Paris Open Mics | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

The Amazing 15-year-old, David Woroner at The Highlander

December 23, 2010
bradspurgeon

There were a number of acts worth talking about at the Highlander open mic last night, but I’m going to devote this post to David Woroner, 15, from Toronto. This kid just stole the show, stole the night, ran away with everyone’s hearts.

I had noticed in a first glance behind me at one point this very bizarre looking adult who just did not fit in The Highlander – until I realized that this was not a bizarre-looking adult at all. It was a 15-year-old kid from Toronto, on holidays in Paris with his dad and a family friend. The Kid, as he should be known, arrived a little later than most of the performers, and Thomas Brun decided to fit him in on the list, and went and asked a few people if it was okay for The Kid to go before them. I don’t know how many performers were asked, but when it came to me, I said, “Sure, of course, no problem!!”

But I turned and took another look at The Kid, and then I turned and told a friend at my table that I was sure I was going to be crucified. “I think I probably just screwed myself,” I said to her, “this kid is probably going to be some fabulous talent and he’s going to knock everyone out. Then I will go up and play and I’ll be like nothing next to his show.”

On the level of novelty value alone, I was pretty sure I’d be screwed. But whenever I get in a situation like that – or as often as I can – when someone really good or entertaining for whatever reason goes up before me, I always try to remember that all I – or any other musician – has to do as a response is to sing a song that is “true,” “real,” a reflection of your heart and others’.

In any case, Thomas later came up and said, “Change of plan. You’re going up now, the kid will go up after you.”

Phew!!!! I sighed relief. I threw all my heart and soul and body into my three songs: “Crazy Love,” “Borderline” and “Father and Son,” and I got some really enthusiastic applause and screaming of joy even during the songs, particularly the second two.

But I would bask in this feeling of accomplishment and love for no more than about 20 seconds when the audience suddenly took in the image of The Kid behind the mic and with the big guitar. He was so small by comparison to all the other artists that appeared – all adults – and so clearly a kid, that it caught everyone’s attention immediately. Then, man, when David “The Kid” Woroner belted into his chords and singing of his first song, he had won over the audience’s respect and love within the first couple of bars. “What the hell is this!?!?” In short, The Kid could sing. And better than most of the performers that went up last night. Not only that, he had some kind of clear, innate, rock ‘n roll attitude and an impeccable sense of rhythm, no struggle with the guitar and vocals, or if there was, he dealt with it like a pro.

I sighed a sigh of relief that I had not, indeed, been chosen to follow this act! I turned to my friend again and said to her, “You see!”

“Yes, you would have had a hard time,” she said. (For which I wanted to probe her to find out exactly what she meant by agreeing with me like that!!)

I was also disappointed, however, that my batteries ran out on my Zoom Q3 and all I had to record The Kid was my iPhone 4, so the sound would not be as good. Below are two videos, (the “creep” one ends with closer shots of him at the mic as I moved up the room).

After, I spoke to David and asked him if he played in open mics in Toronto. “No.”

He have a myspace? “No.”

His dad corrected one thing, “He has played at Grossman’s Tavern.”

“That dive?!?!” I said, in surprise for a kid doing such a place….

And David added, “I have a group and we have played around here and there.”

In fact, most of how he has learned his chops, it seems, is through this family friend, also named David, who comes around and plays with him in the living room all the time. I have put in a video below of that David playing “Psycho Killer,” in order to show where The Kid’s training comes from.

The Kid’s got a future, maybe….

Oh, and P.S., as soon as The Kid finished his three or four first songs, the Highlander just cleared out! Everyone went out to smoke a cigarette or something else, and the next performer had hardly anyone there to listen. It filled up again soon, and at the end of the night, The Kid went up to sing several more songs.

Jim Beam Celebrations at the Ptit Bonheur

December 22, 2010
bradspurgeon

It was the last open mic of the year at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance yesterday, and Ollie Fury made available a bottle of Jim Beam whisky for the occasion. He served everyone who wanted it a shot glass of the hot liquid, and with the cold outside and many colds in people’s lungs, it was worthwhile.

