At an open mic night last night…

[Geek99]

after a few songs of playing along with an acoustic singer/guitarist aka host and his singing buddy (who was much more personable) 
 

…I was asked “if I could play an acoustic guitar instead” … it’s advertised as an “open mic night” (ie word “acoustic” nowhere in sight, then anything goes IMHO, even a triangle or a violin (one I go to regularly features a very Downs guy who plays really good violin, violin is hard and doubly so if you’re not fully physically able. He goes down a storm and deservedly so) 

 

after I’d finished feeling sick at the thought, I said “I can, but I choose not to”  and left.

I didn’t suggest he was some rearranged version of the danish spelling of Canute. 

 

am I being unreasonable here ? I didn’t know what song the host/“star” was playing until he started it, and I quickly googled the chords and improvised. Valuable skill I know, not very nice to me, but I’m using to winging it in other fields so I shrug and get on it. My volume was deliberately low and I tried not to upstage him in any way 

he was complaining no one else turned up to play, beginning to wonder why (not!), he even made an acid remark about lack of applause

 

 

 

nice pub, landlord and young barmaid were very nice and good beer too. Not going to name the venue as they don’t deserve the bad publicity 

 

p bass with flats and a spot of “tube preamp” and compression from the zoom b2.1. Sounded pretty good actually, pleasantly surprised at the sound from the monitors 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Geek99

[uk_lefty]

To me, open mic means "anything goes". Just sounds like he was the end of a bell. 

 

An open mic I went to years back was awesome. Some bloke would tootle along with most acts on an alto sax. He didn't even ask permission, he just played, and he was good... Sounded a bit odd on our Eagles song though! Then there was a girl who plugged in a laptop for a backing track and sang Opera. Then the lad who made improvised electronic music using an old Nintendo Gameboy he'd reconfigured. That was more fun than two hours of soppy acoustic stuff.

[Geek99]

Okay thanks for your thoughts, sounds like I wasn’t being over-sensitive then 

[Geek99]

Thing is, when I got there I asked host what songs he was doing “so I could do some advance homework to avoid looking a tw at” and he said “don’t know” and looked away… should have bailed at that point 

 

Edit

 

maybe I should go back with a semi acoustic bass..🤔
 

second edit … first time I went there the hypocritical basket was playing a white Stratocaster 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Geek99

[Dan Dare]

Bloke sounds like a custard (composite insult to get around the profanity block). Why leave, though? You say you enjoy the evening. Might have been better to just smile, say nope, stick around and let him worry about it.

[Geek99]

he wouldn’t worry. 
 

Fed up with being ignored, and with his “no applause ?” Motif 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Geek99

[ezbass]

3 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Bloke sounds like a custard

I’m stealing that! 🤣

[Geek99]

47 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Fed up with being ignored, and with his “no applause ?” Motif 

I asked if I could sit out the front so I could see his chording hand but I don’t think he wanted anyone sitting between him and the /his audience 

I guessed what he was playing from the sound of the chords and my view of the back of his guitar neck (not that easy, at my experience level at least)

 

He was such a total Canute that I don’t want to go back. F u ck him and his unattended OM night 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Geek99

[TheGreek]

I really hate control freaks who think that it's all about them and throw their toys out of the pram when somebody does something that wasn't in their plan.

Let him involve himself in self penetration.

[Geek99]

As I said to partner, there’s no way I’m having an acoustic guitar in the house just to make him happy. I sold the one I had as I couldn’t play due to needs of kids during day, and it was too noisy when they were in bed.
 

Which is one reason why electric bass is much superior 

[ahpook]

The chap didn't want you getting involved, it seems.

 

Pathetic way to behave, but don't waste any more energy on it. Sucks to be him.

 

Good excuse to play some bass tonight that you do enjoy 👍

Edited August 26, 2023 by ahpook

[pete.young]

An acoustic bass guitar, or a  6-string acoustic guitar?

 

 

 

 

[Geek99]

4 minutes ago, pete.young said:

An acoustic bass guitar, or a  6-string acoustic guitar?

 

 

 

 

He was asking if I “could play acoustic”, meaning six string but I thought since that taking an acoustic bass would totally f u ck him up. 

[Geek99]

19 minutes ago, ahpook said:

The chap didn't want you getting involved, it seems.

 

Pathetic way to behave, but don't waste any more energy on it. Sucks to be him.

 

Good excuse to play some bass tonight that you do enjoy 👍

Then why run an open mic night and moan that no one comes along to play 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Geek99

[pete.young]

8 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

He was asking if I “could play acoustic”, meaning six string but I thought since that taking an acoustic bass would totally f u ck him up. 

Finally, a reason to own one!

[ahpook]

31 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Then why run an open mic night and moan that no one comes along to play 

 

Who knows ? Difficult to fathom, but I don't try and understand people who do weird things like that. I worry it'll rub off, like in The Martian Chronicles where the Martians can catch mental illnessness telepathically.

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by ahpook

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

Finally, a reason to own one!

I liked mine, it had nice tone for a cheapie and my daughters found it easy to manage being a shorter scale 

[Maude]

I would turn up with a doublebass and completely upstage him. I've found that folks are drawn to the visual of a doublebass. 

It is, after all, what he asked for. 

[Downunderwonder]

Ubass would do a good job of upstaging also, for very little cost.

[tauzero]

It would be useful to know if it's somewhere round Coalville as Mrs Zero is thinking of doing an open mic or two with the other half of the duo she's in, and he lives in Coalville.

[Geek99]

10 hours ago, tauzero said:

It would be useful to know if it's somewhere round Coalville as Mrs Zero is thinking of doing an open mic or two with the other half of the duo she's in, and he lives in Coalville.

It’s not in Coalville 

im not even aware of any going on here, travel needed 

 

if you or she know of one, please let me know @tauzero

Edited August 27, 2023 by Geek99

[Geek99]

This is the offensive thing, but with flats 

 

[Beer of the Bass]

Most Open Mic nights I've been to, people turn up to do a song or two, the host opens, closes and fills in if the numbers are lacking. But generally nobody expects someone else to play with them unplanned - it's individual turns (or duos etc who showed up together). If they do, it's usually billed as a jam night, open session or similar.

[Geek99]

45 minutes ago, Beer of the Bass said:

Most Open Mic nights I've been to, people turn up to do a song or two, the host opens, closes and fills in if the numbers are lacking. But generally nobody expects someone else to play with them unplanned - it's individual turns (or duos etc who showed up together). If they do, it's usually billed as a jam night, open session or similar.

No, it’s all unplanned and on a previous occasion he invited me to do exactly that, including agreeing a tune we’d do in my next visit. 
so, I don’t think I was unrealistic in my expectations. 

[Downunderwonder]

The session I went to for years started as open mic night and morphed into unholy jam night once everyone got used to me. It stayed billed as open mic while everyone referred to it as jam night.

 

I would always ask new folk if they wanted the bass. Some should have said no, the odd ones who didn't know their own material well enough, the ones who couldn't keep time.

 

Imo all open mics should be so lucky as to have a bassist capable of sitting in with randoms grace them with their presence.