I’m kind of caffeinated, buzzed on mochas and espresso and my mouth is filled with the cloying sweetness of peaches and blackberries. The air is balmy and thick outside and I’m grateful for the confined coolness of the interior of my car, racing westward back to Ben’s after another show in Charlotte , North Carolina . After calling every venue touted by the local paper as having an open mic and being told by EVERY SINGLE VENUE that they don’t run an open mic on Wednesday nights any more (and this was a feature article ABOUT open mics, even) Heather got fed up and just started calling venues and asking if they wanted an acoustic duo for the night.
We found ourselves playing at Jackson’s Java in Charlotte to an audience that never climbed about five folks who avoided eye contact and were silent as a tomb after every song. We had a moment here and there of acknowledgement, a few spatterings of applause, and a couple of attentive faces for a couple of songs here and there, but generally it was more of a practice session than anything else – useful but not particularly good for the ego.
It’s been a long couple of days here, stretching into long nights. We’ve been in Charlotte since Saturday night, and won’t be leaving until Friday morning, and the poor planning of this rankles at me. Time that should be filled with at LEAST open mics has been wasted as venue after venue eliminates these for things that generate more revenue like karaoke or DJs. It’s a problem we’ve seen just about everywhere, but nowhere else has it been as prevalent as here. The big “openmikecharlotte.com” site only lists one open mic in the area, and that’s on a Friday night. Pretty useless to anyone who plays out even semi-professionally.
IN any case, I like the people we’ve been meeting here, and it’s been kind of cool, sitting and watching movies with friends all night every night – but I’m ready to move on and NOT feel like I’m a bum sleeping night after night on our friends’ floors. Tonight was good for work ethic, if nothing else.
Evening Muse tomorrow. I’m hopeful – a lot of people have said they’re coming out to the show. Then Tryon, then the big competition at Eddie’s Attic. I don’t have HIGH hopes for winning, but GOD that would be cool.
