This does not, N-O-T, not mean you suck

Eddie is a saint. The man that no longer owns Eddie's Attic, but still runs the acoustic venue's weekly open mic night, finishes every week with: "before I call the last finalist of the night, I want to reiterate that if your name hasn't been called, it does not, N-O-T, not mean you suck.

I haven't played at Eddie's - but - I have spent a number of nights going just to listen.

It's brilliant. Well, in the little league soccer kind of way. So much struggle, everyone going for the metaphorical broken heart/follow your dream/nostalgia-for-something-vaguely-american-that-our-generation-never-knew soccer ball, and no one really getting anywhere, unless you count the three folks that are selected as finalists. There's no shortage of songs by sensitive, misunderstood blokes writing about what they suspect songs should be about.

To be fair, it is extremely difficult to be or do what you are - and i don't pretend to have it right.

One of the great things of hanging out at open mics though, is the chance to build a song from a group of rules of what you'd hope to never do - given how it's playing out on stage.

My buddy Christiaan has been on the road with his band pretty much since we finished at Emory in '06. His band Brass Bed played at a house party this past saturday night (of course the police came. "everybody inside" says the tipsy host, to which mike's inner monologue replies "hmmm, uh, you know what, I'm not doing anything wrong so I think we should just go. i'm getting too old for this")

The last time I hung out with Christiaan, he gave me a bit of friendly guff for not taking more time before school to play music. His friendly jabbing was about my heading to medical school as premature, citing his own backup plans of going to law school if the band doesn't work out. I want to be clear, I have no thoughts about going pro. But I don't think folks that play personally important music ever stop. Playing something that has meaning and familiarity provides a centering counterweight to daily busyness. It's worth too much to walk away from.

The past few years I've become a bigger and bigger consumer of music, always looking for the next sound that pings something simple, creative and organic without trying too hard. I doubt the playing or the listening will stop because I'm hanging out with science a bit more.

If I had to guess what Eddie liked about open mic nights, it'd be the leveling that happens in front of a microphone. Fairly regularly people playing at other venues in town would stop by open mic before their own personal gigs, but they're on the same stage with the same sound guy. They get two songs to say what you've got to say, and once in a while, maybe three times in one night, you get folks that are saying something honest and worthwhile about what living is like.