The plan was, go see the concert of a friend – Baptiste W Hamon at the International – and then go to play at the open mic of The Mazet. But just as I was warming up my voice and trying out a new song I had just written in the preceding two days, I received a call from a guy I met the night before at the Cavern.
“I’m in your neighborhood,” he said. “I’m going to a new open mic tonight. Want to come?”
“Yup.”
Breaking plans is cool. And so are new open mics – whenever I get the chance. Breaking habits is revitalizing.
“I’ll be over at your place in a few minutes,” said my new friend. “I’m on a scooter.”
Crap, hate being a passenger on a two-wheeled vehicle. Still, I was not going to refuse a tandem ride to a new open mic at the Etoile area in Paris. So within a few minutes he was there, and I was on the scooter and he had my guitar on his back and off we went.
It turned out to be a very posh sort of bar/restaurant called either Lounge Royal or LR Restaurant, depending on your humor. And it was actually a mixture of posh and grungy rock. The bar, the tables, the lighting, the colors, all was posh cocktail kind of thing – but there were patches of collages of photos of the Rolling Stones and other more grungy bands and musicians on parts of the walls.
And in the basement, a beautiful brick cave with vaulted ceiling and white painted bricks and tables along the walls. And a stage against the side wall. All cramped in close quarters. It was the first of a weekly open mic at the LR Restaurant and the music was high quality. But it was not exactly an open mic of the kind that I go to most. This was the Cavern kind of thing, the live band backing the singers in a kind of live karaoke.
And the accent was on soul. A drummer, bass player and keyboard player – but no guitar. The keyboard player had a nice jazz touch, too, by the way, and all in all the vibe was very cool, Las Vegas slick. But I sensed there was no real place for my guitar, and after the first set I left, without hazarding an effort to sing.
It was not that I was unhappy – I loved it. But I had been away from The Mazet for a few weeks and I itched to get back there and play several songs, and talk with friends. So I caught a cab in front of the LR and I was at the Mazet probably less than 20 minutes later. And on stage maybe 15 minutes after that.
Listened to some nice music, met cool people, found yet another person who discovered the joint because of this blog and my list of Paris open mics – the same had happened at the Highlander the night before – and then I went home, having had a full and satisfying night at two completely different open mics…. But what a difference in style!
I’ve ended up having a couple of crowd-pleasing cover songs that tend to get the audience participating, clapping, drumming on tables and joining in the chorus. Those are “Mad World” and “What’s Up!” I think these are pretty much sure-fire for almost anyone who sings them, but they work more often than not very well for me now. Last night at the Highlander open mic was no exception. But what a contrast to going to the Cavern afterwards….
The point is, I wish I had a lot more of those sure-fire crowd pleasing songs. But it takes time, and there are only so many that exist, no doubt. (Another would be Wonderwall, but I don’t do it since I have a hard time with the rhythm on the guitar!!!!) Anyway, I will continue to try to build up a repertoire in that direction, as well as write my own. Last night I started with “Crazy Lady,” my latest completed song. I enjoy singing it, but it did not light the fires the way “What’s Up!” subsequently did. And then someone requested “Mad World.”
The reason I am blowing my own horn here is not to boast, but simply to set the stage for the contrast. From the Highlander I went over to the Cavern, which holds its vocal jam open mic night on Wednesdays as well, but a little later than the Scottish pub. I have written extensively about my failures at the Cavern in the last few months, as I have tried singing “What’s Up!” there with the band and done dismally, horrendously, depressingly badly each time.
There is a HUGE difference between playing your own guitar at your own rhythm in your own way and actually having to stand up with a band that plays the song the way it was recorded. (More or less.) But that is also a wonderful, and usually humbling, challenge. So despite wanting to commit suicide on at least the last two occasions at the Cavern, I decided to return last night, but this time not for “What’s Up!”
It occurred to me that if I tried “Wicked Game,” I might have a little more luck. There are not many different ways to play those three chords – Bm, A, E – and the rhythm doesn’t change much either. So I went, asked Guillaume, the bass player, if I could try it, and he, as usual encouraged the effort.
Thank goodness I tried! It did not go amazingly well, but it went okay, there was progress, and I began to feel more at ease with the band. Guillaume commented afterwards that he thought it went a lot better too, than the last couple of times. And I heard a few nice things from the audience too.