The evening was pretty lively, with some interesting stuff from some regular guests and some new guests too. Personally, I enjoyed discovering Blaise and Christian on guitars and vocals together, two guys of Cameroon origin who did a great rendition of a Charles Aznavour song. At the end of the open mic they could not get enough of playing, so they continued a jam session upstairs in the bar area, where you will hear another aspect to their vocal talents….

Jay from the band Red Rooster, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post, also turned up and sang some cool stuff. I did four songs and felt less inspired than the night before and somewhat shaky, but I put the shakiness down to the Jim Beam…and then I was delighted when I received some compliments I had not expected, and once again realized that sometimes when you feel you’re not on top of it, you are in fact communicating more than you think….

La Javanaise at the Ptit Bonheur – oh La Chance!

December 8, 2010
bradspurgeon

Last night was Ollie’s open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar near the Pantheon, and I had good evening. But it was really punctuated by the song sung by Thomas Stock, an up-and-coming Paris musician with a killer voice at age only something like 22 (not sure exactly).

I mention the age because what was so cool last night was Thomas’s choice of opening song in his moment behind the mic in the cave of this nice little bar on the rue Laplace: It was one of the rare times I have heard anyone in the open mic scene in Paris do a song by Serge Gainsbourg. Why don’t they do it more often? Instead of yet another Anglo-Saxon pop hit from the same period. In any case, Thomas chose “La Javanaise,” and did a great job.

At the end of the evening a Spanish woman asked if she could play, and it turned out to be her first ever appearance in front of an open mic audience playing guitar and singing. But when she got behind the mic she realized that she had to read her lyrics and chords and that she could not see in the dark. This is a very cosy open mic, but the darkness means that with my Zoom Q3 we never see anything. I wanted to hear the woman, so I proposed that I stand over her shoulder and beam down my iPhone in its flashlight mode, an application which turns the iPhone into a flashlight, and which I had downloaded in Sao Paulo so I could read Mojo in the darkness in the traffic jams.

I did not realize until today when I went to upload the Thomas Stock video that Ollie Fury, the organizer and MC of the open mic, had grabbed my Zoom recorder and videoed a bit of me holding the light, and the woman singing. I have included it here primarily because for the first time – why did I not think of it – you can catch a larger glimpse of the room in which this open mic takes place. By the way, it was quite full earlier on, but by the end there were just a few of us left, as you will see in the video.

The Difference a Guitar Makes

December 7, 2010
bradspurgeon

I won’t give a day-by-day account of all the open mics I do in Paris, because that could get tiresome (if it hasn’t already). But the one little point I took out of last night’s playing at the Galway – I also played at the Tennessee Bar, where there was some great jamming with many musicians together – was the difference a guitar can make to a musician’s sound.

That may sound like a banality. But as I have recently been contemplating buying a new acoustic guitar, I have continually come back to the same conclusion: Since I’m not much of a guitarist, my Seagull S6 does me just fine. In fact, this fabulous guitar has been praised around the world, even once in England by a guy – a good guitarist – who said it blew away a 10,000 euro Martin signature guitar he had played a few days before. And this Seagull – minus the pick-up – costs less than 400 euros.

So back to last night. Stephen Prescott is the MC of the Galway open mic and I have always enjoyed his singing and stage persona, and I have also been intrigued by his guitar playing. I’ve liked the guitar playing, but I have always found there was something I could not understand about it, or pinpoint. That may sound weird, but last night when the battery ran out on his regular guitar – a travel guitar with no body to it – he asked if he could use my Seagull. I agreed with no problem – the guitar has been used for two years now at various open mics by people around the world, and I love that.

So then when Stephen started playing away in his usual way on MY guitar, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Here, finally, I realized, was what Stephen’s guitar playing really sounds like! The Seagull gave to it, above all, the “body” it was missing with his no-body guitar. A depth, a range, a sound that was very cool indeed. It not only added a whole dimension to his music, but also made my guitar come to life in a different way than when I play it. Unfortunately, I ran out of battery life on my Zoom Q3 recorder at the same time as his guitar ran out of pick-up battery life, so I only got a small little taste of the Stephen sound on my guitar in video, and more unfortunately, the automatic level thingy toned down the guitar too much when he really got to playing it hard. But give it a listen:

P.S., it is normal that Stephen does not have a great guitar for his open mic, since it is the one that gets passed around to all takers, every Monday, many hands, if they do not have their own instrument.

