Marijuana.com

pkster8235

So tomorrow night a friend and I are preforming one of his originals at open mic night at a local bar.. I am so freaking nervous. I have been playing guitar for about 8 years, off and on, but this will only be my second open mic night. The first one was a different friend and I preforming at our high school cafe (it was a disaster!)

I think the reason I am so nervous/excited about this one is that the guy I am doing the song with.. well, let's just say he's an amazing writer, singer, and guitar player and I was a fan of his music before I really knew him. I've been practicing this song a lot but my hand cramps up about half way through I don't get it.. I've been playing for so long.

Anyways, hopefully it goes well and I am surely going to be smoking a couple of fatties before we go on stage

Anyone else have any open mic stories?

__________________
Proud.. I'm proud to be, I'm proud to see. Proud.. I'm proud to be, I'm proud to be me.

 

SpiralArchitect

Awesome! I'd wish you 'good luck' but I am sure you'll do just dandy!!! I hope it does go well though, let us know, share a video if you can, that would be sweet. What kind of music will you be playing? I hope your hand doesn't cramp up, maybe doing some stretches before hand or something might help, sometimes cramps are caused by dehydration too. I am no guitar player though...

I've never participated in an open mic but I use to be in a few garage bands in High school...

Rock out Pkster!

__________________
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm,
to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

Freedom_User

Hey man, you will rock dude. I'd myself like to see a video of it. Post it up on youtube and I'll add it to my favorites.

__________________

newcarcaviar

The guitarist from my band and I have done 3 open mics in the last 2 months or so. The first time was sort of last minute and we didn't have anything really prepared since we hadn't jammed in a good few months (he was away at school). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't mind-blowing either.

The second one I had gotten a cold about 2 days before so my singing was pretty dodgy. I had completely blown it out by the end of our second set.

The third one was about a week and a half ago and we just tore it up. People LOVED us and driving home I was just in pure ecstasy. I believe we'll be going back on Friday to try out some new stuff.

My advice to you would be to keep going back as much as you can. Once you get used to being on stage playing for people it becomes second nature and nervousness is basically non-existent. It can be pretty intimidating your first time though. Make sure you know your material well enough so it just flows out with minimal thinking.

Sing to the crowd. Make it for them. Come across as confident and they will take to you. And remember it's just a jam night. Nobody will be expecting superstardom. But obviously you'll get big points if that's what you deliver!

Probably most importantly, this is stuff to keep in the back of your mind as you perform. I wouldn't want you to be thinking "Smile to the crowd, smile to the crowd, smile to the crowd" and then end up forgetting the lyrics or the chords! Just be natural and you'll do fine.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

__________________
Shine on, Syd. 1946-2006

timiscute

Break a leg pkster. And don't tire your hand out too much practicing before you go on stage. Let us know how it goes. We'll all be rooting for ya.

~Tim

__________________

 

29yeartoker

I'm rooting for you pkster. I'm sure you will do fine. Can't wait to hear about how it goes.

__________________

And as the seasons come and go, here's something you might like to know.
There are fairies everywhere: under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day.
So, listen, touch, and look around - in the air and on the ground.
And if you watch all nature's things, you might just see a fairy's wing ~ Author Unknown

pkster8235

Thanks guys I am sure it will be fine.. I think the problem is that it's constant playing for about 5 minutes with a lot of bar chords.. I've also heard that dehydration can be a factor so I will make sure I am well hydrated and do lots of stretches beforehand.
I guess the style is a mixture of grunge (acoustic), indie.. I don't know. I've never been good at classifying music but I think that's how he classified it

Not sure if I'll be able to get a video but you never know.
The great thing is that he's already a bit established and he has recording equipment at his house. If things go well maybe we will record something and you guys can hear it

Thankfully I am just playing guitar and not singing I don't think I'd be able to handle that just yet.

Thanks again for the support guys and I'll let you know how it goes

sterbo

Ah, our sweet melodious pkster,
you're going to woo them beyond measure. They'll find themselves shorn of lessor notes, ever grateful, stammering and clambering for your encore.
And that's where the fun begins...

__________________

Alive-And-Dreaming

Not an open mic story, but it was a battle of the bands at my highschool. I'm in a blackened Death Metal band called Killing Of The Firstborn. The rules of the BOTB were as follows:

You play 1 song your first set. If people like you, you get called back to round two.
In round 2 you play 1 cover and two originals. People judge you on musical ability, charisma and stage presence. It went on like this. No where in the entire rule listing did it say you couldn't take off your shirt or insight a riot. fucking nowhere. They didn't even say it had to be clean.

Anyways. Our band comes on third from last, and we're the only metal band in the entire billing of 2 screamo/emo bands, 3 hip-hop collectives, 3 punk bands and two violinists that did a bitchin version of "Dixie".

We come on stage, dressed in corpse paint and play our one song, and a few, maybe five, people start headbanging. After that, they tell the crowd to calm down a little, which should have been our first tip off (it wasn't) that the place wasn't mosh-friendly, despite it being a gymnasium.
So the violinists and one of the hip-hop crews comes on next. End round one. the violinists, both emo bands, two of the punk bands and one of the hip-hop and us make it to round 2. We are last on the billing for round two. The bands go on, and everyone is having a good time, with the exception of me and my bandmates. We can't think of a cover song to play.

The principal comes to inform us that we are up next, after a really mellow violin duo performance. We can't decide whether to play a classic (Raining Blood) something out of our genre (99 Problems by Jay-Z) or a song only them metal heads will like. We pick the metal head song, but we don't know which one we'll play yet. We'll let our guitarist decide.

So we get on stage, play our two originals, and cory (guitar) walks up to the mic and says: "This next song is about shooting blood... from your cock" And goes into the opening riff of I Cum Blood by cannibal corpse. the metalheads (there are at least 20 in the audience) start to headbang, which I see and like. I take off my shirt and scream: "LETS SEE SOME FUCKING BLOOD" and they all start moshing. We (the band) is feeding off of the energy of the crowd, when, suddenly, all of the crazy gangsta's who had never seen a mosh pit join on on the violence for the sake of violence. The two security guards present try to break it up, unsuccessfully, for the remainder of the song.

Here's the wierd part: they let us play the whole song, before they rush us off stage and turn off the stage lights. It's another 5 minutes before they can settle down the crowd of pissed off metalheads, pissed off gangstas and very, very afraid teenyboppers. The VP comes out on stage and says: "Killing Of The Firstborn has been disqualified for violating school policies as well as the rules of the battle of the bands." needless to say, alot of people are pissed, including us, as we would have won unlimited time to the school recording studio as well as 200 dollars and an oppertunity to play the dance, but looking back 2 weeks later, I don't really care. We won the fear and respect of everyone in that crowd on some level or another.

__________________

Hookahs

Good luck pkster!! I'm sure you'll do great.

__________________
I smoke 2 joints in the morning, I smoke 2 joints at night. I smoke 2 joints in the, afternoon it makes me feel allright.I smoke 2 joints in time of peace and 2 in time of war.I smoke 2 joints before I smoke 2 joints then I smoke 2 more.
Hard work good, hard work fine, but first take care of head.

420 Bookie Administrator