July | 2012 | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Don’t Kill the Young – They Make Great Open Mics

July 14, 2012
bradspurgeon

Entering the Arte Café last night I felt a little drop in my stomach. I had been invited to a new open mic there, and having missed the first one last week while in England, I could attend the second one, last night, but I had not been expecting to find a room like this. “Tiny” is not the word for this place. Minuscule fits the description much better. In fact, there is virtually no place to sit down, and the place fills up with about 15 people. Not sure whether it is an art gallery, bar, snack joint or clothes closet, I could never guess that I was about to attend one of the most fun open mics in recent memory.

What made it fun, and what proves a point better than ever, is the people who attended. I’ve often said there are a few essentials for the success of an open mic: Location in the city, the shape and vibe and size of the venue, the coolness of the staff and the people who run it, and finally the people who attend. Last night’s open mic at the Arte Café proved that the most important thing of all, a thing that can take over and trash all other factors – i.e., don’t matter where it is located – is the people who attend, and the people who run it.

The place just filled up slowly but surely, and it was a great mix of the crowd that attends the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic that I rave on about in Paris on Tuesday nights, and the Pop In crowd. Oh, there were other aliens too. And another element that made it fun for me personally, in addition to knowing several musicians and meeting other new ones, was this freaky thing that happened: Last week I was listening to a stack of CDs from a French independent record company called Volvox, and found this cool group I had heard of, but never heard, named “Kill the Young.”

I had been given the CDs by a friend who works with Volvox, just as a sampler of what they are up to, this label. I knew the label as far back as nearly three years ago when I met and discovered Anton Barbeau, the crazy cool American acid-y kind of rocker, who was signed to Volvox. So anyway, I listened intrigued to Kill the Young, and I liked what I heard. Coming from a town near Manchester, but mostly now a French-European-international group of three brothers, they had some success with their first album as far back as 2005.

When I listened to the music, I thought it was an interesting combination of Brit sound and the French take on the Brit pop sound. I don’t know if it is that or anything else, but some of the songs are very original, melodic and interesting – and it does not all sound alike. The lead singer, Tom Gorman, has a very cool and interesting gritty, emotional voice.

So, what was my surprise with the album fresh in my mind when about the fourth or so performer last night was announced as Tom from the band Kill the Young. And he played the first song from the album I had just listened to, “I don’t want to fight with you anymore.” It was Kill the Young’s third album, which came out in 2011, and is called, Thicker Than Water. So after he plays I go up and recount the coincidence… but I’m having a bit of a hard time because a young woman outside the bar had stopped and heard him and recognized him and introduced herself as a former student assistant at the label!

When I did introduce myself, Tom said to me, “Yes, my girlfriend over there told me that you had lent me your guitar once at the Pop In when I played there….”

Well crap! Talk about things coming together. So I ended up lending him my guitar again last night for his next song, later, and then at the end of the evening we played “Mad World” together, as a duo. Then we jammed together, as did almost everyone else who remained.

The evening was a fabulous mix of different styles, different duos, trios, the after show jam session where anything goes – and did. The confined quarters meant intimacy, meant speaking with lots of people, making new friends and acquaintances, and forgetting entirely how cramped it all was. There was a bookshelf with literary books in French and English, including a novel by Virginia Woolf and the autobiography of Keith Richards. (Nice combination….)

silverstone guitar and amp case

Talking of another coincidence, the wonderful open mic organizer, Amelie S. Bolt, had this most amazing guitar/amp kit for use by everyone: Like the name of the last place I travelled to (last weekend, Silverstone, England) it was called a Silvertone guitar. And it comes in a case that doubles as an amplifier. It is a rarity, an oddity, from the 1960s – vintage kitsch. But very, very cool.

The open mic runs again next week and then picks up again at the end of August, after a summer break. At least I HOPE it does. As I thought about the place, bit by bit it reminded me of an interesting thing. This was called l’Arte Café, and it served a great Belgian beer, called Delerium. Well, in Liege, readers of this blog may recall that I used to go to a now-defunct place called l’Art Café, where there was a great open mic and jam. Of course, I would drink Belgian beer there too, although I think I saved the Delerium for the Delerium pub in Brussels and ITS open mic on Sunday nights. What a small world full of connections and coincidences – when you put yourself out there….

