December | 2012 | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Wild Times at the Vieux Léon, Despite the Holiday Season

December 28, 2012
bradspurgeon

People who are addicted to doing open mics no doubt rejoice when they are on work holidays – if they are lucky enough to have a job. But they are also most likely to be on work holidays during periods like the month of August and during the Christmas and New Year’s period. These same periods are also those when bars and open mic organizers love to close down exceptionally, leaving people who are addicted to open mics with practically nowhere to go on their holidays with so much time available to them to do open mics. This is how the world works. Fortunately, there are a few open mics that remain open during such festive periods. Of course, THEY often discover that there are not nearly as many people coming to play and listen to music in the open mics, because it is the holiday season. Last night, however, a day after Christmas, although The Highlander open mic was closed in Paris, the Vieux Léon was open – and what a wild and crazy open mic did it turn out to be….

When I arrived shortly after 10 PM, it turns out the open mic really just started to buzz along and kick into action. Hosted by Ollie Joe this time – he of the great Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic on Tuesdays, which closed for both Christmas and New Year’s – it turned into a riotous evening, moving from one end of the musical spectrum to the other. That is, from complete amateurs, to beautiful pro musicians, and from deep and serious emotion all the way to a completely mad and crazy guy who whipped up the audience into a fever of mirthful participation and excitement and laughter. (I regret my finger accidentally turning off the videos I made of this guy, because they sure felt like “viral” material – although I put both videos here on the blog anyway.)

And for me personally, it was a great evening because I not only got to play solo, but I also got to do songs with me on my Gibson J200 and singing and with Ollie Joe on lead guitar, and another song with me and Aurelien on lead (who normally plays with Ollie Joe, and vice versa). I also got to let other people use my Gibson and listen to some great musicians make it sing….

So in the end, it was quite an unexpected Christmastime open mic, and thanks to the Vieux Léon (and Ollie Joe) for having the trooper mentality, and keeping the show going through the holiday season….

The Adrian Henri Poems I Did Not Read at the Open Mic That Did Not Really Happen, for the End of the World That Never Came

December 22, 2012
bradspurgeon

penguin poets 10

I was fantastically excited last night because one of my favorite Paris open mics fell on the day to end all days in the history of the world. So it was that the Arte Cafe decided to have a little theme of the end of the world for what was also its final open mic of 2012. I was so excited because although I was going to bring my guitar with me and perhaps sing some songs in the jam afterwards, my main plan was to read a couple of poems by one of the favorite poets of my youth: Adrian Henri.

Henri was one of the Liverpool poets from the 1960s – and after – whose volume of Penguin Poets No. 10, The Mersey Sound, was a famous moment in such anthologies when it came out in 1967. The other two poets in the group were Roger McGough and Brian Patten. Henri was an artist, performance artist, musician, poet and friends with people like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg and others.

I met him briefly at a Toronto Harbourfront Reading series night on 25 October 1980. I remember the date because it is inscribed in my book of his poetry that I bought that night called “From the Loveless Motel.” I also recall the moment because I was so young and gauche and although I admired him greatly, I insulted him without intending to. I went up to him excitedly to buy the book and talk, and I told him that I had traveled a good part of the world in my life and as a fan of his writing I had looked all over the place for his volumes and never found any of them outside England. Or something to that effect.

My intention, of course, had been to show what a devoted reader I was and not how obscure he was as a writer. But naturally, his face dropped and he said, “Well, you’ve got plenty of them here….”

Anyway… the point of all this is to say that when I learned that the end of the world was about to come, it immediately reminded me of one of my favorite Adrian Henri poems, and I decided that I would read it at the open mic last night. I thought that as an introduction to Henri for the listeners, I would also read another of my favorite poems by him after the end of the world poem.

As it happened, a friend was also holding his annual end-of-the-year party, so I decided I would attend that first before going to the open mic. During the party I learned that the open mic at the Arte Café was, exceptionally, closing down early, for lack of its usual unfailingly loyal crowds of attendees. (Due no doubt to the Christmas holiday.) That meant my big moment as a reader – as opposed to singer – would never come. Neither, of course, did the end of the world.

