Variation on a Paris Open Mic Theme – Three Down, Back to First

It’s really summertime in Paris, and the fish are jumping out of the open mics and into the ocean beaches and elsewhere. Some open mics are closed down for the summer in the capital, Paris, but those that stay open and honor the musicians who stay in Paris do an even bigger favor to themselves by giving a place to play music to all the visiting tourists that crowd the city in the summer. Having said that, last night was a pretty quiet one from one open mic to the other – with all three of the main places in the Latin Quarter showing slower than usual business. One rose above the others, however.

I started off, late, at Coolin and I played early, as the musician population was low. I decided not to hang around, as I really wanted to see if business was jumping more in the other venues. So I tripped on over to the Tennessee Bar and found a weird and cool banjo player on stage and a much thinner audience than usual at that time of night – around 23:20.

So I just cut out of there without playing, went on over to the Galway Pub, and found it to be low on musicians too – although one who was there was there thanks to finding the place on my open mic list on this blog, a tourist with his guitar, Clinton Tavares – and I played my set immediately upon arrival. (Well, another guy did one more song.)

So I drank only a half a Kilkenny there before deciding to go home. Then I thought, nah, double back and check out the action at Coolin again. So although I had to force myself – since I suddenly had the prospect of an early rise today – I returned, and found the Coolin just buzzing and jumping as all the fish had discovered it was the best environment on this Monday night in July for a bit of wild musical letting go.

I listened to a number of musicians, danced with a beautiful woman, then played one last song of my own before leaving absolutely fulfilled. Summertime can still be nice in Paris – even if I prefer April, which here, is not the cruelest month. Better stop there before I butcher and more prose (or is it pros?)….