Cambodian Space Project at the Mecanique Ondulatoire

July 13, 2012
bradspurgeon

Readers of this blog may remember a few references and videos I have made to Scott Bywater. I met Scott at the Truskel open mic a couple of months ago, and we have then crossed paths at another couple of open mics. Scott comes from Tasmania – of all places – and spent some time in Cambodia. He told me about this cool band he played with in Cambodia, and I never expected I would have the chance to see him and them in Paris. So there was no way I was going to miss the chance to go and see the Cambodian Space Project last night at the Mecanique Ondulatoire.

I was really surprised with what I found. Going through the rain with the only pair of shoes that do not take in the rain, and the umbrella made for carrying a guitar – i.e., only half of the umbrella works – I was delighted to discover this band that really made me feel like I was in Cambodia. I have never been there, but I have been in lots of other places in Asia, so it took me there, did the Cambodian Space Project.

It did not only take me there, it took a full house in the cellar of the Macanique Ondulatoire. I was amazed at how this band from Cambodia could fill up the room at a moment’s notice, and how many people in Paris could have heard of them? But the lead singer/songwriter/star, does a great job, writes so cool songs – including one that was very acid and surprised me – and in all sorts of different styles that mean you are never bored by hearing the same thing again and again – you don’t. Check out the videos.

Village of Paris: From Highlander to Shakespeare and Co and Back Again

July 12, 2012
bradspurgeon

Grabbing hold of your own destiny. It feels great when you do it. Last night I went to the Highlander open mic and found it bursting with life, musicians and spectators. So much so that I was around 20th on the list of performers, and I wondered how I was going to make it from around 9:30 PM to 00:30 AM standing, listening, drinking, before I got up to express myself.

After a beer, I decided that I knew no one with whom I wanted to have an extended conversation – despite some great friends present – as I was feeling a little low. I decided that my life is my own, and rather than standing there, I should go out into the evening and take a walk down the street to Shakespeare and Company bookstore to see if they had a recent issue of The New York Review of Books. I would freshen my spirt, and return to the open mic with a different mindset.

So I went. A nice night, sun still, not dark. And when I arrived at Shakespeare and Company I still had an hour there before it closed. I found an issue of the 12 July to 15 August of the NYBR and then decided to look at the books. I found a few that intrigued me, but I bought none. I then heard some piano from the first floor, and applause. Hmm… Life music?

I went upstairs and found the piano room in the library and there were a couple of teenagers, one with a violin and the other on the piano. They also had an electric guitar. There was a nice little audience of five or six people or more, of all ages. The musicians finished playing their song, saw my guitar and asked if I wanted to play. I sure did! So I did “Mad World,” and “Father and Son,” and the pianist and violin player joined me on the first, and the pianist tried to join me on the second too, but they were on the way out the door.

It was a real pleasure to play in amongst the books at this monument of Paris bookstores where you are truly free to roam, read, play and whatever…. When I finished my song, a woman with her boyfriend or husband, said, “Do you play at the Highlander sometimes?” I said I did, and she said she recognized me from perhaps three months before. She and the man had only been to the Highlander once, but she had remembered me. Ouch! That was cool. And it showed what a small village Paris can be sometimes.

Of course, it brightened my spirits massively, and I left Shakespeare and Company feeling as if I had been in control of my life and raising my downer spirit. I returned to the Highlander after barely an hour’s absence and walked in the door to order a beer, and a woman greeted me: “How are you?!? Long time no see. You cracking?” Or something like that. “Ready for some action?” she added. Well, I had to admit, “Yes.” I was ready. What was she proposing?

Anyway, I spent the rest of the evening at the Highlander with her and a friend with her, whom I met and got on with like a highlander on fire. (sorry) I then performed my songs, and they liked it and the stuff went over well, despite me not doing only the usual stuff but trying something new.