But I did get to play my guitar and sing songs at the home of my friend, and that was loads of fun. And because I have this blog, I’ve decided that I can STILL read those two poems, and put them here on the blog for everyone to listen to – and then to go out and find Adrian Henri books and buy them wherever you may be. Henri, by the way, was born in 1932 and he died in 2000…on 20 December – IE, it would have been his 80th birthday two days ago, the day before the end of the world that never came.

The first poem, called, “Death in the Suburbs,” – and contained in “from the loveless motel” describes the end of the world…. which, as Henri says: “will surely come in Bromley South or Orpington.” Listen right to the end where suddenly I finish reading the poem only to have the sound of a siren emerge from outside my apartment like the end of the world has really begun after all:

The second poem, called, “Me,” is contained in Penguin Poets No. 10, and is a clever rhythmic thing which consists only of the names of people Henri would like to be, as you will hear if you listen:

Wicked Open Mic at Vieux Léon, With Some Wickedly Good Singers and All the Rest

December 20, 2012
bradspurgeon

Every time I feel like I have gone to too many open mics, what’s the point, why not stop, I end up in an open mic where everything seems to come together: Friends, talk, music, vibe, atmosphere, my own moment behind the mic – and above all, some musician who just electrifies me and wakes me up and makes me say, “Am I ever glad I came here tonight.” That is the complete description of the Vieux Léon open mic last night, for me, in any case, and among the really neat and cool musicians the ones that startled me the most were Michelle Blades, from Panama, and the trio Bobine, from France.

I had noticed Michelle upon entering the bar, because she’s kind of striking looking. And had I noticed the others a little farther back in the room, I’d have noticed them too…to put it succinctly. But anyway… there was something trancelike, and true to Michelle’s performance. If you listen to the recording of the video of the first song she did, that I put here, you can hear the many variations in the sounds of her voice and emotion, the constant changes in attack on the guitar, in song melody themes, and then there is that “regard” looking at the audience as she sang, both piercing it, and in her own world. Great stuff. She’s in Paris for a while, and has visited a few times before, having played at L’Internationale – although that was the first time I saw her.

Then Bobine was this wonderful harmony of these two amazing women singers, and their backup guitarist. I was trying to decide as I watched and listen which of the two women’s voices I liked more. But I could not come to any such conclusion, as the whole performance was indeed a whole…. and later, upon returning home, I saw that they are, in fact, sisters – so no need to decide, take the package! Bobine, from somewhere in the south of France – I always get Toulouse and Toulon mixed up, and can’t quite remember which it was….

I loved the heavy reverb on the vocal mic, so while listening to the others, and as a counterpoint to the gypsy jazz of the trio before me – one of the liveliest groups of the night – I decided that I would go heavy into “Wicked Game” as my first song. I was kind of nervous after such great musicians, but I decided it would be a piece of cake: Just think of my most wicked ex-girlfriend ever and sing those lyrics to that memory. In the end, while the reverb was strong, the guitar was barely audible to me – although fine to the room – and so I at first had a wicked game of it trying to find the key to sing to the guitar chords. But in the end, I was told – and felt – that it all worked out O.K.

A wicked night at the Vieux Léon….

Musical Variety at Ptit Bonheur la Chance

December 19, 2012
bradspurgeon

The Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic, as readers of this blog will know, continues to amaze and surprise. Last night it was well attended, but not totally standing-room-only as it can sometimes be. But last night it surprised me by the sudden variety of all sorts of new and different performers from the usual ones.

The styles varied from electric jazz guitar to opera to violin in a sometimes strange trio. And there were other usual acts, singers and songwriters of the kind that we are used to seeing there. But all in all, it was a real pleasant surprise on the music side of things.

I played my song “Since You Left Me,” for the first time in a long time, and then I did “Cat’s In the Cradle,” even though I had the feeling that I had just sung it there within my last two or three visits. In any case, it was a very satisfying evening, and I managed to get a lot more videos than on Monday night….

Three Bars, Three Sets, and a Bit of Business – and Coolin Celebrates 1 Year of its Existence

December 18, 2012
bradspurgeon

Damn! Gotta run! I have about five things to do before I find myself at one of my favorite open mics, so the words in this post will be reduced. Good news, no doubt, dear reader. But last night the Coolin pub celebrated the one-year anniversary of its open mic, and I cannot let that pass!

