That was my first ever open mic event, I have never ever participate events like this before. When I came to Addington bar in Christchurch, I found several guys with guitar cases sitting around, one of them was performing nice song with acoustic guitar in his hands. As I learned later, it was Andy, who perform on many open mic events around the city.
That were my first minutes on the event, since I didn’t take any of my guitars with me, both of them were left home that day, I was not intended to play solo or jam with others, but the situation changed, when young girl Sammie asked me if I can play on bass Smells Like a Teen Spirit, Zombie and Crazy Train. There was a bass guitar standing on a guitar stand next to the stage, so, I said ‘yes, I can’. That was little bit too early, to be honest…
The bass guitar didn’t work, I mean, the pickups were not connected to the jack socket. I had no soldering equipment with me, and all of my attempts to fix the wiring with no solder and no spare wires have failed… However, Hamish, who was in charge of the event (as I assume) called someone, who stay next door and that person popped up with a beautiful old bass, offering me this guitar to perform with Sammie.
I haven’t been playing bass for around 5 years, however, my fingers found their way very quick. Gav was singing for us and I tried to pick up relatively unfamiliar bass patterns on the songs. There was another person playing drums with us, so, we had a lot of fun all together, despite of fact, we haven’t played with each other before.
My next Open Mic event was in Rolleston Rolly Inn bar, hosted by Ministry of the Mind Music (Duncan Sole). I took my lovely Yamaha PAC-112 and decided to go on stage with my solo repertoire. They had a digital guitar effect processor, I had very limited time get into it, so, I tried to play and adjust level of gain using my volume handle… But as we know, digital processors do not give us enough dynamic of gain. Anyway, it was nice to perform there, I met there several interesting people as well.
I have attended some more events like this through the city, and going to do it on a regular basis.
So Open Mic is an event, where everyone can pop up and perform. All of events like this are hosted by very friendly musicians, who are keen to assist to performers in any way. For many young players and singers, open-mic event could be a good opportunity to clime up to the stage and perform on a relatively good PA system with some audience around and see how people will react on them. People play there acoustic covers, originals, sing and play along a backing track or perform with a band, everyone is welcome there.
Thanks for reading and see you there,
Best regards, Alex.
EventsHub Team