P.P.S., I forgot to finish off with one of my conclusions! To see the difference with Stephen’s sound when he used a different guitar made me reconsider my relationship with my S6. On the other hand, so far I have only found Gibsons and a one or two other guitars that cost 5 to 10 times more than my Seagull that strike me as adding a little difference in sound to my guitar playing….

Weekend Catch-up: Neimo in Concert, OXIII in Riot Gear, Le Tigre, Mecano Brunch and Cajun Music With Sarah Savoy at an Irish Pub in Paris

November 29, 2010
bradspurgeon

The weekend was SOOO busy that I have had to do a roundup, instead of a day-to-day report as usual. It started with a chess tournament at my club on Friday night, which it would be far better not to talk about. End of that report.

Saturday I had three things planned: A concert with Neimo, an open mic at an art space known as 0XII and an after show thing at Le Tigre, for the Neimo show. Now listen to this!!:

The concert with Neimo was fabulous. I first heard of Neimo while performing at Earle’s open mic for the second time two years ago. One of the regular performers at the open mic was Bruno Dallesandro, the lead singer from Neimo. Over the next year at Earle’s open mic, there would barely be a week without Bruno showing up with his friends to sing and pay their dues back to Earle and his open mic, since they had developed their act in important ways at Earle’s first bar, Le Shebeen, which had spawned all sorts of French groups.

Saturday night Neimo was the lead act at the cool venue known as La Flèche d’Or, which is a concert hall made out of an old train station. This was the first time I had seen Neimo in action as a complete band, playing their songs, electronically. And man was it cool. Even the fact that they played a vast amount of new material did not put me off – I had listened mostly to their last album, Modern Incidental, released by theShangri-La label in the United States. But the new material was really good, and I don’t know if it was just the location of the concert or seeing them for the first time live, but I felt it came across as much more of a “progressive” kind of rock than the previous stuff. I may be wrong.

In any case, Bruno was wonderfully charismatic, a little Bowie-like, including the makeup and furs…. But just take a look at some of the videos I did to see what I mean.

Next up was the 0XIII art space. I mentioned this place before on this blog, maybe even twice. What made me really desperate not to miss it on Saturday night – despite the two Neimo events – was that I learned there would be an open mic on the second floor. So I HAD to get there. I knew of no other open mics on Saturday night, and this one would go on all night. Yes, in fact, it was also announced as the last night of the 0XIII. This, I did not realize before, was because the building was in fact a squat!

Anyway, I was with a fellow Formula One journalist friend, and I told him about the 0XIII and said that I really wanted to show him the place, adding, “I guarantee you will not be let down.” I felt I had to push a little, since he was keen on going to the Tigre after party and then he was going on to another place after that. But he was very amenable to the OXIII, and he had faith in my assurance that he would not be let down.

So we took a cab over to the Rue d’Enghien from the Fleche. The cab driver got a little frustrated when two streets before our destination he found the roads all blocked up. So we got off to walk the rest of the way. We rounded the corner and found the roads blocked because there were cop cars all over the place at the end of the street of the 0XIII.

“Hmm,” I said, “I wonder if they are there for the 0XIII.”

We rounded the next corner and found that indeed, the street was blocked off by the cops and they were there for the OXIII. There were about 200 people of the squat standing out in the street drinking and talking and it sounded like a mob scene, with people bending out from the windows of the art space as well, and talking to people in the street, with loud music, and general mayhem. At least, that would be how the neighbors interpreted it. And how the cops would interpret it.

We continued to approach and I decided to stop and ask some cops what was going on.

“It’s got out of hand,” said one. “Don’t go there.”

“Thanks for telling us,” I said. “Because that is where we had intended to go.”

