Well I guess when you fly for close on 24 hrs you’re meant to spend the next day recovering or whatever, but sadly in this particular instance, I don’t have the time. Having just arrived in Chicago (which I have been to once before – really nice place similar to Sydney in some ways because it is on the water), I only had three days before my first gig in Indianapolis. So this is my first time travelling to another country for the sole purpose of playing my own music to people. At this stage, I had no idea what to expect from the Mid-west music summit, so I have to admit to being a bit nervous about the whole thing. In addition, I have only recently started to do the solo gigs back home. Most of this year has been with the band, which is a bit easier to hide in I guess. Ah well – too bad. Will have to get by, I’m here now.
That being the case, I did what any aspiring singer-songwriter really should – I jumped on the internet and tried to figure out a way to get a gig here in Chicago. It’s not that I was desperate to play, I actually felt pretty crap really, but I decided early on in the day that I would spend it trying to figure out whether or not the vocal chords etc were going to work in the same fashion here in the Northern hemisphere.
The internet is a funny thing – a wealth of information available but it is amazing how often you can sit on it for hours and get absolutely no-where. Keen not to play out this scenario due to the exorbitant internet rates at the hostel, I quickly gave up the thought of packing out one of the city’s more salubrious establishments, and hit my favourite website in the world – “google”. Hmmm… try typing “Open Mic Chicago”.
It’s pretty amazing – things are far more advanced like this over in the states. Immediately I came across this massive open mic database – www.openmic.org . It basically lists just about every open mic on every night of the week in every city in the States. Feverishly, I set about scribbling down details. Now Chicago is about the same size population-wise as Sydney, but I managed to get around 20 different numbers for places who all had open mic nights on that night. Fortunately a few of them had websites, and I was able to target the ones that looked the most interesting.
A few phone calls later I managed to secure a spot at a “jam night” at the Underground Wonder Bar (www.undergroundwonderbar.com). Was slightly encouraged by this, as it was a step above an open mic – turns out you actually get 20-25mins instead of the standard 2 or 3 songs (and before any of you say it – 20mins is not 2 or 3 of my songs anyway you smart asses I actually got 4 – plus a bonus cause they liked me!). Anyway, spot wasn’t until 11.30 so I tried to hit another one earlier in the evening. Sadly, the “Subterranean” was booked right through till 12.30 when I walked in the door at 8. Turns out these things are pretty damn popular over here. Have to be content with a cheap Thai meal across the street, then a long walk with my guitar as I looked for the train to the Underground Wonder Bar…..
About an hour into the walk I must really have looked a mess. Standing with a map in the middle of god-knows-where, a faltering guitar case leaking strings and everything else I shoved in before I left Australia - underneath a street light which was not working properly in an area which, the further I walked, became less appealing to be in. Thank god for that lovely girl who I will probably never see again, but will live long in my memory for giving me some simple directions which no doubt saved me hours more grief. Tempted to ask her to the gig, but then that might have stretched the friendship… Better leave it at “thanks”…”um”…. Nice one Renny. Very smooth.
So 30mins later the source of my frustration appears – The “Underground Wonder Bar” in downtown Chicago. Shouldn’t have caused me so much trouble because I had actually walked past it earlier in the day (Lots of walking this trip…). Furthermore, it wasn’t really “underground”, more like one of those semi-underground places – half a flight of stairs down. Pretty nice feel to it though – and was pleasantly surprised when I walked in that they actually had a proper grand piano available! Sat through a couple of other acts, which was nice to see, and knocked off a couple of beers to mellow out so I was ready to go. Nice little crowd of about 20 people in the bar (which probably held only about 80-100 max.). “Can I use the piano?” I ask. No problems. Nice one.
2 Songs on the guitar, 2 on the Piano, and then a bonus on the keys as I said before because they gave me a bit longer (I made the point to them that it was only fair if I was going to fly half way round the world to play at their bar….). And thus the first US solo originals gig was safely negotiated. Vocals were a little rusty, but I guess that was to be expected. Apart from that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the night when you consider that it really was only a longer version of an open mic. One more Budweiser for good measure, and whilst tempted to do the Rock’n’Roll thing and get plastered on my own as a “first-night-celebration”, I was aware that the next day I would be trying to negotiate my way in a rental car along the “interstate” to Indianapolis, and having not been on this side of the road for a number of years would find that slightly difficult if I did too much of a number on myself. Back to Hostel room with Old man who smells….. about 65 years old, he was on his maiden solo backpacking adventure around the USA – just got off a 30hr Greyhound trip that day he told me. That would explain the smell I guess – OK, benefit of the doubt this time. Nice enough sort of chap.
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