The Closet Troubadour’s Open Mic Guide

The Closet Troubadour’s Open Mic Guide

by Ed Yashinsky

Ah yes, the open mic night. My initial fear was an evening of botched chords, quivering off-key vocals, and cheap beer. So I decided that a three-evening, six-stop marathon would be the quickest way to suffer through Harrisburg’s musical farm system. On the final evening I ran into a friend at the Midtown Tavern and when I told him I saw some pretty good music, his response was, "Yeah, but did you hear any?" The good news is there are many quality performers who play open mics for nothing more than the chance to perform before an audience. The bonus was that open mics were well attended and the majority of the audience paid attention.

"Some open mic nights are pretty rough," explained John Howie, co-owner of The Wire. "But most of our performers are pretty good, and occasionally we find someone who ends up becoming a regular performer here. We just take the good with the bad and try to have a good time."

DAY ONE

Mike Banks has been hosting The Courtyard’s Tuesday open mic for nearly two years. Since the beginning, his approach has been pretty much the same. "My job is to diminish the size of the first step for these performers," said Banks. "We have a lot of regulars, but also a lot of people getting their first exposure. I want them to be confident, so I just try to make them comfortable."

(Emily of Emily’s Toy Box at Courtyard Nightclub)

The first performer, Jerry Urquhart, fit Banks’ assessment. Even though he’s been playing guitar for 15 years, Urquhart only started singing about six months ago. "I try to get out and play about once a week — just to play in front of people and see how they react to what I play," said Urquhart.

Connie Weller dropped by for a drink, but quickly asked to borrow a guitar. Good thing she did. Weller’s unique voice and diverse set, complete with a perfect acapella version of "Swingin’" by Joni Mitchell, got a great response. Banks was so caught up in the moment he thanked Weller for, "blowin’ in like the wind" to perform.

Mark Wesling caught my attention by simply being different. He sat alone most of the evening, but when he picked up the guitar and opened with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata many in the room stopped talking and listened intently. Wesling, a recent Cleveland transplant, played several more classical pieces before leaving the stage. "Some friends encouraged me to come out here several weeks ago," said Wesling. "The live music scene is better here than in Cleveland. Here, people really seem to pay attention."

It was a perfect ending to the marathon’s first night.

DAY TWO

Evenings at The Wire are always unpredictable. When you have all those raging hormones together in one room it leads to outlandish music, never-ending group hugs, and enough cigarette smoking in the courtyard to prove the Joe Camel advertising campaign really hit its target audience.

"Part of our appeal is that we don’t have alcohol," said John Howie. "But, we also offer a broad spectrum of performers of all ages and we have a lot of original ideas coming from the kids who come here."

When I walked through the doors, about 30 teens were watching a drum circle that had the look of a several day fertility ritual. The drummers were dog-tired, occasionally taking breaks to wipe away sweat, while two young women sitting right in front of the band filled the room with mantra-type chanting. I am happy to report that no one became incapacitated (or pregnant) during the song–which ran a good 17 minutes.

The last act I saw at The Wire illustrated the diversity in this one-of-a-kind venue. Two guys, decked out in tattoos, multiple piercings, black eye liner, and Doc Martens entertained with loads of screaming all accompanied by, of course, an acoustic guitar. Not exactly my cup of tea, but you have to give these kids a hell of a lot of credit for expressing themselves on their own terms.

If there is an open mic that borders on a professional level, it is Wednesday night at The Courtyard. The evening, hosted by Shea Quinn, is designed for bands looking an opening spot at local clubs. "A lot of bands show up here because John Harris books many local clubs and he tries to attend whenever possible," says Quinn.

After a brief set by the house band, The Tards ripped through a tight set of well-written, noisy pop songs with a twisted perspective–sort of like Nirvana crashing headlong into They Might Be Giants. "It’s pointless to play cover tunes," explained Tards bassist Tim McClure. "We like playing here because it is high profile and we get great satisfaction from playing our own material."