“Don’t,” he repeated. “In any case, it’s a squat.”

That’s when I learned that fact.

I thought I recognized some friends in the crowd in front so I did approach closer with my journalist friend. We saw it was a madhouse and impossible to get in the front door without a battle, and I said, “Anyway, there’s not going to be any open mic in that place….”

So we decided to leave and go to Le Tigre. As we walked back up the street to leave we found ourselves crossing through several armed and riot police known as CRS, and my friend noted the guns with rubber bullets. They had shields and other various anti-riot gear – including tear gas – and they were coming right at us like as if we were in a battlefield, slow, cautious pace, a march, a readiness for action.

We got through them no problem and went on our way. The next thing I heard was via a few friends on Facebook that the CRS stormed the place, threw teargas, and generally broke up the group in a rather violent manner. I checked the Internet and found that the Parisien newspaper had reported that the cops had been forced to use violence because the crowd had got violent and begun to throw things at them. The article also said that 10 people had been arrested. The raid had begun around 1:30 AM, and I think the place was cleared out by 3.

I doubted the violence by the crowd, but I later also heard that one cop started getting violent with a young woman and so some people in the crowd attacked him. There may also have been some beer cans thrown at the cops. Well, that, in any case, is the end of the OXIII on Rue d’Enghien. Too bad. I really wanted to play in that open mic, and it was a cool place. On the other hand, my promise to my friend that he would not be let down by going to the place was indeed honored….

So we went off to the Tigre and spend a couple of hours there, and it was all very cool and controlled….

On Sunday, it was time for my brunch, and at least one of my friends who had said she would see me and play some music on Sunday did not show up. As I knew that she had also intended to go to the OXIII the night before, I got worried. But it turned out to be only a sore throat. The afternoon was nice and relaxing at the Mecano for my brunch, and I had my friend James Cordoba Jr. from Colombia play a few songs. That made for a very nice change to the usual stuff – not that there really is a fixed theme on my brunch….except for fun and good music….

Oh, yeah, and finally, just to give a complete different turn to the musical weekend, I went on Sunday night after the brunch to attend a set by Sarah Savoy and the Francadians at the Corcoran pub on blvd de Clichy. This American woman from Louisiana and her at least half-American band play the coolest Cajun music you can imagine, and they live in France. I was presented to them by one of my regular listeners at the Mecano brunch. It was a real eye-opener of the kind of musical diversity Paris has to offer – thanks to Irish pubs and expats….

Life Goes on Bro

November 12, 2010
bradspurgeon

Back from Brazil to Paris, I played in the Highlander and the monthly open mic at the Copains bar. I felt a sudden warmth at living in a city where there is an open mic just about every day of the week, not to mention music of all other kinds everywhere.

On the other hand, there’s little new to add to this blog, since I’ve gone over that ground so often. The only new thing, I would say, is that the song I wrote when I was 16 about losing a lover has become part of my regular repertoire now that I figured out how to transpose the chords down lower so that my voice – now deeper than when I was 16 – can sing it without being burned out. And the song is still, as the French say, “d’actualité.”

So rather than blah blah blahing, for once I will keep it short and just put up a few videos of the two nights. All are from the Highlander except the guy who has a guitar that he converted into a sitar….

Shakespeare and Company Open Mic

October 30, 2010
bradspurgeon

Yes, believe it or not, Shakespeare and Company hosted an open mic last night, its first ever. This bookstore across from the Notre Dame Cathedral in the middle of Paris, this bookstore that has the famous name known around the world, sent out a Facebook event invitation the other day that I just could not resist taking up: “WORD – Open Mic / Slam / Improvisation,” it read.

“WORD the first open mic/slam/improvisation night upstairs in the library at Shakespeare and Company. Featuring musician extraordinaire Thos Henley & poet Rufo Quintavalle [Note from Brad: Rufo had to pull out and was replaced by someone else I will mention below]. Everyone welcome to watch or participate!,” said the announcement. “Chaired by Adam Biles,who is editor of Gulper Eel, Paris musician extraordinaire Thos Henley and poet Rufo Quintavalle will kick of the evening.”

