Near the Old Town School there are two bars featuring open mic nights on the same night as my bodhran (pronounced bow ron, as in - ‘take a bow, Ron. They love ya’) class.
Last Monday, after the class, I scouted out the first venue at Silvia’s lounge on Irving Park road about a half of a mile away from the school. It’s a fairly large bar with two sections. One side is for the general bar population, with dart boards a long bar and an open floor for dancing. The adjoining room has a low stage, lighting and a sound system for the performers. When I walked in, I heard a fellow playing and singing and I made my way to open mic room to check it out.
This room was sparsely decorated with a few posters on the otherwise black walls, There were five or six round tables with bar stools, a sound booth in the back, and a low stage with a couple of microphones. The stage area was in front of picture windows that had been boarded up with unfinished, bare plywood. There was a man in the sound booth and one woman sitting at a table listening to the guy on stage. I figured she was his girl friend/wife since there were two drinks on the table and no one else in the room.
The guy on stage was doing great, playing far better than I could ever hope. But the fact that there were now only two people in the ‘audience’ gave is a rather pathetic feel. I sympathized with the guy. After a couple of songs, another man joined the woman at the table and I figured that they must be friends of the performer. Another couple of songs latter two people came in and sat at a side counter and engaged in a rude, loud, laughing conversation. I debated on how long I was going to stay when he finished up his set. The next performers turned out to be the couple that was seated at the table and they weren’t there for him at all.
The loud guy at the side counter turned out to be the host of the evening and introduced the next couple. I listened to a couple of songs out of respect, but I didn’t really like their material and left. I made my way back to school. The second lounge – Grafton’s – is about fifty feet north of the school. This also has two areas but both considerably smaller than the first bar. The bar area is the typical setup with bar, stools, and booths. The area in the back is set up like a den with a fire place, couch and love seat, a couple of round tables and a couple of square tables. There is seating for about fifteen at the very most.
The host, Adam Johnson, was setting up the microphones for the performers. There was a couple on the love seat, one fellow on the couch and another at a table. As it turned out everyone there, except for me, was planning on playing that night. Again, the only people in the audience were performers which giave it a kind of a loose club feel to it. Adam was fantastic. The others had varying degrees of ability. I spoke to Adam for a bit and he gave me one of his CD’s; really good professional quality stuff of the Hank Williams style.
I won’t be going back to Sylvia’s, but I think I’ll stop by the Grafton after my class this Monday and sign up to do some of my songs. There’s really no point of spending all this time writing these things if I never perform them. Given that everyone is basically in the same boat, just with differing levels of rowing abilities, I’m feeling less intimidated by the prospect of baring my soul in a strange place in front of strange people.
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