The point of all this is to say, “Don’t give up!” But it is hard as hell to practice with a live band in front of a live audience. The other point of this post, however, is to say just how different each musical exercise is. You can play an audience with familiar songs and conditions, and you can appear like a complete crappy amateur on the other side of the street in different conditions. So leap in head first and try em all and work at em all. Coming out the other side with a bit of progress feels GREAT! Of course, you need patient and kind musicians like at the Cavern to do it, too.
Holy crap. I was just blown away last night by the music at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic. Of course, I went to one of my usual weekly hang-outs in Paris suffering a little bit of a withdrawal syndrome after traveling around the world over the last couple of weeks and being electrified by one new musical sensory perception after another. So I arrived at the Bonheur not quite in a state of Bonheur, but probably feeling just a little bit blasé. That would be soon entirely wiped out by the music – and the first to wipe the table clean was Meg Farrell.
Was it year or two ago that I first heard Megg playing around town, starting with the Highander open mic? My first impression of her, I recall, was that she jolted me out of a somewhat soporific state at whatever particular evening I had been sitting there drinking beer and waiting for my turn to play. She had this driving, hard playing way with a ukelele that was designed to wake up anyone and rouse any crowd that had sunk into a stupor or a state of agitation in talk that sometimes accompanies certain open mics.
But from my early feelings of praise I soon identified an aspect of the Megg phenomenon that I eventually grew bored with: Everything was this hard-driving, raucous, energetic and rhythmic singing and ukelele playing. I desperately wanted to hear a little bit of variety, something a little softer. Got it in heaps last night!
Meg went off to New York City and has been haunting jazz clubs. She has returned for a short visit to Paris and I discovered a new Megg. You might call her “Billie” Megg. I was sitting at the back of the little cave room at the Bonheur when I heard the soft ukelele strumming and I did not know who was performing. It was too dark for my aged eyes to make out the facial features. I rarely like the ukelele stuff these days, but when I do, I really do. But last night suddenly what emerged, bit by bit – so not “suddenly” – was this incredible feeling, this voice that sounded like a cross between Janis Joplin and Billie Holiday, but more to the latter than the former.
And bit by bit the image in my mind began to form and I said to myself, “This could not be Megg?” Surely not. Not hard driving, hard moving rabble rousing Megg Farrell of the rhythmic uke. This was something super soft and sensitive and truly bluesy beautiful.
Anyway, to cut the praise short – it was Megg Farrell. Returned a changed performer. Check out the vids.
Now, it was not only Megg who impressed me and lifted me out of my lethargic state. There was Jelila, too, with her vaguely gypsy look and sound, and a sumptuous voice. There were many others. I got videos of ’em. Put ’em up. And am glad I went to my regular haunt once again….
Totally exhausted, I HAD to go to the Coolin open mic last night in Paris; it was Henry Tipping’s last night as MC in this finest of Paris open mics of recent months in Paris. It was a classic Coolin open mic, but I woke up this morning with – aside from a head ache – a huge regret.
I started last week my new series of podcasts speaking to people at the open mics around the world, and although I brought my recording device to Coolin last night, I did not interview Henry, the genial MC of Coolin’s before he heads off to another Coolin bar in another city, where maybe he will do another open mic. It would have been perfect to talk to him about his two months or so setting up and running the Coolin open mic and making such a huge success of it.
Why did I not? Fatigue was one part of it, as I arrived back from Malaysia only a few hours before after a nearly sleepless 30-something hours. A refusal to believe that Henry was really leaving. A refusal to want to send out a message that his departure will mean an end to Coolin – in fact, it should not, as his job will be taken over by Etienne and the open mic will continue. Oh, and the combination of a small amount of sleep and a large amount of alcohol was a deadly mixture that led me to believe that I would sound pretty drunk if I did the podcast…
So say nothing of the fact that there were so many musicians, it was such a great night, that there was practically no time to drag Henry into a quiet corner to ask him about his experiences. Oh, and there was also the idea that as Paris is my home, I will not bore listeners with a repetitive experience of podcasts in this city, but only go for the very special ones…yeah, like the one this would have been….
Wishing Henry luck and hoping to see him again soon, I’m sure there will be another chance for the podcast. In the meantime, I did do a few videos to mark the occasion – which, by the way, included a visit by Henry’s dad, who also plays guitar and sings….
The third night in Kuala Lumpur became in several ways a reflection of the night before – and just as amazing. I started off with a gig at the Frontera Mexican restaurant in the suburb. I had learned the night before that this was only five minutes or so drive away from rockaFellas, where I had played the night before after wending my way there via the failed gig and then the Backyard pub. So what happens Friday?