The only drawback to what turned out to be a fabulous evening all together, was that I only managed to make three videos of the great musicians present last night. My favorite of the three is the one of Thomas Brun going crazy on the final song of the night with all his electronic toys. It was very cool, and grabbed the spirit of the night.

But meeting up with the woman of long time no see, and meeting the people who had seen me months earlier, it all made Paris feel like a village…. One where it is possible to control one’s destiny – or at least whether you are having fun or not…. 🙂

Micro-Post: Ptit Bonheur Retour

July 11, 2012
bradspurgeon

My post yesterday covered three days and more than a thousand words – I think – and was certainly at the level of the verbal runs. So today, given lack of time and a sense of compassion for my faithful readers, I have decided only to post the videos from my evening at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic in Paris last night. And to say that it was a fabulous night with some amazing performers. There were some amazing guitars, too, and interestingly, one guitar reminded me of Pierre Bensusan – since it was a Lowden – and a song from someone up after that was a traditional Irish song done in the interpretation of Pierre Bensusan. That’s the evening in a nutshell, micro-post, as opposed to mini-post.
PS: When I sang “Just Like a Woman,” and I sang the words, “she breaks just like a little girl” there was a huge crash of around 10 to 15 beer glasses breaking on the stairs behind me. It felt like I commanded her break….

A Three-Part Blog Item to Make Up For Time Lost in Travel Warps

July 10, 2012
bradspurgeon

PART I

I just hate letting the blog slide, but things were just way beyond my control over the last couple of days, and I do not want to leave the impression that either I was not doing anything interesting, or not doing music, or not taking risks in life to live my dreams. OK, now that I have that dramatic lead out of the way, let me get on with a three-part blog item, which is the only way I can figure out doing justice to the last three nights of musical levity and profundity.

I left off with my last Oxford blog talking about the lost opportunity at the Oxford Folk Club. Well, Saturday night I had nothing lined up for playing music when suddenly a Formula One racing journalist colleague and I discovered after many years of knowing each other that we had a passion for music, and on his side especially jazz. It was clear we would hit it off when I told him I could never sing jazz, but loved it. But I added the singer HAD to be astounding for me to like it, as most amateur jazz singers sound to me like cold porridge – or flat champagne.

So he said, “Who is a great jazz singer?” I said, “Jimmy Rushing.” He said, “Guess who I was listening to in the car on the way to the circuit this morning?!?!” Yes, Rushing. So later in the day, this colleague told me he had been invited to a barbecue of a mutual colleague of ours – a photographer – and I was now invited and should bring my guitar to entertain the guests. I felt great relief telling him my guitar was in Oxford, that I could not return there and then back to the circuit. For the location of the party was in a small village next to the circuit. “Bad news, Brad. It turns out our colleague’s daughter has a guitar,” he said to me.

He must have picked up on my relief that I would not be found out as a fake, since I had spoken a lot about my musical adventure – as had some others of our colleagues to him. I was scared shitless that I would not be up to his expectations. But music comes first, emotions come first, the real reason for playing and singing, come first: expressing inner emotional truth, and who gives a fuck what others think.

So I went to the party, drank enough to relax, ate, and met the 25 or so guests. Then at the right moment, I got the daughter’s guitar out and began playing. It turned into about one hour of singing along, clapping, fun, emotion, and a general huge success. I had an astoundingly good time, and reports back the following day confirmed that I was not alone to have fun. So it was yet another example of, “Push yourself towards expanding the boundaries and doing what you love and taking chances.”

PART II

I ended up sleeping over at this person’s home, in the swimming pool room, and so thereby avoiding traffic and getting to the circuit early for an interview and then the race. I then returned to my hotel in Oxford, went out to dinner and then went to the Harcourt Arms pub’s open mic, which I also attended last year in its first weeks of its existence. Remember, this one came out of the Bookbinder’s open mic down the street, which was organized by Nigel Brown…. A year later, with Nigel still running the Harcourt Arms open mic, I was greeted warmly as I entered, by both Nigel AND the publicans. Wow! It is like a second home. I have a lot of those now around the world.

