Open mics that aren't really (mini-rant)

Jeremiah

I've just seen a post from a local event organiser on Facebook:

"All slots at our open mic sessions in February are now booked."

Surely if all the slots are booked in advance, it's not an open mic...?!

Keefy

Jeremiah said:

I've just seen a post from a local event organiser on Facebook:

"All slots at our open mic sessions in February are now booked."

Surely if all the slots are booked in advance, it's not an open mic...?!

Or just a very popular one where performers are queuing up to be seen and heard? If, say, everyone gets 3 songs, there’s a finite number of slots that can be fitted into an evening.

There used to be a country-based open mic not far from me. The first part really was an open mic, but the second part was reserved for an odious twat of a has-been to relive his past glories and show the rest of us how it’s done. He used to properly throw his toys out of his pram if someone dared to sing one of ‘his’ songs, or the amateurs went on too long and ate into his time.

DiscoStu

Most of the ones round my way are the same. Anyone can play, but you need to book a slot.

BillDL

I think there are just too many fun things that ended up becoming too "professional" and it killed the enjoyment.  Karaoke is great when it's just ordinary people having a crack at singing and people can laugh without anybody taking it too seriously, but at lots of places hosting karaoke singing you ended up with too many people that had practiced 5 songs to death and wanted to dominate the night.  A lot of people are too scared to go up and have a go in between them, and gradually casual spectators have a much higher expectation that should be the case.  Pup quiz nights used to be fun before teams of "eggheads" began driving around to numerous towns following them and winning all the prizes.  I think the same is probably happening with open mic nights.

Jeremiah

TBH in this case, I suspect that "open mic" is code for "unpaid gig", whereas if it was billed as a regular gig there might be the expectation that the musicians would get paid. I'm pretty sure the person running the night is being paid by the venue.

CaseOfAce

As an aside it seems that there's a surplus of supply over demand these days when it comes to amateur musicians?

A local country pub put out a request for live music acts recently and got inundated with over 200 replies and we're not even a rock and roll sorta place. 

S56035

BillDL said:

I think there are just too many fun things that ended up becoming too "professional" and it killed the enjoyment.  Karaoke is great when it's just ordinary people having a crack at singing and people can laugh without anybody taking it too seriously, but at lots of places hosting karaoke singing you ended up with too many people that had practiced 5 songs to death and wanted to dominate the night.  A lot of people are too scared to go up and have a go in between them, and gradually casual spectators have a much higher expectation that should be the case.  Pup quiz nights used to be fun before teams of "eggheads" began driving around to numerous towns following them and winning all the prizes.  I think the same is probably happening with open mic nights.

I once came across a guys gargling something and "warming up" in the toilets before he went on to sing Sweet Child Of Mine.  All taken far too seriously!

AntonHunter

CaseOfAce said:

As an aside it seems that there's a surplus of supply over demand these days when it comes to amateur musicians?

A local country pub put out a request for live music acts recently and got inundated with over 200 replies and we're not even a rock and roll sorta place. 

Yep. Has been the case for years I'd argue, but made worse by the closure of loads of venues in the past decade or so resulting in fewer gigs all round.

thecolourbox

There's two near me which do the pre-booked thing. One is at a community hub, they bill it as "Live at the Hive" rather than an open mic per se, but they do offer one or two "walk ins" if people do just show up. It's free to attend and not paid to take part, but donations and drinks sales go towards keeping the community hub running, which is nice.

The other is a group of Americana musicians who do something like 3 or 4 hours of music in various forms and sort of bill that as an "open mic" with the band around as well - but when I asked about one in December as I had a free Sunday afternoon, I was asked for my availability for "April and May next year" instead and asked to provide some videos of me performing to check i'm at the right level. Now first of all, how can I get videos of me performing if I need a video in order to get myself performing. But secondly, I've watched their own videos and they are ok but I'll be honest, I think I'd do a better job...

darthed1981

CaseOfAce said:

As an aside it seems that there's a surplus of supply over demand these days when it comes to amateur musicians?

A local country pub put out a request for live music acts recently and got inundated with over 200 replies and we're not even a rock and roll sorta place. 

Hideously so... especially if you consider that none of us ever need to hear most of the songs played by the average covers band ever again in any form... 

Still, bit of a laugh - I'd love to form a band to hammer out some Oasis covers - but I'm a bit old and, well, shit.

ESBlonde

It’s become the way many now perform rather than belong to a band and get proper gigs. Not that those gigs exist so much anymore. I sometimes feel guilty taking performance slots when I gig anyway, but it’s a good place to try new songs or exercise self penned material. I attended a new event in a local community owned village pub last night (Sunday), it was an acoustic ‘round table’ open mic. It was just a case of sit around a large table and take a turn like pass the parcel. Folk singers, ukulele, upright bass, a baritone acoustic guitar etc. great atmosphere and people sang or played along if they knew your piece.
I know several pro or semipro musicians that top up their income with running regular open mic sessions.