I had a great time Saturday night at the Star-Lite Lounge in Blawnox. On the first Saturday of the month, Robert Wagner puts together the Three Penny Opry, a melange of mostly acoustic musicians, who usually have a lot to say, and are always worth hearing from. I usually do a little work as the emcee and I play a song or two. At the end of the evening we trade songs and generally mix things up. One of my favorite moments this past Saturday was being part of a improvised doo-wop chorus for Randy Hoffman's song about a perky goth girl.
Robert just sent me an e-mail that said there's more fun in everyone's future, especially if more people participate:
I was speaking with Ron Esser, owner of Moondogs and The Starlite Lounge, and he said that he wants to make The Starlite his "acoustic" club. Moondogs would be devoted to rock and blues, and The Starlite would be devoted to acoustic folk and blues. Thus far, we've been doing The Threepenny Opry on a monthly basis. And every Tuesday night The Starlite is home to the Calliope Bluegrass Jam.Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if you want to join in.
To do a show in the backroom at the starlite, it takes about 20 minutes or so to move tables and chairs and set up the p.a. It's not hard at all. As you know, the backroom is non-smoking, but people can smoke and buy drinks at the bar. (The lighting isn't ideal, but we're not movie stars...) Moondog can't GUARANTEE us anything other than a few drinks and a sandwich, that kind of thing, but at least we wouldn't be expected to pay anything. We'd make what we earn "at the door," something we're accustomed to.
So I'm volunteering to facilitate the scheduling of shows at the starlite and to help set up the p.a. and that kind of thing. I think we should just start booking shows every friday and saturday night, do it and do it and do it and stick with it till the general public gets the idea that if they want to hear good acoustic music on friday or saturday night, they should go to blawnox.
Sounds good to me. (Tried to post sketch of open mic here, but comment form didn't like the html.)
Posted by: Liz at May 10, 2005 11:17 AM