour using www.OpenMikes.org. I had just started a day gig for a few weeks in Newark, NJ and NYC, so I used the opportunity to book four open mike nights in The City for the second and third weeks. Unfortunately I got too sick to sing for the third week’s bookings, but not before I had some really interesting playing experiences.
The first open mike booking was in the Lower East Side. First I have to tell you that in all my walking and looking around NYC at night, I never felt particularly threatened. Manhattan Island kind of strikes me as a big funky mall crammed full of a few million people. Police are everywhere, and the whole city is bustling until at least 11:00 PM every week night.
I got off the PATH train from Newark and found myself plunged into a crowd surrounding the Virgin Records megastore. Turns out that Ludicrous was there signing autographs. Once I got through that, it was smooth sailing as I walked to the venue about 15 blocks away. There I found two performance artist/comics running a no holds barred open mike experience in a small brick room stuffed with old chairs you’d usually find in an attic. It was “anything goes,” and the performances were mostly raw and raunchy. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if clothes were going to start flying off some of the performers—it was that edgy. Fortunately/unfortunately that didn’t happen, but it was high-energy for sure.
The participants were comedians, performance artists, and one musician (me). Out of 14 acts, there were probably four worth listening to, but there was an opportunity to get ideas and listen to a wide range of topics and experiences. People were nice enough at this venue, and very supportive, but despite descriptions I read, it was not a good musician’s venue. The PA was one of those minimalist two-speaker Fender systems with the built in limiters that shut down the volume every time something loud goes through it, and no one in the room knew how to operate it.
The next night I made my way to the Teabag Lounge open mike at Silk Road on the edge of Chinatown. The Chinatown location was a pleasant surprise—my wife and I always try to visit the Chinatown in every major city we pass through. I was greeted by Feliza Mirasol, who I recognized as Filipino. Since my wife is Filipino-Chinese, it was a chance to practice my Tagalog (official language of the Philippines). I felt very much at home with the crowd that gathered, and they were even more attentive than the audience the night before.
Feliza ran the Teabag Lounge event very professionally, and the whole night came off very smooth. I was honored to sit in with the first act, Michael Christian de los Reyes of the band “Burden of Proof.” Michael and I hit it off right away, despite his being decades younger than me (as were most of the performers). Michael is a talented performing songwriter, with ballads that really “get you,” and a great voice as well. He looks a bit hip-hop in his demeanor, but his voice is pure and lilting and he is also a great song arranger/interpreter as well.
The night alternated poets and musicians. Joy Leftow, a published poet of my generation, offered recitations of her poetry—and even got a little racy for a minute. I was happy to leave with one of her books. Corinne Manabat (a/k/a “Calamity) was the headliner for the evening, and gave edgy, gut-wrenching renditions of her poetry and hip hop rhyme. Jesse Yee recited her short, punchy poetry, which has is very accessible and usually very positive. I told Jesse I thought she’d make a good lyric writer, and we talked about songwriting for a while.
Finally, Ron Villanueva closed the night with some very interesting music. Like Michael, Ron has a great voice, but his musical style is more strident and less pop. He does a great job telling the stories behind his songs so you can get into them. This is good, because—while they are very well written—they are more challenging lyrically.
My experience with NYC’s music scene surprised me. I was certainly expecting the audiences to be harsh, and the performers to be much better than our performers and songwriters in Frisco, Texas where I live. What I found out is that the talent developing in New York is not much different than the talent developing in other cities around the country, there’s just a whole lot more of it. The audiences in New York have to be the best I’ve run into yet, in all my travels around the country. Sorry, Frisco, but they blow our audiences away in that they are really there to listen intently to the performer, and they respond very warmly when they hear something they like. I left The Teabag Lounge feeling like I’d been able to connect with the audience more than I’d been able to in a long time. They listened to the stories, moved with the music, and clapped loudly. I love that city.
