I've decided not to take photos or video at the FFFF Open Mic nights anymore.  It was a good thing to do, but it was very time consuming.  We don't get paid to run this open mic - they give us a bar tab.

It takes up about 7 hours of my time each Wednesday, from set up to tear down, 5:30 to about 12:30am (sometimes later!).  I have to lug all the equipment from my house, load it into my car, drive to FFFF, lug everything up stairs to the back room, set it up, sound check, run the sound all night, then sometime after midnight, put all the equipment away, lug it down to my car, drive home, unload it all back to my house.  And I have to pay for meter parking too!

2010-06-30 performers:

Steve Boyce, Shelby, Jay Silvas

Dave Robyn and Paige Brown, Russel Somers

Jake Burman and John Ackerman, Matt McArdle

Matt McArdle and Russel Somers, Jeff Jagust

Rick "Just Rick" Busbea and Russel Somers, Tim Crowley

Last Wednesday was our most popular night since we started! We completely filled the signup list and ended up running 1/2 hour late. We'll try to control our time better in the future and follow our own rules, 3 songs or 15 minutes per performer.

Pat Landon was first, playing his cool flamenco style, with a mix of covers and originals. Shelby rocked us with her originals (as usual!) A new face for us, young Jay Silvas, played some great originals.

We made up for the past couple of weeks - several new faces, the signup list was pretty full and we went until midnight.



First up was a newcomer to our open mic nights: Patrick Landon, playing originals in his cool flamenco style.

Next up was Alyssa, another new face, playing originals with her sweet voice on a sweet new Taylor 714ce.

Mr. Hip saved the drive over to Texas Lucy's and played some fun covers on his shiny silver guitar.




Steve Boyce was back from a hiatus, and sounding awesome!

Tim Crowley started us off last week, keeping the social drink tradition alive and well. As usual he was very entertaining - he even brought out "The Humpty Dance"! Well, not the actual dance (which would have been hysterical), but his acoustic version of the song. Next up was Tariq Kamal for several covers, and he brought Tim back up for some help on vocals.

Last wednesday was just after a 3 day holiday weekend, so no surprise that the bar business was slow.

Rich Podgur started us off with his moving vocals, both covers and originals.

Joe Cipolla has become a regular since The Mermaid has given him Wednesday nights off. You can now see Joe perform at Club 705 on Pier Avenue in Hermosa on Fridays, at around 7:00pm.

It was great to see Andrew Jandt back after weeks of physical therapy on his shoulder.

Another fun night at FFFF Open Mic! The Boston Celtics were on the tube so we got started a little late. Rich Podgur did our sound check and though he did bitch and moan about the Celtics losing, he belted out some great tunes, originals and covers. Then some first timers: Dan and Laura got up and performed some beautiful cover songs. I hope to see them again in the future. KC (The Crayons) was next, giving his edgy blend of originals. We even coaxed a brand new song out of him that he's recently written for his upcoming album. We got another first timer who just happened to walk in the bar: Hugh Lehr gave it a shot with some covers.

I'm a bit behind but better late than never. Here are the pics from Wednesday 2010-05-19.

Our first performer was a duo, setting several records for first time events at our open mic.  Miriam and her 12 year old son Rio, performed together, both on classical guitars.

Our partner in musical crime, Steve Boyce gave us a nice long set with some new material we haven't heard from him yet.

Next up was our good ol' friend Jon Coleman, with his smooth classical, finger picking, instrumental style, performing several of his original songs and a cover or 2.