It turned into a perfect open mic evening with a wide cross-section of performers, wonderful meetings with musicians, locals, tourists and three drop-dead gorgeous German women students all studying biochemistry! (I now realize I should have gone into science….) There was a fabulous pub atmosphere as usual in this consummate neighborhood English pub, with the added attraction of it being located in the great university town.

But the adventure here would become for me yet another case of following instinct, desire and ambitions as I performed a set of two songs alone, and then got another chance to go up, and I asked Nigel a question.

“This year,” I told him, “as I travel the world, I am trying to play and record myself playing, in each country with a local musician. Would you like to play with me?”

He said fine, but added that I would be better off with a guitarist named Johnny Hinkes. So I asked Johnny, and he agreed to play with me. I had not really been very motivated to ask, as it really is like leaping across a big canyon to go out and put yourself forward and say, “Can someone play with me?”

But when I got up to play with Johnny, I realized that I was with a lead guitarist like none I had ever played with before. I started with “Mad World,” because I thought it suited the moment, and would be easy and good for him to play along to. But he did such an amazing and different job with it, that I decided to be ambitious and do my song, “Borderline.” He was even better with that, and had never heard it before. It was a fabulous success, I had the time of my life, and I got it recorded too – although not on video. The Harcourt Arms and Nigel Brown came through again – better than ever! (I was then offered a cab ride back to my hotel by someone going that direction, which was a fabulous time saver for my Monday travels.)

PART III

It was a long, long, long day from Oxford back to Paris. I had to drive my rental car to Avis in London, then go to the St. Pancras station and take the Eurostar. Just before entering the Channel Tunnel, the train stopped at a station and we sat there for 2 hours!!! That is 20 minutes short of what the whole trip is supposed to take. The train had a technical problem and could not go through the tunnel. Would we have been suffocated or something?

Finally, we switched to a new train, and I arrived in Paris at 20:15. It was too late to return home and THEN go to the Coolin open mic as I planned. So I just went directly to Coolin with all my luggage and my guitar and ate a meal there – English fish ‘n chips – and I waited for the open mic. I was not feeling particularly inspired about the evening, but it began to grow on me, I saw friends, I heard great music, I got into the vibe, did my bit, and then saw some people I met last week – the trio with Alix, Anzaya and Leyone, whom I had met last week when I hosted the Galway open mic.

Suddenly, I found that I was having the greatest evening, totally into it, loving every moment. It was yet another cool Coolin, and I was again on top of the world. A fine end to a busy weekend.

Too Late to Play, but Great Listening at the Oxford Folk Club

July 7, 2012
bradspurgeon

I would have thought I would have learned my lesson by now. I always push myself to the limit to seek every opportunity to play on an open stage. But last night, despite knowing there was an outside chance of playing at the Oxford Folk Club, I decided to decide that the announcement on its web site that it was a concert night meant there was no open stage. Of course, two years ago I attended on a concert night and was able to play in the first part of the evening. The same would have happened last night – but I missed the chance. I stayed at my hotel, dried my feet, changed shoes – a month’s worth of rain is falling this weekend in Oxford – and THEN went to the Oxford Folk Club, across the street. There, I nevertheless, heard a fabulous folk band called Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators.

It was well worth hearing and seeing them, but I really regretted not going earlier to play a couple of songs myself in the first part of the evening along with the other people who took part in the open stage beforehand.

The Oxford Folk Club has been around for well over a decade and is located in a rustic pub on the Abingdon Road. It has featured some of the best folk musicians of the country but in a very intimate environment of an upper room of the pub. Last night the band, which has existed on and off since the mid-1970s, played its own folk songs and some American popular music as well. It was extremely together, and excelled in fun patter between numbers.

