by Anna Weaver | Sep 30, 2024 | All Posts, tips for open mic performers, US open mics
One of my favorite metaphors for open mic is that it’s the Swiss Army knife of entertainment. If that’s true (it is), then the open mic I found in Livonia, MI, is the super deluxe version — fully tricked out with gizmos and features that make playing out just a little...
by Anna Weaver | Mar 9, 2024 | All Posts, US open mics
The more open mics I go to, the more I realize how much the show’s personality is defined by the space it calls home. Purpose-built scenes like The Venue on 35th in Norfolk or the Nuyorican are more likely to be earth-shakers. As the slam refrain goes, in a place like...
by Anna Weaver | Jun 30, 2023 | All Posts, tips for open mic performers, US open mics
A while back I compiled some advice for aspiring hosts and organizers about how to name an open mic show. (Granted, it’s a rarefied problem, but if you ever need help, I gotchu.) Anyway, the post lists a handful of shows with cool names, including one that was still...
by Anna Weaver | Nov 23, 2022 | tips for open mic performers, US open mics
In a part of Providence called Mount Hope, at the bus stop where 3rd Street tees into HWY 1, there’s a funky blue building. Walking up, you’ll pass a bench painted bright pink, a sign that says “Music, Food, Friends,” and a light pole feathered in...
by Anna Weaver | Sep 6, 2022 | All Posts, US open mics
After two and a half years, America’s only open mic tourist (that’s me) once again sallied beyond the borders of North Carolina in search of venues, shows, hosts, and performers to learn from. It took a few months of stalking searching, but I managed to find 3 shows...
by Anna Weaver | Nov 30, 2019 | All Posts, US open mics
For a flatlander like myself, New England is kinda…well…confusing. As in easy-to-get-lost confusing. As in bring-a-roll-of-thread, keep-an-eye-out-for-Jared-the-goblin-king confusing. It’s hilly, for one thing. The trees are too many and, by Oklahoma standards, too...