I went to the open mic, following the suggestion to dress up nice, wearing a suit jacket and nice red scarf to signify Christmas. I went with some work colleagues, however, and so spent most of the time talking, rather than listening and making videos. And when it came my time to play, I had no Christmas song to sing, and no anniversary song either, so I decided to sing two of the songs that I sang at Coolin the first time I went there a year ago – “What’s Up!” and “Father and Son.”

It has grown so much, this open mic, that it has become one of the most successful in Paris. May they have another year like it…..

Feeling a little disoriented, having sung my two songs but wanting more, having seen off my colleagues, I decided I would wander over to the Galway to check out the open mic there. I was stopped on the way by four people standing in front of the Mazet – where there used to be an open mic – and they asked about my guitar and asked me to play a song. So on the sidewalk, I took out the guitar and played a bit of stuff, and then half of “Mad World.”

Then I went on to the Galway and I was invited to play immediately, a 4-song set. Very, very, very cool. So all in all a great evening of open mic and business, and sorry there is not much more profound writing about the other musicians or videos of their sets….

2 Lit Visits, 1 Open Mic; 1 – 0 Open Mic over Lit Visits

December 15, 2012
bradspurgeon

delerium

In keeping with my promise to go out to as many “literary events” as I can, I went to a couple last night. There was a gathering at Shakespeare and Company to honor George Whitman, who died a year ago. And there was a little Christmas get together at the Abbey Bookshop, around the corner from Shakespeare and Company. The Abbey is run by Brian Spence, a Canadian whose bookstore on Harbord Street in Toronto I used to sometimes go to when I was at the University of Toronto. Shakespeare and Company, of course, I started going to shortly after that period, when George was already what seemed to me to be an “old man.” And he would go on to live another nearly 30 years.

I made a little film of someone playing piano at Shakespeare and Company, but aside from that, it was really just a question of wandering around and paying respects, and perhaps having a bit of tea or some other drink, which I did not do. Then I went off to the Abbey and there an author was reading out in front of the shop, standing a crate like a speaker at Speaker’s Corner in London, with a large crowd of people standing in the cold beneath him. I think his book’s title has the word “merde” in it, and so I decided to go into the store away from the crowd, where I was warmly greeted – as usual – by the genial Brian Spence, who was preparing goodies for the Christmas toast to follow.

I drank a deadly beverage offered by Brian who had received it from a client, and I read a few first pages of books to see if I wanted to buy any – the one I recall is Borges’ Labyrinths then an AJ Liebling book on boxing, but then the drink went to my head (it was from the Czech Republic or Poland or some equally strong, hardy nation) and I cannot remember the others – and decided I did not want to buy anything. I needed to eat something very quickly if I was to survive the rest of the night and a beer or two.

So I went to a restaurant around the corner, ate some fromage de tête (head cheese), which was as disgusting as it sounds – were it not for the fact that it was excellent quality – and then a terrine de volaille and then ris de veau (sweetbreads, i.e. thymus glands), and some wine, and I was all ready to go off and have some Delerium beer and use up all that delirium and even the tremens, on an open mic.

So I went to the open mic that I reported last week was a little like a literary salon, the one at the Arte Café. After all I had been through, I really did not expect the open mic to live up to my past experiences there, and I fully expected to stay a short time and leave. I thought I would stay long enough to drink the Delerium to digest the animal innards. But the open mic, once again, was really wonderful, and I enjoyed the music, enjoyed playing, and then enjoyed the jam session, and above all, meeting new and interesting people – as always at the Arte Cafe. Thanks again, Arte Cafe!

Cool, Freaky, True Judgement of Friend’s Song… Or, An Accidental Blind Taste

December 13, 2012
bradspurgeon

Emma Bergmann

I had this really neat thing happen to me over a couple of weeks period, and I am just getting around to writing about it now on the blog. Emma Bergmann, a friend of mine whom I have met at open mics, and whose performances I have always enjoyed – in fact, we even performed together once or twice if my alcohol-tinged memory is not deceiving me – sent me a low quality mp3 recording of a song she had just written and recorded. The recording was not meant to be anything definitive, just a recording to see how the song sounded. The song was called, “I’ll Take the Long Way Home,” and I think maybe Emma wanted to hear what my reaction was to the lyrics and who knows….

