Man oh man, what an amazing kick off! Performers came! Moms of performers came! Audience members came! With THEIR moms! Dave Eisner pushed to make it happen and El Golfo, Dave, the community as a whole all delivered.
Oh… and so did I!
Victims of our own success, we definitely ran late and the staff gave me a short “good” when I explained that this was just the first one and all the rest will be a little shorter, and really – getting there at 5.30 or so, getting the music started at 7.15 (I started “early” since the night was already really full) and running till well after 10.30pm was a LOT for me and I was frankly exhausted by the end of the evening. I’m working out the math for how quickly the night runs and how I want to run it in the future, and know I’ll be pre-listing a number of performers who couldn’t stick around to their slots for the next couple of weeks – but all-in-all it was an amazing night and I hope the rest of the month will prove ALMOST (if not quite) as successful as last night and El Golfo will decide to keep us going.
Collide.
It’s a great stage, a great room. Let the rockin’ commence. Though – maybe a little more spaced out. I can probably fill half of next week’s list with people I had to turn away last night.
Tommy and Briann Carroll.
Richard Weil… as 1… 1/2 of Silver Strings?
Sophia and Juliana Barnet Peggy Brennan Stream Ohrstrom makes Joey WORK! Linc Bradham brought us a piano!
Djangolaya!
I had Djangolaya at the Takoma Park Folk Festival and really adored them, it was an HONOUR to get them as our featured artist to kick off the El Golfo open mic.
“Djangolaya is a group of musicians in the DC Metro Area celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz. Djangolaya an acoustic jazz group with a international flair. Part French cafe, part New Orleans jazz, part Latin nightclub, Djangolaya draws on a wide range of musical influences to present a unique blend of old and new sounds.”
You know? I ain’t as educated as all that on the topics of Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz. Djangolaya had charm and instrumental prowess for days, and just a joyous delivery that was a wonder to have in the room. Unfortunately, I DO think I somehow spend the majority of my time running sound somehow subconsciously tying every cable I own into knots, and by the time they hit the stage I was ready to mire them in a rats’ nest of cables that would’ve been capable of tying lesser artists in place.
They were strong and stunning. I didn’t even slow them down!
Beyond cable shenanigans I had a host of other technical issues involving a new-to-me camera that absolutely DIED by the end of the night. After moving a light for one artist it never recovered it’s focus and … it’s probably got to be retired. Le sigh. The video goes dark after my SLR gives out… but the music’s pretty awesome! On top of that, my focus game has just been absolute crap, probably due to something awry with the Magic Lantern hack that I use, which seems to port an “in-focus” signal to my viewfinder that… is not… at all… in any way… correct.
Linc Bradham. Snakehead Run.
No photo of Jimmy Stewart came out okay… … cause I was busy playing with him! Neema Meena.
Rob Gould and Jeff Karn. Sam Maten. Kate Buckholdt.
The El Golfo open mic is made possible in part through the support of Dave Eisner and the House of Musical Traditions. Our featured artists are supported through the generation donations of our audience!
Tonight we were graced with:
- ilyAIMY
- Collide
- Brian and Tom Carroll
- Ricky Wild
- Sophia and Juliana Barnet
- Peggy Brennan
- Stream Ohrstrom
- Djangolaya
- Linc Bradham
- Snakehead Run
- Rowan Corbett
- Jimmy Stewart
- Neema Meena
- Rob Gould
- Sam Maten
- Kate Buckholdt
- Joey Jenkins
2 thoughts on “January 8th, 2020 – Djangolaya at the First El Golfo Open Mic!”
On behalf Of Djangolaya, it was a pleasure to be the featured group at the first (of hopefully many) open mics at el Golfo. It was a large and talented crowd and Rob was a masterful MC. Congratulations to all.
Great evening Rob & David! Man you bring the energy on all cylinders! Hopefully this will continue long into the misty future…So much talent. Where else can you hear a washtub bass? Bring it ON!!