February 24th, 2020. Teavolve w Jesse Moody.

I realized I hadn’t come with a card for my picture-snappin’ camera, so I had to
make do with documenting with my phone.

As I sit listening to the soundtrack for Underworld, treasuring the wonder that was late 90’s grunge and metal, I’m trying to remember the wonder that was Monday night’s open mic and it’s made a little easier by the fact that there were a couple of acts that channeled this very same thing.

T’was awesome to have these acts in the house.

I mean, I Love hearing what’s cutting edge, and I desperately try not to fall prey to get-off-the-lawnish music-sucks-todayism – but man, it’s sometimes just good to hear something that feels fully plugged into the music that absolutely MOVED me growing up.

Specifically – a very special thanks to Amanda and Tim and Jack… the latter of which was like having my own private Kurt Cobain back in the house.

Kurt Cobain who should’ve turned 53 this week.

Madness.

It was a slow night. We’ve had a lot of slow nights recently, and that’s a touch frustrating, but (almost) as always, there’s a bright side and we got to go around the list twice. My lament was that I didn’t get to put our feature Jesse Moody in front of a full room, and he’s absolutely, positively deserving of one.

I actually retreated to the front of the room, where I’m mixing on my phone from the monitors (because we Live in the future), listening to the sound as Jesse would’ve been catching it, tweaking it a little here and there but generally just taking the time to do something I almost never do: simply relax into the sound.

Stepping away from my natural inclination to follow every move with my eyes, removing myself from the study of his (simply phenomenal) playing technique and just letting myself listen… he’s a sublime performer full of more subtlety than most. Gorgeous voice, gorgeous playing. A seductive performer.

I hear he comes from (funk) royalty. I don’t want to research it. I don’t want to know. I want to just savour him on his own because he deserves it.

It was a very, very good night.

Featured artists are made possible through donations by our in-house audience and Focus Music – www.focusmusic.org.

Video at : https://youtu.be/GYyREberS5g

Gallery at : http://www.ilyaimy.com/wordpress/?p=16944

The Teavolve Café & Lounge open mic happens just about every Monday at Teavolve, signup at 6pm, performances from 7-10pm. 2 songs / 10 minutes whichever’s shorter, with a PG13 environment – and is hosted by rob Hinkal of the band ilyAIMY. Rob’s Open Mics were declared a National Open Mic by Shure Microphones, “Best of DC” from Dcmusicdownload.com and have received recognition from the Library of Congress. Search “rob’s open mics” for more info. If you want a copy of YOUR video, please visit : http://www.ilyaimy.com/wordpress/robs-open-mics-3/#video

Tonight we were graced with: