Wow. It’s raining. And it’s freezing. Back to the teens for us (temperature-wise) with maybe some snow tonight – after a day that kicked off warm and muggy, with me having to resort to the old two-showers-a-day routine for the past several days to be cool enough to sleep.
So – over the past several days I’ve had much occasion to wax poetic over my open mics.
Whether it’s my idealism over what I think they can and should be – or my wonder at how amazing some of the performers are – I’ve gotten an awful lot of good press over these things and I think I deserve it. But now what?
Teavolve will probably get a lot more attention … from people who pay attention to open mics… after Monday night’s “National Open Mic Night”, the endorsement from Shure probably doesn’t REALLY mean anything other than the fact that I make a LOT of noise and anyone looking for the MOST ADVERTISED open mic nights are probably bound to stumble across me. Now how do I make sure I Live up to it?
The Library of Congress seminar focused on old, old, old folk communities that have existed not for a couple of years (like Teavolve) but literally decades. It’s possible that such longevity is only a side-effect of having had BIG names associated with them (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, etc) – as they historians around me delved into the past of Club Passim / Club 47 and Caffe Lena they’ve certainly gone through long, hard periods of time where they weren’t at ALL financially viable… but the mystique and status that has coalesced around these places is unmistakable.
I don’t think Teavolve can EVER aspire to that level of status. Even the more community-oriented world of the Takoma Park Open Mic really will never take it to the next level, and I think a LOT of that comes from the fact that the community organizer (i.e. me) isn’t really the venue owner / in a position of power within the business…
(excuse me while I headbang to Artem’s remix of Revolutions Per Minute… holy shit)
Okay – so back to venues and legendary status – I’ve built great communities. I feel that Teavolve’s a little loose-limbed right now, but we’re still friends, supporting one another, playing with one another – etc. But I think without the idea that the venue is a PLACE TO BE SEEN, there’s no way it kicks up a notch. I don’t think Teavolve could ever be that because to be a place to be seen, there’d have to be a level of exclusivity which isn’t really my thing. A lot of that comes from packing houses to ticketed shows on the weekend… to selling out. Not selling out in a negative corporate way – but selling out the house – letting people know that something amazing is going on inside, and that YOU can’t get in because you simply got there too late.
Like three ilyAIMY shows over our entire history.
I think I’m once again at that weird turning point. I don’t have a five-year plan and I don’t know what my next step is.
Open mics, ilyAIMY, art… my brain’s kind of in a turmoil.
I want to meet a drummer.