Hired Guns, featuring former members of Latigo Smith and El Dorado, was a full-throttle country combo featuring a large cue-ball of a lead singer. "We came out to see how we would fair with the rock crowd," said Rob Porter, bassist for the five-month old band. "It was definitely not our normal kind of gig, but we were pretty happy about the response."

Unfortunately, I had to head out early to make my final stop of the evening, but I am glad I did. After walking in the Sun-Ra Cafe, on North Third Street, I nearly walked back outside to see if Ken Kesey’s bus was parked on the street. It was just before midnight and the place was packed with more Guatemalan garb and patchouli than a Phish concert. On stage, two poets were trying to be heard over the conversational roar of the room. It was an uphill battle, but they perservered.

(Poet Eric X at the Wire in New Cumderland)

David Carnes (the more political one) and Christian Thiede (the more ethereal one) had decided to join forces two weeks prior, feeling that two poets are better than one. They chided the crowd to listen-up and both worked hard for the sheer enjoyment of their poetry. When they finished, they were applauded as loudly as the musical acts.

Lisa Barter hosts Sun-Ra’s three-ring circus and she does a perfect job balancing the group on the edge of organized chaos. "Most of us know each other and it’s like one big happy family," said Barter, who also played at The Courtyard the previous night. "But my feeling is the more the merrier. We’ve had rappers, a capella groups, a harpist, a dulcimer player and anything else you can imagine."

The music was high quality and diverse. In fact, there were so many players that guitar cases were stacked four high at the waitress station.

DAY THREE

My final evening was a bit more subdued than the previous late night. At the Rusty Nail, the crowd was a little sparse, but the performers were still lined up to take the stage.

Lee Bodenstein and Dave Coleman, of The Visitors, have been hosting open mike at the Nail for about two and one-half years, and they easily take the award for most entertaining hosts. When asked what makes the Rusty Nail unique for open mic, Bodenstein replied, "They keep the lights low so you don’t notice the peanut shells on the floor."

"We have a lot of regulars that come in every week and we try to keep things really relaxed," said Coleman. "We have seen some pretty good musicians play here in the past two years. We’ve watched them improve greatly and then never come back. But Lee and I always seem to be here."

(Percussionist Howard Wetzel, Dave Coleman, "Sharkey" and Lee Bodenstein at the Rusty Nail)

After a few more performers, I hit the road for my final destination—the Midtown Tavern. I could see the finish line and I knew I could make it.

When I entered the Midtown a little after 11 p.m. a simple guitar melody and a haunting violin filled the room. Most of the 30 people in the bar were paying attention to the music, and not the five televisions around the bar. The performers stood far apart and rarely made eye contact, yet they knew exactly where the other was the entire time. Only later, would I come to realize that I had finally found what open mics are all about.

The Midtown is co-hosted by Jason Callais and Steve Reso of Underground Cartoons and Greg Overton of Handsome Uncle Johnny. "Initially Steve and I started out playing acoustic guitar and anyone who wanted to play could just jump up," explained Callais. "When Greg came along, we added some percussion to the guitars. The nice thing here is people don’t have to bring instruments, which means people who didn’t plan on playing can get up and take a turn. It can be pretty interesting."

After the final performance of the evening, I spoke briefly with the guitarist and violinist who were playing when I entered the bar. "I used to play professionally, but I recently had to get a job," said Mike Slusser, the guitarist. "I like to play open mics just to keep my hand in things. Also, I like the diversity of open mics. It encourages the oddball."

The ironic thing is that Chris Hauke, a former professional violinist, walked in off the street this particular night just to see if he knew anyone to play with and he saw Slusser. "I love to play music, but unfortunately I haven’t found a lot in Harrisburg that I like," says Hauke. "Now, I’m trying to convince Mike that maybe we should start a band together."

(CHECK OUT THE OPEN MIC NIGHT SCHEDULE )

Writer’s Note: Special thanks to everyone who talked to me for this article. Sorry I couldn’t work you all into the piece.