Anyway, so I listened to the song, and I very much liked it. In fact, I wrote her a message that looked very much like some kind of love-struck, over-exaggerating guy on the make…. “ahhhhhhh that voice…. it makes me want to cry …. and fall in love….” (I translate my response that was actually written in French.) “It is a very beautiful song… and also, your accent is so perfect that you cannot even tell you are actually French….”

Now, given that Emma is a beautiful, striking actress in addition to singer, and given that she is a friend at the open mics, you and I myself, could imagine that I was really exaggerating. In fact, Emma could easily be excused if she had thought that same thing herself. I did then tell her that even my son – more her age than me – who was standing behind me asked me who this interesting sounding singer was. Proof of something great, right?

Still, who knows? I knew her personally, liked her, and always found her quite beautiful. Clouded emotional stuff was sure to be part of the judgment. So, fast forward a couple of weeks later when the song and Emma were far from my mind. I was listening to an Elliott Smith album I own on my iTunes, playing it over my computer in the living room, while eating breakfast in the kitchen, at around my usual breakfast hour of 3 PM. (Thank you open mics.) While I am eating and reading the morning newspaper, suddenly I hear the sublime voice of a woman singing from my iTunes. At the risk of my Special K going soggy, I had to get up out of my chair and go into the living room to find out who the singer was.

Here is the recording that Emma sent me: Emma Bergmann Sings

I knew it was on my iTunes and I went into the living room with the attitude: “Sure, of course I know who this famous singer is. I have listened to it pretty recently…it was either on one of those CD compilations of new music from Uncut, Mojo or the French magazine Rock & Folk, or maybe it was on another compilation CD I have. I know it is one of these amazing new singer songwriter women of the moment, breaking the indie charts and taking up ink space in the music mags….”

So I get into the living room, feeling really ashamed of myself that my memory is so useless on the names of some of the finest singers of the moment, and I look at the name and title on iTunes. Even then I say to myself, “Huh? Emma Bergmann…who is…SHIT!” I know Emma more by another part of her family name, and I was suddenly stunned to realize that this really cool, hip, sublime voice and sound was actually that of my friend Emma. Because I DID know her, and because I DID like her, when she had sent me the recording a couple of weeks earlier, my judgement was insecure, clouded, but nevertheless probably true. Just how true it was I could not realize until I’d forgotten about her and the song and had a kind of “blind taste” of the music. And at that point, I realized that Emma’s song and voice really were great; and from the kitchen to the living room, I had not even been surprised about the quality of the recording.

Maybe music critics should have “blind tastes” of even the established names – although in most cases they would probably recognize the vocals and sound better than I did Emma’s. Maybe if we’re all lucky, that state of affairs about Emma won’t last for long. Check out the recording she sent me yourself, that I have pasted in above, and see what you think. Of course, now YOU will be influenced by my glowing review!!! Personally, I see no problem doing what iTunes did, jumping from Elliott Smith to Emma Bergmann…

No Words Left for Bonheur

December 12, 2012
bradspurgeon

I have had a few not-so-great nights at the open mic of the Ptit Bonheur la Chance on the rue Laplace in Paris, but the number of times I have had great and memorable nights far outweighs the latter. And last night was another great and memorable night. And I have had so many such nights there that I have run out of superlatives to describe the bonheur at the Bonheur.

So I am going to keep this writing to an absolute minimum in order to leave room for the videos. Needless to say, it was a typical night at the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar: Talk in the bar on the ground floor, followed and mixed with music in the cave in the silence of the silent listeners and cool musicians, followed by more talk and then a jam session on the ground floor after the open mic. What better recipe? A bit of everything.

Oh, and then a group of us headed off to an after hours bar around the corner once the hour hit 2 AM and our bonheur had ended.

And I brought along my Gibson J-200, so there was plenty of fun listening to the others play it, and me doing it myself.

Just check out the bonheur vidoes, and the videos of the bonheur….