So I could not resist. A very interesting and excellent idea was that each “performer” was limited to just five minutes per slot. And the rule was administered with an iron fist. In fact, before the show proper began, Adam told the audience that they could applaud, express delight, anything they wanted during the presentations, but to not heckle. He then added that there was one instance in which they were allowed to heckle: If the performer received the ring of the timer and went over five minutes and refused to stop….

I’ve never seen that in an open mic. And it is welcome, until, of course, it is YOUR turn behind the mic.

In any case, the evening was so fantastic I barely know where to start. The most obvious place, in fact, is to say that the whole first floor of the bookstore was just crammed with people. There was no moving room, and I spent the whole time out in the stairwell, looking into the performance room. (That is the vantage point of the videos I took.) It was just PACKED; in fact, I heard one person apparently close to the bookstore say afterwards that she thought it must be the most successful event they have ever had.

As it turned out, there were only three musical interludes and the rest was prose and poetry. It also turned out that there was to be a judging for the best “performance” of the evening. I’m not sure who all the judges were, but they included Thos Henley and the man who made a special last-minute arrival as a judge and special guest (to replace Rufo the poet), the Australian writer Luke Davies.

Thos Henley started off the show with a couple of songs. As it turned out, he and I had played last year at a special musical evening at the Disquaires bar near Bastille. Then began the real slam “competition.” I managed to make a few videos, but I think I was tuning my guitar when the person who ended up winning the competition did her number. It’s too bad, as not only would I have liked to have done a video of her, but she also gave me a nice compliment on my song – “Since You Left Me” – before we learned she won.

I was not happy about the way I sang the song, as I was overly nervous about the fact of singing only one, and having no good mic or sound system, and an audience I felt was mostly there for the literary aspect of the evening. All sorts of reasons, but none good.

Anyway, this winner was Jenny Zhang, and the judges gave her top marks, as you can see from the video I did of their speech announcing who won and why.

In any case, it was a fabulous evening and I felt that they wanted to do it again – and I hope so. I’ve decided to simply throw all the videos down below one after the other (my apologies for the shaky camera movement, but I was standing on a staircase a lot and had to move to let people pass, and that kind of thing):

Brad’s Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jams and Other Venues – Oh, and David Broad at The Highlander

October 7, 2010
bradspurgeon

It suddenly occurred to me a few minutes ago that I should put up a page on this site with addresses to open mics, jams and other music venues in Paris. The idea came to me because I have over the last couple of years given such a list to people I meet in open mics in Paris when they’re looking for a place. Today I sent it to another person I met last night at The Highlander, and I thought, why not put it up on this site.

The only problem is that the list is CONSTANTLY changing. The one I have just put up is up to date as of today, however. But watch out, it DOES change fast. It is a bit of a mess in style, but the information is there and in future I will add links to this Brad’s Guide of Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music Venues, when I have more time,

In the meantime, I played at the Highlander again last night, and the delightful discovery of the evening I think surely had to be David Broad, from Leeds, England. You have to listen his mixture of country, trad, ragtime and who knows what all else. I’ve put three videos in below from last night at The Highlander:

When it Reigns it Pours, At the Tennessee

October 5, 2010
bradspurgeon

A wild, absolutely mad evening at the Tennessee. When it rains the puddles collect water and grow, right? That’s how it seems to be happening at the Tennessee bar these days as Reign Morton has a growing contingent of fans, groupies, and above all fellow musician friends following him to the open mic and turning the place into a happening of unforgettable dimensions.

I first wrote about Reign Morton two weeks ago today, so you can get the biographical details there. Last night, in tow – it seemed – Reign had another couple of great singers. But let me take a brief break to say that the evening at the Tennessee was, in fact, not ONLY about Reign and the gang.

I showed up there in a toss up between there and the Galway. I arrived too late and thought I’d have to wait for hours to play, so I cut out and went to the Galway. Fortunately, I got to play immediately at the Galway, and fortunately, because Stephen, the MC, had to change a string on his guitar and there was no other singer around, I got to do five songs in a row. Unfortunately, the small group of people at the bar was not in the least bit interested in listening (either to me or to Stephen). So I just sang for myself, and then decided to leave without finishing my Kilkenney.