An Evening at the Amazing Catweazle in Oxford

July 6, 2012
bradspurgeon

catweazle

There is no place on earth like Catweazle at the East Oxford Community Center, I assure you. Oh, there may be a few other Catweazles around – in London, New York, etc. – but there is no way they can be as good as the original, here in Oxford. That is thanks to Oxford itself, the people in it, the room in which it takes place, and last but far from least, Matt Sage, the founder of the open mic and its extraordinarily smooth and witty MC for the past 18 years.

Brad Spurgeon interviews Matt Sage the MC of the Catweazle Club open mic in Oxford England:

Yes, yes, there are open mics and open stages all around the world, and I go to a lot of them and write about them here. But Catweazle has a unique vibe because of where it is located, the kind of people who perform, and the makeup of the show. And Matt’s delivery as an MC. Wanna hear amazing new song compositions by Oxford University student types, or an explanation of Higgs Boson…go to Catweazle Thursday nights in Oxford.

Last night was my fourth time at the open mic here, as I showed up once a year for the last three years, and yesterday. The first year, I arrived at 8 PM, found myself too late to sign up on the large list of performers, and so I defected to the open mic at the Half Moon pub, down the Cowley Road five minutes away. The second year, I got up and did a couple of songs. Last year I did another couple, and last night, one song.

However many songs I got to play or not play, the atmosphere at this community center open mic is very, very worth any time you get to spend there. It is very hippie, with spectators and performers sitting on couches and cushions spread around the room. There is no mic – it puts up a wall between audience and performer, according to Matt in the podcast I did with him (listen above) – and there are no boundaries as to the kind of performance. Mostly music, there is also spoken word – prose, poetry…and scientific educational lecturing….

As a performer you have to arrive at 7 PM for a 7:30, 7:45 sign-up if you want to get on the list. I arrived well before the announced 7:30 signup last night and I was almost last on a list of 20 performers. It is a very difficult venue to play because it is so great: There were around 150 people present at the peak last night listening in a relatively small room, in complete silence. And as there are so many performers, most have only one song to do. Stepping into that religiously quiet atmosphere with 300 ears listening and just as many eyes focusing on you is unnerving. But if you hook into that vibe, it is also a beautiful, unique moment of performance atmosphere.

There was also a longer set by a regular performer, Luke Keegan, and his band, as he has just put out an album.

Words do not quite suit for the atmosphere of Catweazle – check out the videos and podcast to get a better idea.

PS, as I was in Paris the night before, and it was Wednesday, I performed at the Highlander open mic. Thank goodness I ended up going on just before the star of the evening, instead of after him: I would have had no chance against this 12 year old kid, or whatever his age was…and I could not get his name down either, as I did not have my iPhone notepad….

A Couple of Discoveries at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance – What Luck!

July 4, 2012
bradspurgeon

It was a night as relatively quiet at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance open mic in Paris last night as it was the previous night at the Galway. We ARE in Paris in July. Of course, there may be fewer and fewer French people as the summer progresses, but there should be more and more visitors – guitar carrying and others. Last night, one of the visitors was the astounding Desmond Myers, an American singer songwriter from North Carolina but who lives in Germany and is currently touring France, Spain and Italy in a walkabout open mic, busking and concert tour.

Desmond is a very rare musician in that his guitar playing, vocals, lyrics and melodies are all quite original and extremely well executed. I was impressed, to say the least. I was trying to figure out what made his guitar playing different, but it is hard to pinpoint, and I got too much into the music and stopped analyzing. He mixes elements of hip hop, folk, pop and country ballads to come out with something quite his own. Oh, there are sounds I can find in here whether he means it or not – like there is definitely a Jack Johnson sound to his voice … except he varies his delivery a LOT more than Johnson does, has a wider range. Thank goodness.

I listened to a CD sample of his called The Yellow Rose – IE, an EP – and he has a full CD coming out in the fall, apparently. What was interesting in these well produced songs on the CD was that, actually, the brilliant guitar playing does NOT come out. But a lot of other elements do. And you realize listening to the six songs together that he has another advantage in being a rare musician whose songs do not all sound alike!