Russell Curtis, the owner of, and musician at, rockaFellas bar in Kuala Lumpur talks with Brad Spurgeon:
Remember that on Thursday I was invited to do a gig and the person who invited me called up and said she could not make it? And there was no one present at the gig venue? And I played anyway? Well, bizarrely, on Friday night I found myself a few hours before the gig at the Frontera learning that the guy who booked me could not show up. His excuse was very serious and I thanked him and wished him the best, and prepared myself for the gig – also knowing that if it was a disaster like the night before, I could make my way over to rockaFellas.
So I showed up at the Frontera and found the place bubbling with energy, customers, a kind staff and a nice sound system. And soon I was joined by a few people who had come last year when I played in the open mic at Frontera – which no longer exists. So I played for nearly an hour and a half in two sets, and had a great time. The neat thing about Frontera is that it is located in a shopping mall called Jaya One and so the restaurant opens up into the mall and you can see when people at nearby stores step out in the hall to listen to you singing, or others stop by out front and listen, and you know the whole time you play that you are not ONLY playing for the clients in the restaurant you are also playing to reach people down the halls and in the stores and drag them in to Frontera – where you can just sit and drink beer or other alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks too, if you want.
So I finished the gig and spoke for a while with my friends from last year – some music students and their teacher – and then they offered to take me over to rockaFellas.
There, I found the place moving with the full band of Russell Curtis, the singer, guitar player I mentioned the night before and who had brought me there from the Backyard. Russell had invited me to come around on the Friday to see the full band, and I did not regret it. They were great: Bass, two guitar players sharing lead and rhythm, and the drum player.
Then much to my surprise and delight, after I ate an excellent meal of Cantonese noodles – copious – Russell invited me to play a couple of songs again. So after their next set, I went up and started playing “Mad World” again, at his request. Halfway through the song, the bass player and Russell took to the stage and joined me. This time Russell played drums.
So we just cruised through that one and I headed directly into “Wicked Game,” which I thought would be simple enough for us to make our way through it adequately. The audience – much bigger and more party-minded than the day before – was really responsive, but especially on the next song.
It was like magic, Russell asked me to play “Cat’s in the Cradle,” although I have no idea whether he knew if I knew how to play it. So I proceeded to play the most upbeat version of “Cat’s in the Cradle” I’ve ever played, as I have never done it with a drummer and bass player.
There was only one thing that burned me, and that was how the jam was the most delightful, fun and cool thing I’d done so far on the visit, and because I was not prepared for it, I did not record it on my Roland R-26 as part of my project to record myself playing with the local musicians in every country I visit this year. Fortunately I did get that on a song the night before, but this was a golden opportunity lost.
Still, the purpose of this journey above all is those moments of delight on stage, and so that was more than fulfilled. I would not be the only “other” person joining the stage to jam with Russell and the band, as they called up another drummer and another singer after that.
As you will hear in the podcast interview I did with Russell, he opens his stage into not an “open mic,” but a jam session for friends and like-minded musicians. It’s part of the spirit I love and seek out in this open mic, open jam adventure.
The craziness continues in Kuala Lumpur as my fourth year of musical madness spreads its wings and reaps its harvest. Last night I had a gig to perform that was booked at the last minute the night before for the Doppel Kafe in the Central Market Annexe. Only problem I realized once I got there covered in sweat head to foot from running and pushing things to the limit was that there was no one present. I mean, no spectators, the kafe was empty – except for the two waiters.
Do I care? No, I got on the great looking stage, plugged into the Bose sound column – a fabulous thing – and I played three songs. I got off the stage to have another of the five beers I had ordered upon arrival, and the waiters asked me, please, for an encore! So I played a fourth song. I loved the stage, loved the sound system, and loved the idea that I would singing to an empty room in what was otherwise a very cool looking arts cafe.
Then a phone call came from the person who so kindly booked me at the last minute, and it turned out that not even she could show up! Well, I have my limits. So I asked the waiters to pack up my beers in a bag and I headed as fast as I could over to the Backyard Pub, where I had played the night before.
You see, the original idea was that I would play on the Thursday at the Backyard, but I had already been offered the gig at the Doppel… so I had told Edmund that I had better do the Doppel on Thursday, and he put me up on Wednesday at the Backyard. At the same time, however, he told me that the Thursday night band was hot as hell and I had to see them. So I whipped over there and had a great meal of mutton fried rice.
