No Sham, All Rock: Shamrock Open Mic

shamrockopenmic01.jpgRight, so as I mention last post, Suzhou finally has a venue for any wannabe musicians to come out and get heard. I “opened” the Shamrock Open Mic Night last night and it was a modest success.

With no advertising, I fully expected to be the only one going up to play – something I was a bit apprehensive about, not least of which because I had no idea what kind of setup they had (and was well aware all I have here in China is a cheap acoustic with extra thick gauge strings).

shamrockopenmic02.jpgI know an (ahem) artist should never blame his tools, but there’s nothing worse than being nervous as all hell, finally getting up on stage and having the sound system/guitar/mic make you sound not at all like you remember you sounding in your living room a few hours earlier.

Fortunately Chris (staff/soundguy/all around nice fellow) brought in his survived-the-trip-from-Ireland guitar, and the bar’s sound system was more than capable of supporting a simple singer/strummer setup. Monitors were a bit light, but with the lack of a huge turnout, hearing yourself wasn’t a huge problem. Next week, I’ve been told, we’ll even have on-stage monitors.

shamrockopenmic03.jpgSo, only three people, including myself, got up and played – but as an initial turnout, the response was quite positive. Lee, bar management, is really supportive of the idea and we’re going to turn it into a regular thing. So, if you’re in the Suzhou area, please come out and support some “local” talent.

And if you’ve got any sort of talent (alright, I think we draw the line at ping pong ball acts), please come out and play. Lee’s offered to give 2-for-1 drinks to any performers for the entire night. Two for one draught Guinness… is there anything sweeter?

Any questions, please contact me.

Thanks again to Chris and Aaron (pictured above) for not forcing me to be the only one to warm up the stage.

10 Responses

  1. Ah… wish I’d been there. I am seriously looking at getting a new guitar so get ready for the “old fart” gettin” his groove back on!!!

  2. Dude you should totaly do a video blog about you on stage at open mic night……i’ve always said that you were good enough for shit like that even back in our FUBAR days and even after in our Utopian Disaster days…..i’d love to see you perform again

  3. @Peter/Chris: That’s not a bad idea. I’ll have to see if I can do something up.

    @Dad: Wish you could have been here too! It’s about time you got a new guitar, you’ve been humming and/or hawing about it for years!

  4. As we were all playing originals (among the covers) I would say it’s karaoke with guitars, some amount of talent, creativity, no teleprompter with random girls on beaches, and a shitload less reverb (and baijiu) – so, basically: not karaoke at all.

    As for the Chinese performers… your guess is as good as mine – at a KTV?

  5. I remember when I was in Xi’an I had a drink at some random little bar/pub and they were doing acoustic stuff all night. All the performers were Chinese (there is hope!) and for the most part the music was great. (Although considering my knowledge of Chinese pop is (intentionally) limited, I’m not sure if they were originals or not.) Still good stuff though.

  6. whats the story ryan its irish chris here havent seen ya for a while what r u up to now im back working in the shamrock par time so drop in and ill shout u a pint

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