I guess the old pickin’ juice was flowing after the Dina gig, so I headed out to Mike Duck’s OM in Allentown at Hava Java, a small coffee shop across from the wonderful Civic Theater. A nice neighborhood it seems, with movie patrons drifting out, dudes hanging outside the cafe, lightening in the area, but no showers on a very hot July evening.
Each Open Mike has its own community and that’s what I like to observe. It is always more interesting than the ‘quality’ of the acts. These folks want to play, perform and share. Powerful stuff.
Mike tends to these folks by providing sound, support and consistency, and by raising the bar with his own performances. Folks are taking it seriously it seems, due to his investment in this community.
I arrived in time for the woman in black singing Japanese lyrics to tunes off her lap top. My respect for Mike rose logarithmically. Others had their time, some were wonderfully surprising. There’s good folks out there everywhere.
I did three songs, Shoo That Fly, July and Pay Bo Diddley, encouraging shamelessly audience response with some dancing, tambourine shaking and back up vocals, as well as getting guitars out for Bo. It was nice to play for new folks, take ’em by surprise and flex my performance muscles. I love it.
Again, its these small venues who support the music in the neighborhood, give us all a chance to share our wild dreams of knocking down the perfect rendition of our collective song.