I returned to the Tennessee, thinking I probably would not get up on stage, but that the level of the performers I had seen so far was high. And indeed, it went on and on. Among the interesting acts were a French duo consisting of two young guys, one on guitar – a beautiful Taylor guitar, no less – and the other on the piano. The one on the piano I suddenly realized looked almost exactly like Fernando Alonso, the Formula One driver. They did a fine song called, “So Let Me Go.” Another act was the trio with a guy on vocals, another on piano and the third on cello. I liked this a lot, but it was just a little too much “Star Academy” for me. Then there was Sood, from South Korea, who played his Yamaha guitar like a metronome, and did some pretty fierce vocals too. He also accompanied another singer, and that is the one I did a video of, but I should have done Sood on his own.

Another trio went up second to last, and that was some kind of French trio with a woman on vocals, a man on guitar and vocals and a man on bongos. Unfortunately they were a very “world music” together act and I was elected as the last act, the man to follow them. Just me and my guitar after this trio. I took to the mic and said the cards were loaded so my only choice was to try to do something, real, something true. Somehow penetrate the truth. Otherwise, musically, I’d be roasted. I did not know my first choice was going to be dead on the right one. I chose “Crazy Love,” and it turned out that not only was I in better shape than at the Galway – having had another beer or two – but Reign and his gang all knew the song and so they provided the choral backup, especially between the “Love, love, love”s… It turned out Reign told me he knew the Brian McKnight version of “Crazy Love,” not Van Morrison’s.

So just when I thought the show was over, the stage was opened up to Reign and his friends. And we never looked back. Mostly a question of improvisation, they came up with some fabulous stuff. In fact, Reign had previously done one Ray Charles song, sounding just like Ray Charles and throwing in the movements to boot. Now, he went on to a Marvin Gaye sound, a bluesman sound, and then a Reign-rap-and-I-don’t-know-what-sound with a funny improvisation about making up a song. A couple of groupies stripped down to bras and neck-scarf-over-the-chest-only attire, and the night went mad with dance, drink and music.

Reign gave over the stage to a guy from Senegal who calls himself Mr No Name, and who is damned good too, and I thought he was from Brooklyn or somewhere else in the U.S. Very cool. And then another great addition was the fabulous Sue Giles, who IS from Brooklyn, and who joined Reign and did some great back up and lead vocals. James Iansiti played rhythm guitar and Karim played his splendid lead again.

In all, it was a mad delight. Man, who’d have thunk it at the Tennessee?

Crappy, rapid cultural experience at culture rapide

October 2, 2010
bradspurgeon

Went off to the so-called Barman’s open mic at the Culture Rapide bar in Belleville in Paris last night. I’ve done this place a number of times, and it is usually a fun combination of music, poetry, stories, etc., and NO MICROPHONE. That is usually not a vast problem. But last night the bar was hijacked by a large group of people – 50? – celebrating a birthday party. So, little did they care that it was the soirée of the barman’s open mic, hardly anyone wanted to keep their mouths shut to listen to the musicians and poet who came to take part in the open mic.

So the whole thing ended very, very rapidly. In fact, all it amounted to was one guy citing a poem – through the noise – and he was followed by me playing a song – through the noise – and then a blue duo playing a song – through the noise. That was it. I took pleasure in deciding to sing, “Mad World,” since that is exactly how the situation felt.

But ultimately, I bear no grudges at all against the Culture Rapide bar, which remains a cool and fun place. And I was just as happy to see the group of people celebrating the birthday party; it definitely should take precendence to three or four people hogging the stage….

But I wanted to make sure I could catch the ambience for this blog, so I recorded the blues duo and turned the camera araound the joint to show the mania of the crowd, all the noise, and the impossibility of hearing the musicians play. Having said that, my choice of “Mad World,” did ensure much handclapping to the rhythm of my guitar, even if my voice was inaudible even to me. Check out the video ambience below in what amounted to the third and last act in the aborted open mic: