Boho
at The Hop open-mic hosted by Rob
Sowden
"Queue-jumpers And The Like"
So, a nice bit of irony here. I make a reference to Ray Davies worrying about getting his words mixed up to Waterloo Sunset at the Olympics' closing ceremony and last night I forget lyrics all over the place. In my defence I had the distraction of one of the performers that is rarely at Bohemian Night open-mic before 11:00pm (and therefore misses listening to the majority of the acts) turn up at 11:20pm during my performance. Indeed I stopped my performance and made a joke about it which apparently has some irked some people.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, I don't actually like to upset people but let me explain where I stand on this. There's an etiquette to open-mics. I think the main unwritten rule (the other one is probably that you should buy a drink) is that performers not only perform but also listen to the other acts. It's a communal thing which requires the buy-in of all the participants and on the whole most of the open-mics I've been to this happens. Conversely, taking it to other extreme, if no one listened to the other acts and only turned up to play and left immediately afterwards then the whole thing would just fall apart. Likewise if everyone always turned up at 11:00pm then that also wouldn't work.
I understand people's lives are complicated and things happen unexpectedly. However to always turn up at 11:00pm (or thereabouts) I believe is just taking advantage of others' goodwill, their predisposition to turn a blind eye and avoid confrontation. I tend to turn a blind eye and avoid confrontation for a certain amount of time until I come to the conclusion that my, and / or others' goodwill, is being abused. An analogy would be to question why a queue-jumper thinks they can push in when everyone else is queuing up in an orderly manner. If people are upset by me confronting this behaviour that's fine. The responses and comments that I've seen and heard on the matter seem to be more in terms of personal allegiances and politics and being economical with the truth rather than being concerned with the principles of running a successful open-mic.
I think Rob Sowden generally runs a good open-mic through Bohemian Night. Perhaps because he is so encouraging towards the performers it is easily forgotten that he is the manager of this event for the venue and is well within his rights to tell a performer if he thinks the etiquette is being broken. In fact I think my only criticism would be that I wouldn't have allowed the aforementioned perpetual turning up at 11:00pm to become the norm and as a result we may not have had the problems last night. That said, it's generally accepted, Rob is a far easier-going, nicer person than I am.
On more positive matters let's talk about the great music last night:
- Stephen Green of The Antidote on keyboards. I'm not really into instrumental music but I was mesmerised by Stephen's performance last night. Somehow it seemed to strike an emotional tone particularly his first song which was a Hendrix cover.
- The inimitable Jack Cade. I don't really know another performer like Jack (hence the "inimitable") and I'm not sure how to describe him. It's almost like a dark rock-a-billy with a Tom Waits quality to the voice but I think that description is inadequate (particularly as I'm hardly an expert on any of those references). I haven't always been enthusiastic fan but seeing him a few times (particularly with his band at CavFest) I'm being persuaded to reconsider my view. I think I probably like his faster numbers which have a train-chugging-along quality to them. I suppose that's an image that is conjured up in my mind: a sort railroad track type scenario that you used to see in the Westerns or bar room whiskey blues but set in a bar in West Reading. It brings to my mind the scenes out of the Kung Fu TV series (not the fighting or temple scenes!) if you're old enough to remember that, Grasshopper.
- Maija, who was her usual superlative self playing the keyboard and singing but was apparently nervous and finds playing in her local pub intimidating.
- Luke
Paulo with Maija
on keyboards, the first time I'd seen them play together.
- Phil Morrison, whom apparently did one of his own songs and which I missed unfortunately. (Yes, I did get there late. But I also had an enjoyable and interesting two hours watching the other performers before I played.)
- Raji K. Now, guitar playing doesn't usually impress me. Not because I'm a great guitar player but because I'm not and I don't appreciate the complexity that other performers achieve. However I appreciated Raji's playing last night. I thought it was very impressive.
And finally this seems an appropriate point to highlight that Raji has a five-track EP launch on 31st August at Deja Vu. Myself (8:30pm) and Luke Paulo (9:00pm) are opening for Raji. I understand Luke will be performing with Maija, and Raji has a band with him so I think it will be a pretty exciting evening of music. More details can be found here.
My Set:
- To The Bone (Ray Davies)
- Perfect Day (Lou Reed)
- Something Wild