Shakespeare and Company Literary Gathering, 3 Open Mics and the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

December 11, 2012
bradspurgeon

It has been a very long time since I attended a literary event – if you exclude the literary events I partake of every time I read a work of literature, which is very often – and now that I am on vacation and staying at home in boring old Paris, I decided I would make an effort to attend as many literary events as possible. So it was that when I arrived at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore for the first of my planned literary events and I was being refused entrance by a young and somewhat helpless book worker, I was very upset. But the guy was kind of right to try: The bookstore was so full of people it was barely standing room only, with all corners of the shop being occupied by listeners for a panel of editors of literary reviews talking about the past, present and future of that genre.

I really insisted, though, and the guy could see as well as I could that there was just enough space on the inside of the door for me to stand – with my large Gibson J-200 in its bag, by my side. So I got in and nodded thanks to the guy. I was delighted to see also cramped in there in a little desk by the entrance the delightful Sylvia Whitman, who has in recent years taken over the store that belonged to her father, who recently died, nearing 100 years of age. Sylvia is doing amazing things at the shop, and this panel is an example, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that I bought three of the reviews discussed in the panel, and I will have to busk for a week in sub-zero Paris weather in order to pay for them at 16 euros each. Literature is not for the poor. (Oh, sorry, another of the reviews, Five Dials, is entirely free and downloadable on the Internet, supported by the Hamish Hamilton publishing company in the UK.)

But anyway… The panel was made up of … no, forget that. I will just paste in the full details from the Shakespeare and Company newsletter announcing the thing: “Please join us to celebrate the launch of The White Review No. 6, notably featuring interviews with China Mieville, Julia Kristeva and Edmund de Waal, fiction by Helen DeWitt, essays on J. H. Prynne and Bela Tarr, artwork by Matt Connors and poetry by Emily Berry. To mark the release of this new edition, editors Jacques Testard and Benjamin Eastham have put together a panel to discuss the past, present and future of literary magazines, including Christian Lorentzen (Senior Editor at the London Review of Books and editor of Say What You Mean: The n+1 Anthology), Craig Taylor (Five Dials, and the author of Londoners), Heather Hartley (Paris editor of Tin House) and Krista Halverson (former managing editor of Zoetrope).”

The panel was a probing and interesting look at what is on the minds of the editors AND the readers. IE, how it is so much more fun to create a review and publish your own stuff rather than looking for a “traditional” publisher or one of the top magazines; how doing that also allows for discovering much interesting stuff from foreign writers in translation; how difficult it is to go through a slush pile every day; where to get writers in translation the funding of which will come from foreign literary lobbying organizations; how to distribute such reviews in a time when book stores no longer exist – except in strange places like Paris, where there is a massive number of small non-chain stores that will carry such magazines; how, with “so many” such reviews a reader is to make a choice on which to buy (!! if you’re rich, I say, buy them all); how submission to the slush pile really, truly, DOES work for the good writing, etc. It was fresh, and I hope that I have not highlighted too many “negative” things. I recall having attended a similar panel at the Village Voice book shop in around 1984 at a time when there was quite a movement of local expat literary magazines in Paris like Frank, and other names I now forget(!), and last night’s panel seemed so much “larger.” Having started to read N+1 today, I think it is, in fact. (I thoroughly enjoyed the opening essay, an insouciant attack on other magazines: the Atlantic, Harper’s and…the Paris Review.)

I think I will quit that theme now. From Shakespeare and Company I headed off to the Coolin that has a new system for the open mic that will be the death of it for me. It is an 8:30 PM sign up before the music starts at 9:30. This brings it to the level of the Highlander, where I can never get early enough to get my name on the list in a comfortable position – my fault, and the fault of living in the suburbs and eating a meal at home and getting up at 4 PM. But anyway….

So I went and signed up for the Coolin, then went to a great Italian restaurant next door and sat beside one of those women that you want to say to them: “You are the most beautiful woman in the world that I have ever seen.” But you don’t, because they’ve heard the line 500 times and no matter what, they will think you are insincere. And since it has happened to you 500 times you probably are insincere – except it seems true at that moment. But there she was with a friend, and talking about being friends with Vanessa Paradis and having approached “M” over some proposition or other…and slowly you think, maybe she IS the most beautiful woman in the world. Anyway….

