Brad Spurgeon's Blog

The open mics have come back to life after the Christmas break, and last night I headed off to the Tennessee Bar first, having entirely written off the possibility of playing at the Coolin, since you now have to sign the list at 8:30 in order to play at between around 10:15 and 12:15, and it was already around 10 PM. So I figured I would never get a spot on the list. But walking into the Tennessee Bar I found a madhouse of activity, and what was surely a list of about 500 names. So I just said, “Forget it.” I headed off immediately to the Coolin with the thought that you just never know….

And there to my delight I found that there was a long list, but that there was room for me anyway – after around nine other performers. So I signed up, took a beer, and then sat and listened to the music. Feeling as if I would not find someone to talk to, I decided I’d go off and check out the Galway and see if I could play there, since it was early enough. I hid my beer in an amazingly good hidden corner I found at the Coolin, went off and found a buzzing Galway open mic.

There I found that I could make it to the list, but with only five people ahead of me. Now, unfortunately, my maths were not that good. Five people ahead of me at the Galway were to play 3 songs each, while the seven people that remained when I left the Coolin were to play 2 songs each. That meant that I was most certainly on target to get back to the Coolin having missed my spot on the list.

I listened to some cool stuff at the Galway and then did my songs, and then returned to the Coolin to find that I HAD missed my spot. But Etienne Belin, the kind MC, offered to let me play after the singer who was up – and I became the last performer of the night. That’s why I love the Coolin. Oh, and I managed to recuperate my beer – and then have another, the free one offered to singers….