Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Has anyone else noticed what I have noticed? When you do nothing of something, it leads to doing more nothing of something. When you do a lot of something, it leads to doing a lot more of something. I wonder why that is? I any case, I have not put up a blog post on this blog all week, and for any regular readers out there, my only excuse is that … I didn’t put anything up…. So the more I did not put anything up, the easier it became to not put anything up. And eventually….
The rapping lady at the Noctambules.

O.K., that’s enough running on at the mouth, and in fact, I do have other excuses, for instance, a mountain of articles to write for my job! But when I think about the amount of time it really takes to put up a post, I think I’ll return to my original thought: Too much of nothing leads to a lot more of nothing….
Les Spleens play the Noctambules.

And yet still, I have all the videos from Raphaëlle’s open mic at the Noctambule in Paris last Friday, and I have yet to put them up – although I am going to solve that problem right now and put them up here.
Igor at the Noctambules.

In fact, I must say that last week’s was another “vintage” Noctambules open mic, and for the first time Raphaëlle and the bar tested out the format that eventually the open mic will be taking throughout the winter, which is to say, setting up the open mic in the back room, rather than on the front terrace. O rather, it started on the terrace and then later moved to the back room.
Insu plays the Noctambules.

It was interesting, and although I love to sing on the terrace and look out into the Place Pigalle, there were other aspects to the back room that I had not foreseen – such as more attention from the spectators sometimes, and a more cosy and together feeling from the crowd of all taking part in the open mic. (When it happens on the terrace, there can be a feeling that a lot of people are there to sit on the terrace, and have the music as background – although there’s nothing wrong with that.)
Claudio plays the Noctambules.

The monitoring of one’s own performance while performing was also better in the back room than in the front, and there was a lot more dancing and carousing going on in the back. All in all, it was a success, and a massive, massive amount of fun. So check it out tonight again, if you happen to be in Paris and looking for something to do….
Rony Boy’s short intro at the Noctambules.

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