The Pub Open Mic Paris
Currently sitting in a theater space in Kuala Lumpur and waiting to see if we will be able to return to Paris on our flight that passes through Dubai (due to the war with Iran), I finally have a moment to write about my recent open mic experience in Paris: I had been waiting for so long to attend the open mic at The Pub, in Paris, that the anticipation seemed to great to be lived up to. The Pub open mic has now existed for two or three years – since Sept. 2023, in fact – and picks up where the original team of the open mic at the Rush Bar has moved on. After the Rush bar they then moved to a place in the Bastille area, but not finding the formula as cozy and genial as the Rush bar, they have moved on again. And cozy is the word!
“The Pub” is such a small, intimate, bar that as I walked in for the first time I worried it could never work as the setting for an open mic: The bar lines the back wall in an L-shape, and the “stage” is set before the front window. There are just a few tables and stools, and a winding staircase leading to the toilets in the basement. Nothing else much down there. So how the hell could this turn into as music setting for an open mic?
I forgot one of the key ingredients of open mics everywhere: I had forgotten that in my experience it is often the smallest, most intimate bars that produce the best open mics. Part of the reason for this is there is no possibility of anyone wandering off into groups separated from the stage to ignore the performers and chit chat. The other great thing is simply being so close to the performers the effect of the live music is always very strong in our mirror neurons!
Solene and PA at The Pub open mic
Finally, the tiny stage and spectator area absolutely ensures full attention to the performer, as any talk among spectators is so easily noticed that they feel ashamed.
So The Pub, owned by Darren Ashman who also continues his warm serving behind the bar, along with its open mic host, the equally warm and talented Charlie Seymour, turns out to be the perfect formula, and very close to that of the original Rush Bar open mic. Charlie plays a few songs to start with, then the stage is open, and it is all very casual, no list to sign, but just a signal to Charlie that you are there and want to sing.
Fingerpicking at the Pub open mic
The night I went, there were lots of regulars, and some of them very talented. I saw or knew some familiar faces and sounds, from some of Paris’s wandering open mic minstrels, as you will see in the videos. There is Charlie’s guitar available – but you can bring your own – and perhaps by chance there were keyboards there that night, too. The sound is fine, but the bar is small enough that if anyone sings harmonies – as did Solene et PA, as you will see in the videos – it is not necessary to have a mic ono both voices.
Charlie Seymour at the Pub Open mic
Oh, yes, and the beer was good, too!