From Drinks With Marianne to a Musical Digestif at Coolin, Palliating the Coming Dearth of Open Mics in Paris

marianne bp

In terms of open mics in Paris, we are situated in the red hot moment of total desperation, angst and depression in the middle of the month of August where all of Paris has to take off and go somewhere else, leaving its tourists and musicians to play with themselves.

Last night was the end of the opulence, as there were actually and ridiculously, FOUR open mics concentrated in the same area – more or less – of the Latin Quarter. Tonight, Tuesday, there are ZERO open mics, as they all take a summer break. On the other hand, not even a brimming full Paris of open mics and the crawl it would have allowed me to take would stop me from preferring to go out for a drink with my friend Marianne BP.

I met Marianne at an open jam session one Monday night a year or so ago, and our musical paths have crossed several times, and as she was about to go off herself for a vacation, we met up for a drink last night and discussed our various projects. Marianne has recently completed the second of her music videos, as well as completing her first novel. So as I complete my various writing and video projects, we had much to discuss and share.

I mention this mainly in order to post her two music videos on the blog and by way of explanation as to why there will be so little on the blog about my open mic experience in Paris last night… that did not effectively begin until midnight, at the Coolin, having taken a pass at the other three places, the Batofar, the Tennessee Bar and the Galway. I heard from musicians who DID do a bit of an open mic crawl that things were kicking at both the Galway – where there was a list of 12 performers, and apparently Thomas Brun of the Highlander was serving as MC – and at the Tennessee. I had no spies at the Batofar, though, so I cannot say anything about that one.

I can only complain that it makes no sense for four venues to do an open mic in the same city on the same night when there are other nights this summer where there is NOTHING: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for example!

Anyway, the Coolin seemed to become even more alive as we approached 12:30 AM, but it seemed they were looking to close down a little early too, and so I managed to do my two-song set, and see a few other performers, and then call it an early night – at around 1:30….