Did Something Totally New Last Night

smitty_p

smitty_p

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Last night, the band played at an open-mic night. I've never done that before. It was a completely new experience for me. That is a completely different dynamic from a normal gig. We ended getting getting a new customer. A manager of another local venue was there and booked us for a gig.

But, it was cool in that I got to see a lot of other performers. I ended up talking gear a lot with some other guitar players, so that was cool.
 
Awesome!
We did that twice a few years back. The house band asked us to be house band (back up) at the end.
I announced a song we were about to do and a guy in the audience yelled out "No %$#&ing way!". He was shocked we'd do a Matthew Good tune (Alert Status Red).
Glad you had a great evening, looks like a ton of fun!
 
dmatthews said:
Awesome!
We did that twice a few years back. The house band asked us to be house band (back up) at the end.
I announced a song we were about to do and a guy in the audience yelled out "No %$#&ing way!". He was shocked we'd do a Matthew Good tune (Alert Status Red).
Glad you had a great evening, looks like a ton of fun!
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That's fun when the audience has a reaction when you start a song. That happens to us on some songs. The most memorable one for me is at one gig when I began "Money For Nothing." I didn't even get through the first half of the intro when some dude yelled out, "YEAH!!!"

We don't announce that song. We jump right into the guitar intro without letting the crowd know what's coming.
 
smitty_p said:
We don't announce that song. We jump right into the guitar intro without letting the crowd know what's coming.
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Come to think of it, I don't think we actually announce any of the songs we play. Often, our singer and band leader, Gina, will segue into a song with some banter. For example, as a lead-in to "Here For The Party", she may say something like, "Did y'all come here to party tonight?" Right then is when I'll start the intro. Or she may say, "C'mon, let's get funky!" as a lead-in to "Play That Funky Music."

There are quite a few songs where we go right from one to the other with no breaks in between. Both the keyboardist and I may change patches or I may swap guitars, so there will be just enough banter to allow for that. We bill ourselves as a variety party band, so we talk very little between songs. We really try to keep the music pumping.
 
LiveeviL2000 said:
That looks like a blast!
Very nice. You were rippin it in that clip!
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Thanks a lot, man! It was a lot of fun.

The guy who hosts those open mic events took the pics and video.

I had no idea what to expect from an open-mic night. But, it was a very worthwhile experience to interact with other musicians, as well as just having the experience of playing.
 
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