In my last blog on the subject, I had told you about Don Mak’s idea for booking an “open mike” tour using www.OpenMikes.org. I had just started a day gig for a few weeks in Newark, NJ and NYC, so I used the opportunity to book four open mike nights in The City for the second and third weeks. Unfortunately I got too sick to sing for the third week’s bookings, but not before I had some really interesting playing experiences.
The first open mike booking was in the Lower East Side. First I have to tell you that in all my walking and looking around NYC at night, I never felt particularly threatened. Manhattan Island kind of strikes me as a big funky mall crammed full of a few million people. Police are everywhere, and the whole city is bustling until at least 11:00 PM every week night.
I got off the PATH train from Newark and found myself plunged into a crowd surrounding the Virgin Records megastore. Turns out that Ludicrous was there signing autographs. Once I got through that, it was smooth sailing as I walked to the venue about 15 blocks away. There I found two performance artist/comics running a no holds barred open mike experience in a small brick room stuffed with old chairs you’d usually find in an attic. It was “anything goes,” and the performances were mostly raw and raunchy. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if clothes were going to start flying off some of the performers—it was that edgy. Fortunately/unfortunately that didn’t happen, but it was high-energy for sure.
The participants were comedians, performance artists, and one musician (me). Out of 14 acts, there were probably four worth listening to, but there was an opportunity to get ideas and listen to a wide range of topics and experiences. People were nice enough at this venue, and very supportive, but despite descriptions I read, it was not a good musician’s venue. The PA was one of those minimalist two-speaker Fender systems with the built in limiters that shut down the volume every time something loud goes through it, and no one in the room knew how to operate it.
The next night I made my way to the Teabag Lounge open mike at Silk Road on the edge of Chinatown. The Chinatown location was a pleasant surprise—my wife and I always try to visit the Chinatown in every major city we pass through. I was greeted by Feliza Mirasol, who I recognized as Filipino. Since my wife is Filipino-Chinese, it was a chance to practice my Tagalog (official language of the Philippines). I felt very much at home with the crowd that gathered, and they were even more attentive than the audience the night before.
Feliza ran the Teabag Lounge event very professionally, and the whole night came off very smooth. I was honored to sit in with the first act, Michael Christian de los Reyes of the band “Burden of Proof.” Michael and I hit it off right away, despite his being decades younger than me (as were most of the performers). Michael is a talented performing songwriter, with ballads that really “get you,” and a great voice as well. He looks a bit hip-hop in his demeanor, but his voice is pure and lilting and he is also a great song arranger/interpreter as well.
The night alternated poets and musicians. Joy Leftow, a published poet of my generation, offered recitations of her poetry—and even got a little racy for a minute. I was happy to leave with one of her books. Corinne Manabat (a/k/a “Calamity) was the headliner for the evening, and gave edgy, gut-wrenching renditions of her poetry and hip hop rhyme. Jesse Yee recited her short, punchy poetry, which has is very accessible and usually very positive. I told Jesse I thought she’d make a good lyric writer, and we talked about songwriting for a while.
Finally, Ron Villanueva closed the night with some very interesting music. Like Michael, Ron has a great voice, but his musical style is more strident and less pop. He does a great job telling the stories behind his songs so you can get into them. This is good, because—while they are very well written—they are more challenging lyrically.
My experience with NYC’s music scene surprised me. I was certainly expecting the audiences to be harsh, and the performers to be much better than our performers and songwriters in Frisco, Texas where I live. What I found out is that the talent developing in New York is not much different than the talent developing in other cities around the country, there’s just a whole lot more of it. The audiences in New York have to be the best I’ve run into yet, in all my travels around the country. Sorry, Frisco, but they blow our audiences away in that they are really there to listen intently to the performer, and they respond very warmly when they hear something they like. I left The Teabag Lounge feeling like I’d been able to connect with the audience more than I’d been able to in a long time. They listened to the stories, moved with the music, and clapped loudly. I love that city.
posted by Ryan Michael Galloway at 10:38 PM
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