Brad Spurgeon's Blog

I would estimate that 98 percent of the time I go to the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic in Paris near the Pantheon on the rue Laplace on Tuesday nights I end up having a great evening of music and socializing. It happened again last night. The evening started slowly with not that many people there when I arrived at around 9:30. I was afraid I would be too late for the list, to perform, but I was lucky and signed up. Then the place began to fill up with musicians and spectators, and the musical aspect of the evening was great – with a respectful audience that listened and sang along (not to mine) – and then afterwards there was a long period of socializing in the bar, meeting new and interesting people – a great time.

One of the big differences at this open mic is that it is a place where people go into the small cellar to listen to the musicians, and they stay up in the bar to talk. The musicians tend to be very good, young and original, and the audience tends to be about the same. I go so often that I was not sure what to sing, but decided to do “I Won’t Back Down” and my new one, “Crazy Lady.” I did not think of these as crowd pleasers, but I did think of them as songs I wanted to sing. That seemed to please the crowd, which pleased me even more.

I was then even more delighted to meet afterwards someone from a band from California who approached me and said they found the open mic thanks to this blog and its list of open mics and jams in Paris. This was Autumn Harrison of the band Salt Petal. Autumn, who plays accordion and sings, later gave me their CD, and it is quite good – with my favorite song being the very sort of retro-pop song called “Travel Far.” That one sounds almost like something written by Buddy Holly.