Hi all,

I have long wanted to take a moment and discuss the status of the open mic nights here in our fair city of Seattle.  This place has been through a lot of changes since Dave Hates Chico played our first open mic night in 2000 at a little place called the Barge Inn.  That is where we met the Man himself, Mr. John “JW” Weiss, open mic guru and all-around great guy.  DHC found its calling in that first show in the little fishermans’ neighborhood of Ballard – we found that, as satisfying as full shows with posters and mailing lists and promotion and all that shit can be, there is an awfully appealing draw to hitting open mics.  It’s like musical sushi.  Sonic tapas.  And we hit the stride right away.

When we started into this realm, the weekly newspapers would do a pretty good job of listing pubs, taverns and coffeeshops that hosted open mic nights.  With the right planning, we were able to call ahead or stop by at 3 or 4 different places on any given night – for example, on a Sunday, we would stop by the Experience Music Project, where Gil hosted an open mic upstairs in the Liquid Lounge, for their 6:00 drawing.  Once we drew a time (10:00 or so), we would immediately head out to O’Shea’s Easy Street in Wallingford for Ricky’s 7:30 sign-up.  If we could grab a spot at 11:30, we were golden.  And from there, we could always stop in at the Rainbow Tavern in the U-District to see about a late-night spot with Fudd.  That’s a good 9 or 10 songs total, played for three different audiences, all places with good friends, talented musicians, and all the rest.  And we didn’t have to make a poster or hand out flyers – again, not that I dislike flyers and posters, but we’re working guys, and I have a little boy at home who needs to hang with his daddy.  So after all the sign-ups, we head back to tune, maybe write a song or two, and then when 9:30 rolls around, we’re off to EMP, play a set, then to O’Shea’s, play a set, then we cap it off with a set at the Rainbow.  Boom boom boom!  Tapas deluxe!

That was a typical Sunday.  A strong night with some of the best stages around at the time.  Unfortunately none of those Sunday open mics are running anymore, which makes me feel all the more fortunate that I was able to experience them while they were here.  Sunday in Seattle is now limited to one open mic, still run by Ricky Herrin, but held at Conor Byrne’s in Ballard.  Luckily he still runs a great show, and DHC makes it there whenever we can.

So that’s why we do it.  Open mics are their own thing – you have to be in for the good and the bad, prepared for crowds that are dead quiet, loud and indifferent, too drunk, not drunk enough, what have you.  It’s always an experience.

Over the next few weeks, I will give my impressions of the current open mics in this town, maybe dig up some memories of open mics past.  There have been a lot of them over these last eight years, but all memorable enough I think.  Let’s see how it goes.

Jeremy, DHC 

(Next post – more on JW, the Gentleman Bandit of the Seattle open Mic community.)