Oh, it was a cool thing for me too that as I went to ask him for his name he said, “Are you Brad Spurgeon?” Yeah! This blog does it again. Turns out he found the Ptit Bonheur la Chance and the Pop In through this blog. Also turns out he’s doing European tour kind of similar to my worldwide tour of open mics. So all together a very satisfying evening on that front.

But he was not the only one at the Ptit Bonheur who gave me food for musical thought and musings. I had seen these two women there in past weeks but never heard them play. Last night I listened to this duo calling themselves Skins of the Count. Their French accent made me do a real double take when I heard them pronounce the name through the mic, and I had completely misinterpreted the last word. But afterwards they confirmed the REAL name of the band.

What’s interesting with them is daring, unusual lyrics, and original delivery. The execution really has to be worked on, but there is gold in the making here.

I played my songs, others played theirs, it was a quiet, but full and interesting night in the beginning of the hot summer in Paris.

MCing the Galway Open Mic in Paris

July 3, 2012
bradspurgeon

Last night I got a bit of a taste of what it is like to MC an open mic at one of the long-lasting, mainstay open mic venues in Paris, and all I can say to those who do it all the time is: Respect! I had some experience doing this myself at my Mecano Sunday brunches for around six months a year or so ago. But taking over a regular venue for one night gives a whole new look at things.

I have to thank all my musician friends who showed up to play and help me, as without them I’d have had to play all night myself. Okay, what I really meant to say, was, without them, it would have been a somewhat barren affair, given that it was the beginning of the July holidays in France, and the day after a major soccer match. So lots of people stayed home.

But I had lots of performers, and I would have been able to do even more videos had I not been working out the sound feedback, musician monitor and other technical glitches that I came slightly unprepared for. I had actually been prepared by a photo taken of the soundboard on my iPhone the previous week – but after the iPhone was stolen over the weekend, I lost my crutch.

Thanks to Thomas Arlo and Brislee Adams for helping me out of that. And especial thanks to Joe Cady for turning up with his violin, to play along with me and several other musicians – and for taking that little video of me on his iPhone as I sang my song, “Except Her Heart.” Oh, and boy, there was this really cool trio that arrived for the first time, and it was their first gig together – and that was really, really exciting from the point of view of running the open mic. Check out the videos I did manage to do of them….

Next week Romain returns to do the job he has been doing so well…

The Wide-Ranging, Long-Lasting Lizard Lounge Open Mic

July 2, 2012
bradspurgeon

Last night was the last Lizard Lounge open mic of the summer. It was as cool as usual, with a large crowd of spectators and a lot of musicians – but not too many. The most interesting aspect of this open mic is just how many different style of musician and group are accepted. From the soloist to the full band with drum set, anything goes. That has its drawbacks too, of course, if you are a soloist and you go right after an amazing full sounding band.

I decided not to do my crowd pleasers last night, and felt it. But some people complimented me afterwards, so I assume it passable. I played my Crazy Lady, and Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” There was a fabulous group playing Depeche Mode, the closing group with its sax and two cool guitar players, and one or two other neat things – like the ever cool John McNulty and band.

But I ultimately left the open mic with the most interesting moment for me personally coming as I left and a couple of the organizers pointed out to me that this open mic has been around now for 10 years! Since I did not even hit the open mic road until three and a half years ago, and the first place I played in Paris was the Lizard Lounge’s Monday night open mic with Earle Holmes, I always connected the Lizard Lounge with Earle’s Monday night open mic which ended there in around early 2009 – if not earlier.

But the Sunday monthly open mic and jam session at the Lizard Lounge in its comfortable basement room was going even at that time. And although only once per month, it has its regulars and has never stopped. It’s easy to see why – it is very musician and spectator friendly. Last night’s session was the last for the summer – that means there will be no Lizard Lounge open mic until either the first Saturday of September or the first Saturday of October, it has not yet been decided which.

Now I have to run off to go and host the Galway Pub open mic just off the Place St. Michel, taking duties for one night as the regular MC takes a break.