OPEN MICROPHONE

I played my first New York City open mike last night. There's a place in my neighborhood called Cafe Vivaldi that has one every Monday night. People show up around 6:30 and pick numbers out of a hat to find out the order in which they are going to perform. I picked number 19. Since I was hungry, I went to get something to eat and then returned around 8:15. The place is small, but very intimate. Each performer gets two songs. Although the process was new to me, it made sense. Due to the number of artists, it would be impossible to let anyone play for longer than two songs. I watched about 9-10 people play before I went they called my name around 9:45 or so. I played a song off the album plus a new one that I finished last week. I thought the execution was good; I've really got to slow things down a little between songs though. I guess I'm so excited to get to the next song that I forget about my audience sometimes. So, I'll work on it. But above all, it was nice to be onstage again after a month of moving.