Wandering Boston is one of the best places to get a great buffet of singer/songwriters and absolutely scary-talented musicians. It’s one of the few places where I can walk into an open mic and absolutely count on someone making me feel like an amateur by the end of the night. It’s not a bad thing – I Love what I do, and though – if I were able – I’d certainly stroll through the smorgasbord of talent and pick and choose little attributes (a little vocal control from this one, the polished storytelling of that one, the sheer
smoothness on the guitar of another…), I would never trade what I’ve got.
Last night we played at Tom Bianchi’s Lizard Lounge Open Mic Challenge – a competition we’ve been in a number of times before. I think we hit it up every time we’re in town just to see the other players and to meet and greet and hobnob with the best of the best of the area. Modeled after Eddie’s Attic in Georgia, the prize for the best performer of the evening (as judged by various guest judges) is whatever door money there is from the night – usually a modest sum – but the chance to watch the parade of talent is almost unparalleled.
We encountered a couple of old friends and made a bunch of new ones – and surprised ourselves by being selected for the final three! The other acts to accompany us to the winner’s circle were probably my favourites of the night and about as diverse a group as you could’ve hoped for. Laura Grill had a beautiful voice coupled with some of the finest control I’ve ever heard. She backed herself with very elegant jazz guitar playing that reminded me that I know about one one-hundredth of the chords out there. She was effortless. The other act was another duo (well, a solo artist and accompaniment?) – Jared Salvatore was accompanied by an absolutely stunning blonde woman named Rebecca who had a pretty unreal voice: one of those husky, dusky tones that you’re sure will be raw-edged and limited but then explodes into notes all over the scale every bit worthy of her looks. (I feel kind of weird putting it all that way, but often the hot blondes are the ones that are pitchy and turn to the host and sing “hee, do I sing into THIS thing here?”). Jared was a killer player, very tight, very polished – and his voice reflected Rebecca’s range and power. The two of them combined were sort of the opposite of Heather and I – tall and blonde vs. short and dark, elegant and polished vs our own raw ferocity – but they were every bit and powerful.
I was very surprised to win.
After the show we got to hang out with everyone as they turned up the lights and put up the chairs. I think it’s funny to see the change in ritual from blowing out and replacing the candles to collecting them all and placing them on their chargers…. Heather and Danielle Miraglia chatted about being a solo female on the road and I talked to Tom Bianchi about trying to get him to come down south for us some time with his new CD.
It’s rare that I feel like I’m part of a community – but they really DO make me feel at home, and with the win at the Lizard Lounge, somehow that also makes us feel worthy of that community.
Today we’ve finally seen the last of Boston (probably won’t see it again till September) and are making our way south to Rhode Island. First we’ll stop in and visit Will Schaff (he has a bunch of new cut paper stuff that we can’t wait to check out) and then to join up with the RISA open mic at a place that apparently has great fries. We shall see. We know our fries.
It’s a beautiful day and the highway has tried to slow us, but generally we’re feeling kind of ahead of the game.
