Five years that the Highlander open mic has been running in Paris. That is a very long time for open mics, even if there are some around the world that have been going for several decades. But this is clearly the work of a good venue and the presenter, Thomas Brun, who does a great job of organizing and hosting the open mic. Last night’s birthday celebration of the fifth year was an example of that, as Brun took the trouble to celebrate, put up balloons, have a birthday cake, a free drink for musicians, and someone donated a guitar as a gift!
It was almost a perfect open mic evening, too, with interesting musicians regular and new. And an audience that was typical for the Highlander, celebrating the music when they liked it, talking when they felt it didn’t fit their mood. Whatever, I enjoyed it immensely. And I had the honor of playing my three songs just before Thomas brought out the birthday cake. Unfortunately I just missed the blowing out of the candles with my video camera.
Even so, I felt the need to go on to the Cavern Club vocal jam open mic thingy up the street on the rue Dauphine with a couple of friends. Unfortunately I did not sing there, as the list of songs contains nothing I feel competent at. But there was some great stuff.