As I ate I spoke to the bass player, who I had heard warming up, and he had sounded amazing. So we spoke before the band went up. I later learned from someone else, and could confirm through listening to his music, that this bass player, Andy Peterson, is one of the best bass players in Southeast Asia and he is highly sought after all over the region. He often records with Taiwanese bands.
Anyway, I spoke with him, Edmund Anthony, and Albert Sirimal, the singer and guitarist from the same five-piece band. And then who should walk in the door – I had told her I was going to the Backyard – but the woman who had booked me at the Doppel and who could not show up there to hear me there! So we spoke for a while, and she left just before the band played.
The band was fabulous, really jazzy, and cool, and laid back and just awesome. I use that word because I think it is the first time I’ve ever used it on the blog or in any piece of my writing. So it has value, it is not a cliché in this instance.
After the band’s first set, Edmund or Albert introduced me to a guy who had shown up named Russell Curtis. Russell, it turned out, used to sing in this band. He also plays guitar. Now, however, Russell owned his own music venue, a bar called rockafellas. And we got to talking and someone told him about my worldwide meanderings in the musical warp, and Russell said it was too bad I did not go to his bar that night as there was a solo singer guitar player and I could have played there too.
He then learned I had my guitar with me and he immediately – this was near midnight – invited me to go play at rockafellas. So I accepted instantly. So he drove me to rockafellas and I listened to his musician of the night, Allan G., who has a wonderful velvety voice and plays a mean acoustic guitar (a Maton from Australia).
Allan G. then invited me up to the stage and I played three of my songs. Later, Russell got up and played and sang, and he has a great voice and amazing guitar licks, and so I asked him if he would care to play a song with me, he doing lead. He accepted, so we did my song “Memories.” And I recorded it with my new Roland R-26 recorder, because that is the missing link in this year’s adventure, the thing I hinted at earlier but did not want to define: My goal this year is to try to play with and record a local musician in every country I go to. I succeeded in Melbourne, and now I have succeeded here in Kuala Lumpur.
MAD WORLD!
Rockafellas is a very neat venue, by the way, with a real cocktail lounge feel to it, a beautiful little stage, good food, a pool table and a great sound system. Pay it a visit if you’re in the PJ area of KL…..
The evening, once again, was a lesson in “don’t despair,” keep pushing. You will get what you seek. I couldn’t believe it.
On this worldwide open mic adventure I prefer to write about each place I play and discover in a post dedicated to that place. But I have been so active and so busy travelling and working that I have had a bit of a backlog. So today I decided I will write about the last two nights where I played – and I realized that, actually, given that the one on Tuesday was in a classic venue in Melbourne and the one on Wednesday was in a classic venue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that contrast in itself was significant enough to give the post its own character.
Interview with Anthony Young, musician at the Empress Hotel open mic in Melbourne:
It is pretty representative of how wild and crazy this adventure can get, in fact, so worth writing about both together. My flight from Australia to Malaysia was not set to take off until 3:40 AM Wednesday morning. So I realized that I actually had another evening in which I could do an open mic in Melbourne. And even better, it was the classic open mic at the Empress Hotel, one of the longest lasting and finest open mics in Melbourne.
So I went there, ate a kebab – the messiest but one of the tastiest I have ever had – and watched the evening unfold in this wonderfully atmospheric pub, which I think has nothing to do with a hotel. I had discovered it two years ago, and wrote about it on the blog, but last year I was not in Melbourne on the Tuesday during the Grand Prix weekend, so I could not take part. I missed it.
The Empress is one of the most popular in the city, and it is very well organized – with an early sign-up in which you get to choose your playing slot – and an excellent sound system. You can play three songs, and the pub is laid out in such a way that you can sit at the small round tables and listen to the music, or you can duck out into the outdoor garden terrace and drink and talk a little while keeping an eye and ear on the music. There is also another room off to the side where you can go to talk, and still hear the music.
I recognized one of the acts from two years ago, but most of the people seemed entirely new. One of the very best of the performers came on near the end of the evening, and that was Anthony Young with his bright blue guitar. He played a kind of blues based first song in which the guitar playing and vocals really stacked up to a marvelous marriage of original sound and feeling. His second song was equally as good, both were his compositions.
In seeing him I was inspired suddenly to interview him for my podcast series. I decided that my original idea of interviewing the people who run the open mics should expand into interviewing everyone surrounding the open mic – musicians, spectators, beautiful bartender women…. Why limit it to the same thing all the time? That could get repetitious for the internaut. So I interviewed Anthony, and I’m glad I did – he had some interesting things to say about his music and the Melbourne music scene.