Left the restaurant after eating one of the most beautiful pizzas in the world, went to Coolin, played two songs – Steve Forbert’s “Romeo’s Tune” (fitting, no?) and No Expectations of the Rolling Stones. Then realized that having signed up early enough to be around the sixth performer, I had the time to drop in briefly to the Tennessee for its open mic and then go to the Galway for its open mic. So went to the Tennessee, recorded a couple of acts, but did not even think of signing up to play at that late moment of the night, and then went to the Galway and played four songs.

An amazing, amazing night, all things considered. Four rendezvous, three open mics and two sets. Oh, and a pizza beside the most beautiful woman in the world that I have ever seen. (At least at that moment.)

An Unexpected Kindness and Coolness at the Freedom Pub and a Great Open Mic at the Lizard Lounge

December 10, 2012
bradspurgeon

Here is the story as I see it, without doing extensive research: This guy shows up at the Coolin open mic last Monday and hands me a “VIP Invitation” to “The Soirée,” presented by FC Freedom at the Freedom Pub, a popular sports bar off the Champs Elysées. The guy sees I have a guitar – although he has not heard me sing – and asks if I want to take part in the “X-Factor” part of the evening. I am always looking to follow the music, so I agree to do so.

That was for last night, but it also turned out that there was the once-per-month open mic of the Lizard Lounge, and I did not want to miss it. Anyway, I learn afterwards that this so-called X-Factor evening at the Freedom Pub, in fact, has nothing to do with any TV show or talent search. It is an annual fund raising event held by a soccer team, FC Freedom.

Okay, that was not exactly what I had thought this thing was going to be about, considering the way it had been presented. The guy had sought other musicians too, by the way, at Coolin. Anyway, because I had already agreed to go with the guy giving out the invitations and also with another one or two people who contacted me via telephone – it sounded all very heavy and official even so, right? – I thought I would definitely have to go. By the time last night happened, I was beginning to feel tired and not inspired, and it was raining and I had lots of things to do. Then I thought, “But you said you would go.” Furthermore, I realized I could go to the Freedom Pub, check out the show and then take the same Line 1 metro on to the Lizard Lounge.

So I arrive at the Freedom Pub – across the street from the longtime home of the International Herald Tribune from the 20s to the 70s – and I walk in to hear some kind of amateur rapping on the mic and I see a place that is pretty sparsely inhabited, and it did have a fairly “football club”-like feel to it. The sound system was not great, and after my friend with the invitations greeted me – I was late on the agreed upon hour, by the way – I quickly inquired if it was possible for my guitar to be plugged in. It was not. Only a mic.

I was immediately thinking about my second possible date, the Lizard Lounge. Worse, the man organizing the talent show said I could go on as the first person in the second part of the show, after another three acts. I thought my night would be gone, and I tried to back out. But my man with the invitations insisted to the man organizing the talent to let me go up immediately, if I wanted to. I said I could go with only my guitar in acoustic mode and the mic for my voice, and I’d be happy to do it immediately.

So I went up, sang two songs, got a few people singing along, they seemed to enjoy it – What’s Up and Mad World – and then I started packing my guitar and told the guy I was sorry I wouldn’t stay but I had this other event to attend. He immediately offered me a fresh new bottle of Smirnoff Eristoff Black premium Vodka based spirit as payment for my attendance and performance! I could not believe the gesture, especially as I was not hanging around and had bought nothing to drink myself. It made me feel really good about him, about the FC Freedom and about the Freedom Pub off the Champs Elysées. And I also had a thought for the other people who had withdrawn at the last minute, did not show up and did not follow the music. Do it! Follow the music.

Anyway, I went off to the Lizard Lounge and had a GREAT open mic. Lots of cool musicians, some friends, a nice environment and an absolutely deadly sound system. I was feeling so good that my music went well too, and I actually got an encore and a request for a second Cat Stevens song after I sang a first – so I did Miles from Nowhere and Father and Son. A wonderful, wonderful evening. Thanks music.

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Monthly Archives: December 2012