The Highlander (bar | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

The Highlander Open Mic in Paris Celebrates its 9th Anniversary This Wednesday

October 5, 2015
bradspurgeon

highlander

PARIS – If there is just one open mic you have to go to this week in Paris, then you must have a problem. There are so many worthwhile, fun and neat open mics in Paris. But now one of the most enduring is the Highlander, run since the beginning by Thomas Brun, which will celebrate its 9th anniversary of its existence this Wednesday.

If I was in town this Wednesday, I would be going. As it turned out, I thought the celebration was happening last Wednesday, so I went. Well, that just set up the right situation to get some videos up on this blog for the preparation for the ninth anniversary!

Highlander Open Mic 6th Anniversary Cake

I’ve been attending this open mic more than half of that time, although all sorts of personal commitments have meant that I have not attend as much as I would like to in the last couple of years. But attending last Wednesday, I found the same open mic in the basement of this neat Scottish pub in Paris, run by Thomas Brun in a way that I would like to say is inimitable, but that would not do justice to the many open mic MCs in Paris who have, in fact, used Thomas’s presentation as a model – and imitated it to the last detail.

But as someone said last Wednesday, there are no other open mic MCs quite like Thomas – and that’s what makes an open mic work or not. (In addition to the location and the management…!)

Anyway, enough frothing at the mouth. Just check out the videos to get an idea of the atmosphere – and check out Thomas’s accompaniment of a rapper.

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A New Alternative Open Mic at the Oasis 244 in Paris on Wednesday Nights

April 30, 2015
bradspurgeon

Oasis 244

PARIS – I finally got to the new open mic at the Oasis 244 bar last night, a venue I have written about frequently in recent months as the place where John Redford and Stephen Saxo hold their Friday night semi-open mic. (IE, it’s actually their own musical gig, but they open the stage to friends, acquaintances, and sometime people who drop in off the street.) I have never had much bad to say about that place, or that show, I think. But last night, it was a really interesting experience to see the same venue on a different night and during a true open mic – i.e., an evening where the stage’s sole purpose is to invite musicians up to play two or three or four songs. Not to mention poets or any other manner of spoken-word aficionados who may want to take part.

It felt completely different – or almost – to the Friday night thing, and it had many more musicians, more styles, more people in general, than a lot of the Friday night affairs. I have no idea if it is always like this, but I do know one very good reason that it is like this at least at the moment: The host of the open mic (aside from Bobb the barman owner opening the stage) is the fabulous Trélys DuPré, a Canadian expat who is better known on this blog for being the soulful singer and ukulele player of many another open mic in the city in recent years.

Trélys runs the show with a friend, even hand and a warm presentation behind her own mic, moving around the room and encouraging people to play, and spectators and musicians to come in off the street. Her own personal sound system that she brings each Wednesday to the Oasis 244 is also somewhat more complete than the one on offer on Friday night, at least that’s how it seemed to me – as she has two mics available, and another mic that wraps around a third person’s head should it be necessary. (Not in violence, mind you.)

In some ways it felt a lot like the long-since-gone Petit Bonheur la Chance open mic, that used to take place in the basement of the bar of the same name, as this one attracts some of the same mainstay regulars, such as the legendary Wayne Standley, and of course, Trélys herself.

Definitely, definitely worth attending. It’s an alternative feel to the ever popular Highlander open mic on Wednesday nights, that can be a lot more crowded and less intimate, even though I love the Highlander challenge too. I’ll be back.

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High Times at the Highlander – Again

August 8, 2014
bradspurgeon

highlander

PARIS – This might be the first time I have ever used my own blog myself to check out the last time I sang at a particular open mic. I am having a very hard time believing what my blog is telling me! I just searched to find out that it is telling me that the last time I sang at the Highlander open mic, one of the best open mics in Paris, it was at the end of August last year! I went to the Highlander on Wednesday, had an amazing evening, sang, and it felt like I had last played there just the other day….

Well, no, not quite. I realized immediately upon entering at 8:20 p.m. that there were a lot of new faces amongst the waiting musicians. In fact, I recognized few of them. Oh, yes, there were a few of the regulars from the past few years. But there were lots of new faces. One face that was not new, the most important face, was that of Thomas Brun, the MC of this open mic that is also one of the longest lasting open mics in Paris. And thank goodness for that. The identity of an open mic is so tightly bound with that of both the location, and above all the MC.

Another thing that had not changed was that it was so popular that the list was probably too big for everyone who eventually showed up. So it was a full evening of song and music otherwise, until well after midnight.

Oh, I must add that my reasons for not singing at the Highlander in the last year – if my blog search is correct on that point! – has nothing to do with the open mic, and everything to do with my travels, personal situation, fewer open mics attended in Paris in general in order to make more time for my other music-and-writing-related projects, and just bad timing. The Highlander remains a must do open mic. You can see that in the videos….

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PS, I also know for sure that I have shown up once or twice at the Highlander in the last year and NOT sung, since I’ve been too late to get on the list. So get there early….