So eager was I to interview him that I ran out into the terrace area in the back and then ran after him at the bar and basically ran all over the place like a man out of control, with the result that when I found myself at the airport straightening out my guitar case for travel, I realized that I had left both my 60 euro guitar tuner and my 32 euro Steve Jobs biography – the great one by Walter Isaacson – in the Empress Hotel on the table where I had sat most of the night.
The biggest pain in that was that I was hugely taken by the Jobs book and only a third the way through. It would all turn out okay in the end, though, as the Jobs tome would have tipped the weight of my cabin luggage over the allowed 7 kilograms and I’d be in trouble. As it was I had to put some of the stuff into my suitcase to get through. THEN I found they were selling the Jobs book on the other side of customs, so I bought a new copy before boarding the flight. And I picked up where I left off.
This post has grown far, far too long, especially for the good of the next venue, which is the Backyard Pub in Kuala Lumpur. The Backyard is one of the top music venues in the city, perhaps THE most interesting of them all. I first played there last year, and so I immediately contacted the man in charge of booking acts there, Edmund Anthony, upon my arrival in Kuala Lumpur.
I had had a lousy night’s sleep on the flight, but nothing would stop me from visiting the Backyard. Edmund had seen me last year at an open mic in KL, and he invited me to do a set at the Backyard. This was a huge honor, given that the Backyard does NOT have an open mic, and that it features some of the best musicians and groups in Malaysia.
So yesterday, Edmund offered me a set and I took him up on it instantly. I managed to have a nap in the afternoon, woke up fully recharged, and I charged off to the Backyard. One of the interesting things about this place I s that it is quite far outside of the central downtown part of the city where most of the music venues exist. And yet people make the pilgrimage to this neighborhood pub to hear the great music and soak up the festive feeling.
Interview with Edmund Anthony, the artistic director of the Backyard Pub in Kuala Lumpur:
There was a good crowd there last night, and I started by having a wonderful noodle meal before performing my set on the splendid stage between about 8:55 and 9:55. After my performance there was a very cool three-piece cover band, called Bongga Bongga, that manages to produce some wonderful versions of all the songs we know, with two equally interesting vocalists, one on bass and the other on lead guitar.
Interview with Albert Sirimal, Malaysian musician, at the Backyard Pub in Kuala Lumpur:
The evening provided me with far too great an opportunity to miss in terms of my podcast project, so I interviewed Edmund and then I interviewed Albert Sirimal, a guitar player and vocalist for the five piece band that plays on Thursday nights. I wanted more of a feel for the Backyard within KL and for the music scene in Malaysia in general, and Albert gave me that.
In all, it was a fabulous night I will not forget, and I look forward to returning at the very latest next year – if the adventure continues – and maybe even this weekend. On the other hand, I seem to have two more gigs line up in the next two nights in KL so….
PS: For some reason of brain drain, in both of my interviews at the Backyard Pub I unrelentingly called the place the Backyard Cafe…. I cannot figure out why!
My intention today had been to report on both the Monday and Tuesday night open mics that I did in Melbourne. But time has caught up with me, I am now sitting in my hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and while I have a great Internet connection again FINALLY – after a week of crappy connections in Australia – I also now have a gig to perform tonight at the Backyard Pub in Kuala Lumpur. So time presses and I will only be able to report on my Monday open mic at Bertha Brown in Melbourne – but it’s worth it!
Interview with Shane Walters, MC of Bertha Brown open mic in Melbourne:
Had it not been for the slow Internet connection in my Best Western hotel in Melbourne I’d have had this up long ago…. But anyway…. I learned about the Bertha Brown open mic when I was performing at the Felix Bar open mic. That is the way these things go. You do one, you meet people, they tell you about other ones. One of the fabulous things about the Bertha Brown open mic is that they are VERY musician-friendly: They offer the performers a glass of beer and a wonderful pizza that makes a full meal.
The stage is wonderful, fairly large and high and well-lit; the bar/restaurant is huge, with two different wings; and the sound system is great. The open mic is run by a different person every month, but all the people who run it – the guest MCs – belong to a kind of musicians’ cooperative called Songwriters in the Round.
I did an interview with the MC, Shane Walters, as part of my series of interviews with the people involved in open mics around the world. But it was only after the interview that we made a connection. Shane had been practicing his French with me several times through the evening, even when presenting me on stage. And later I told him that one of my good friends in Paris was an Australian from Melbourne who ran an open mic, a guy named Stephen Prescott. (I added that Stephen had since moved to another European city.)
“Was that in an Irish pub?” said Shane.
I said it was, it was in the Galway. Shane then said that he not only played in the open mic at the Galway a couple of years ago when he went to Paris, but he stayed while in Paris at the home of a friend of Stephen’s. Man, talk about a small world!
And there were a lot of interesting acts, including an original guy who I had to equate in my mind as a “punk Bob Dylan.” That was Jack Gramski, and his songs for the most part were incredibly influenced by Bob Dylan, but with a cool angry punk delivery. (Just realized that the video I put up is not the most representative of that, though!)
I have not done an open mic for the last two nights, as none were available and I had other things to do. But I did want to put up a little mini-post showing my moments of tourism in Melbourne on Saturday morning, since part of it had a musical them. I have a horrendously slow internet connection in my hotel, so I cannot put up many videos at the moment anyway…. Took two days to get these ones up! In any case, check out my moment on the free tramway car that also acts as a tour guide. I took it part way to my destination of Allans Music shop, which is one of the biggest music stores in Melbourne. Oh what a feast that was – as you will see in the video….
As I looked around the web for open mics to attend in Melbourne last night I saw the familiar name of “Felix Bar.” But I was not sure why it sounded familiar. I also saw that it was located within walking distance of the Formula One race track, where I work in the daytime. So I thought it was the ideal place to go – a place I had heard of, and nearby. All the connections eventually made sense…
It turned out I had to go all the way back to my hotel in the center of town – near Spencer Street station – to pick up my guitar and then return to the Felix Bar. But that didn’t take very long and it gave me the chance to warm up my voice with a couple of songs AND the great pleasure of playing with my own guitar in the open mic.
Bob Robertson, MC of the Felix Bar, open mic in St. Kilda, Melbourne, interviewed by Brad Spurgeon:
The Felix Bar’s open mic, it turns out, is quite new. So I still could not figure out why I had heard of it, and in fact, I was certain I was “friends” with the bar on Facebook. So anyway, I ended up loving the place and the atmosphere, despite the fact that it was not exactly bursting at the seams with spectators last night. The stage was fabulous, the spotlights warm, and the sound system, operated by the interestingly named Bob Robertson (Robbie Robertson is that?) was excellent.
In short, I felt very comfortable performing there, and I knew that my voice was also being projected out a speaker in front of the place to passersby. As the bar is located in the trendy St. Kilda neighborhood facing the ocean, all was bliss. The bar tself is quite massive, and is apparently the only one in St. Kilda that specializes in renting itself out to groups without a fee – does lots of birthday parties, for instance….
There was a wide cross-section of performers, and Bob Robertson was very adept and low key in running the show – just allowing people to go up and do long sets and making sure it all worked. Just a great vibe.
So, here we get into the connections. During my set I sang my song “Lara, Lara,” and I introduced it by saying that it was about a woman I had met in Melbourne three years ago. I wanted to mention that I had met her at an open mic at the Softbelly bar, but I had forgotten the name of the bar for a moment.
After the open mic ended – and I did my interview podcast with Bob Robertson, my second of the new series – I then got into a conversation with the owner of the bar, Lloyd. During the conversation the first connection happened: Last year I knew there was a problem with a number of open mic and other live music venues having to close down in Melbourne, but I had thought it was only because of the usual problem of sound pollution for local residents. I learned that there is another angle: It turns out that bars are required to hire three security guards when there is live music, in order to prevent rowdiness. (!!!!) Of course, what bar can afford to pay three security guards on the earnings of an open mic?
Anyway, as I left, I handed Lloyd my personal calling card.
“I know you,” he said. “I remember your name…the Softbelly!”
“Huh?”
“I used to own the Softbelly,” he said. He added that he had taken all the Softbelly friends on Facebook and simply transferred them to the Felix Bar after he sold off the Softbelly business and started up the Felix Bar.
So he remembered me from three years ago, he had been the man behind the Softbelly…where I had met the woman behind Lara, Lara.
It was amazing to think that three years had passed, I had continued the open mic adventure, the Softbelly was the first bar I played in on that adventure (after the Blues Room in Shanghai the previous fall), and here I was three years later alighting in another bar at the beginning of the new year’s adventure and finding a “friend” from the previous joint….
PS, unfortunately, as with yesterday, my internet connection has been so slow today that I only have one video to put up so far. I will continue uploading the videos and put them all up later.
