By Heather Aubrey Lloyd on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 4:16am
So last night in Cambridge I played the Lizard Lounge open mic contest, celebrating its 210th show with host Tom Bianchi. That thing is amazing. Seriously. Go there on a Monday night whether you play or not, and hear some of the best (and sometimes that most awkwardly hysterical) talent you’ve never heard of. Every time I go there – rob and I have been twice before – you want to kiss the ground the musical talent walks on about as much as you want to curse it for giving your competition something to stand on.
Anyway, I went into Cambridge a little early and situated myself in yet another Starbucks. Let me explain one of the things I’ve learned about staying away from home a long time in lots of different places on lots of different couches: eat dinner in the mom and pop diners for the home-cooked meal feel, and try the local favorites everywhere you go, but like it or not, chains like Panera, Chipotle and Starbucks will keep you feeling anchored. Because chains taste almost the same everywhere, look almost the same everywhere, they are the way to stave off the start of homesickness. You know how to order without fear of stumbling over “wit” or “witout” for your cheese steak in Phillie while the locals giggle at you, the tourist. You know there’s nothing in that soup to which you might be allergic … you know that drink always wakes you up, etc. When you’re in one Starbucks, it could be a Starbucks anywhere, even “back home” if you need it to be that one for a moment. Of course, in the Starbucks in Davis Square and across from the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, the college town requires a more long-term seating solution than most Starbucks that hope you’ll vacate. There are huge, Hogwarts- looking long tables for collegians to sprawl books, laptops and papers across. And there are poster boards – prominent ones – for all the community events. My Starbucks at home does not have a posterboard, and I’m now thinking about lobbying to change that.
So, corporate food chains can be the equivalent of the childhood safety blanket for the weary traveler. But never waste an opportunity to check out something recommended by the locals.
I worked in Starbucks for a while, forgetting as they become more and more a part of me that my tattoos are very visible as my hands move over the keys. A departing student cautiously comes up to me and asks me about them. I’m loving that aspect of the tattoos. People ask about them because they are so well done and so unique. That came up at the Lizard Lounge, too, where a guy came up to me and said, “Excuse me, my girlfriend told me you have some incredible tattoos…” Another performer, Jared McCloud, is a musician and a tattoo artist himself, and we talked about the tandem traveling abilities of those jobs. For example, my mother was tattooed in my kitchen = rock star. McCloud does the same when he needs money to keep the music going.
In addition to McCloud, are no less than 25 performers at the Lizard Lounge waiting to sing their two songs, hoping to sing a third if they make the final three chosen. It’s run almost identically to Georgia’s Eddie’s Attic open mic challenge, also on Mondays if I remember correctly. ilyAIMY has won the night twice there, and gone to the finals, where we’ve finished as high as the Sweet 16. Rob and I had never been able to crack the top three at Lizard Lounge. That should tell you what the talent at this thing is like.
There are so many standouts, it’s hard to direct you to a few, but a good start would be the two performers with whom I was selected to share the final three slots. Yup, that’s right. I made the final three!
Anthony Savino (http://www.myspace.com/thisisamachine) reminds me of Sufjan Stevens. His finger-picked guitar is lush and effortless. His voice is earnest is beautiful. And the lyrics are poetic and unpretentious. He also looks like Jesus. He has a demo out in the world and is working on a disc now. I’ll need this disc. I write his name down when he finishes his second song. I already know he is going to win.
At the end of the night, blowing in like a hurricane is Shoney Lamar (http://www.myspace.com/shoneylamar), who is the undeniable other choice for the top 3. All bravado and theatrical stage presence, stare as intense and unblinking as his enunciation, it is because of these things and the fact that his voice is so good and his lyrics so disconcerting and brilliant that you simply cannot take your eyes off him. He opens the night by saying how he feels like “a man is trying to fuck him” because of the room’s candles and red light. I’ll never see the room the same way again. And the way he performs, he could easily be a huge douche, and he’s completely not. Incredibly sweet, friendly, even soft-spoken compared to his songs. The band is coming down through a tour to Atlanta soon, and I would give anything to find them a gig here in Baltimore just so you could understand what I just saw.
So for once, I pick the winners, and strangely enough I am among them. Of course I did Love A Girl on djembe/vox, which was totally unique, but this is a room that respects good songwriting as much as any gadget, so Ask for Me is me second song. I closed with Phantom, one of my better versions of it … because how do you follow Shoney Lamar except with a song about amputeeism as it relates to relationships?
To say I was honored in that company is an understatement.
And Michael Berkowitz is enjoying the benefits of the Boston music scene on his own performance. His voice is stronger, his live performance more engaging.
I’ll close out my thoughts in the morning, I think.
