Brad Spurgeon's Blog

MELBOURNE – Oh, the jet-setting life! So I got to Melbourne yesterday by way of Dubai, and during my brief stop-over in the UAE airport, I get this email message from an Australian fellow traveller who happened to be passing through Melbourne and who remembered meeting me at an open mic last year at the Great Britain hotel. He so kindly told me that the open mic at the aforesaid joint no longer exists, but that he knew of a great new one that also took place on Wednesday nights, would I like to go? If so, I should write the guy who runs the open mic, and who also runs the bar, and ask for a slot. So I did, and I went, and it was great. But that’s not all….

So I get to this new venue that has been open for a year now, called Mr. Boogie Man Bar, and I find Fender Stratocasters papering the walls, and I find stuff like a poster for a Bob Dylan concert in Greenwich Village in 1960, and Rolling Stones photos, and Hendrix photos, and signed guitars, signed albums, all sorts of memorabilia, and a big stage at the end of the bar and a mic and a woman singing. And David, the guy who runs the place.

So I find I’m signed up for 22:40, and I have plenty of time to listen to the music – including by my considerate acquaintance from last year, another man named David – and I ask David – the one behind the bar – where I can go to eat. He had pizza, but as I ate pizza on the flight that day, and then a panzerotti in Melbourne (in the only shop that sells them in Melbourne), I was not so keen on pizza. So David directs me to a fish and chips joint down the street. And as I make my way down to the fish and chips joint, and I’m remembering how last year I had attended an open mic on the Thursday night – the Acoustic Café – and went to a fish and chips joint, and so wasn’t life similar so often?, I find myself approaching this fish and chips joint and saying, “My God, it’s the SAME fish and chips joint as last year!” but I’m approaching from another direction.

So then it is that I realize that I am indeed in the same neighbourhood as last year’s Thursday night open mic – which no longer exists, and is not to be confused with the Wednesday night open mic that no longer exists – and here I am going to the fish and chip joint where I had such terrible fish and chips last year. So I go around the corner and get a plate of duck meat rigatoni to go from Rita’s, a hip restaurant.

I return to Mr. Boogie Man’s bar, order another Shiraz – under the Mr. Boogie Man label – and I sit and listen to David – my friend who invited me. And boy am I glad he invited me. This is a very cool open mic, more than enough to replace the Great Britain hotel, and much of its greatness comes from David – the owner behind the bar. A well organized open mic, great sound system, funky bar, great feelings.

My only criticism? Most of the musicians booked their slot, came, played their three or four or five songs, and then left, without listening to the other musicians. That’s a bit impersonal. But for those who did stay, it was a fun, warm and celebratory night. I’ll definitely return – as long as Mr. Boogie Man does not go the way of the Great Britain hotel and the Acoustic Café come next year!

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