 salt: |
Open Mic Nights |
| Next event: | Sunday 13th July 2008, 8pm
Halo -- 141 Gloucester Road
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Welcome to the Salt Weblog. This blog is about the Salt Open Mic nights that happen at Halo Bar & Restaurant on Gloucester Road, Bristol.
The weblog below is for feedback on the Open Mic Nights themselves, also for other interesting stuff that happens in between. Anyone can add a comment to an existing post. To get notified when new posts appear, click here to register...
Or click here for more information on Salt Open Mic.
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Salt BlogFriday, July 11, 2008 |  Yo! I wish I could bring you all some midsummer vibes, but as I look out my window it is still flirting with monsoon weather. On the upside -- it does make a Sunday night indoors, calm and dry with some good live music seem more appealing doesn't it?
Yes, it's our midsummer Salt this Sunday 13th, on the rather odd (and one-off) date of the second Sunday in July...
Hmmm yes, about those dates. Do you know that from September, we'll be back to the 1st Sunday of the month? Hopefully ever to remain so! :)
There's no open mic in August -- simply because it's holiday time for all...
Also, this should be the last month we're still on this old blue incarnation of our website. It's been comfy for a while, but getting saggy for too long now -- so a vastly updated Wordpress one is under wraps and soon to emerge!
A quick hark back to June's open mic night...
Tim Rice ripped some frankly amazing tunes, the standout being a new one called Don't Hide. 'A new one about people who have guitars, talent etc but don't play...' At Salt we've always felt that the songwriter is a potential lightning rod for feelings that mere words seem to leave behind; and Tim's lyrics seem to agree that this gift shouldn't be neglected... after all, what use is a sundial in the shade?
Likewise, Papenfus as usual did some rooster-baitingly good original songs, and of course, he likes his dramatic, chiaroscura takes on certain cover versions too.
My highlight of the night was when four friends persuaded Emily, who had not intended to perform, to step up and give our piano a tickle. To some people's surprise (but not hers), she rolled out an impressive self-penned instrumental called Seasons. Was there to be an encore? Well, we were denied one that night; she showed only the tip of what could be a whole iceberg of talent. Perhaps we'll see her again on Sunday.
And perhaps we'll see you too!
Bye for now :)
Mark | | posted by Salt team | Comment (0) |
Friday, May 30, 2008 | Hi Salt!
I'll be catching up on some live events soon, but in the meantime if you are interested in sending a haiku for a good cause:
The With Words Online Haiku Competition:
http://www.withwords.org.uk/comp.html
Half the profits from this competition will go towards literacy work with Tsogolo la Abuthu - A Future for Girls in Malawi, Africa: http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm/research/crh/adol_lit.htm
Just twenty-five hours away to the deadline, just a single haiku would be great.
Alan | | posted by Alan Summers | Comment (0) |
Friday, May 30, 2008 |  Looking forward to Salt Open Mic which is this Sunday, 1st June! First a quick glance back at the May open mic :).
So who was that brave duo who, in the absence of Ukraine-visiting Paul P., stepped up to play the night's opening song? None other than Kim Power, singing Tracy Chapman's Change, accompanied by a somewhat nervous me on guitar. We chose the song on the suggestion of Jen Smith, but the more I listened to the lyrics the more I realised we'd picked a song very much of the moment, relevant to me and to many others I know:
If you knew that you would die today,
Saw the face of god and love,
Would you change?
Would you change?
and in the chorus
How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?
Even if our performance was a little nervous, I'm sure that words like that can still hit the mark.
The flavour of the night from then onwards was very much influenced by youth. Those of us who were there might just have felt our age a little bit more that night :). We had three short sets from Road To Recovery -- singer Kieran pacing around, eyes scanning the room as he let loose his vocal energies. I was glad that they explained the meaning of their song Sunday Rain: not just a weather-focused lament, it expressed the acute frustration of missing out on a keenly awaited Ashton Court Festival outing when torrential downpours forced the festival to be abandoned. That's a bummer in anyone's book, but you're well on the road to being a songwriter if you can distill that misery into a 3-minute melody.
We also had a trio of affecting Kate Nash covers from Milly, and a resounding dose of gospel soul when Everton took the stage with a trio of backing singers. This last ensemble got the whole room swaying and harmonising.
So we've had Salt open mic nights where the average performer age has probably been over 30 -- but in May it might even have hovered under 20. Will it even out this Sunday 1st June? Come on you twentysomethings!
See you there ;) | | posted by Salt team | Comment (0) |
Sunday, May 04, 2008 |  hello! just a quick diary-style popup to say that Salt is tonight :)
And if you've not been daunted by the weather and have actually escaped somewhere out of town this weekend, then ...we missed you, of course... & the next one is June 1st.
(pic on the left is from April's open mic night, featuring great solo stuff from Charlie Groves and a warm 'goodbye for now' sendoff for Cheltenham-bound Mr Jonathan Sky-Blue Rees).
M
| | posted by Salt team | Comment (0) |
Friday, April 04, 2008 |  At the March 9th open mic, our guest Rosta Litvin from Czech Republic told a story... it's been stuck in my head since then and been kind of thought provoking. I recorded it on the night so it's available to listen back...
Click Here to visit the Salt open mic Myspace - then click on 'Life After Birth?' in the player.
('fraid I can't post it directly in this site at the moment).
Enjoy! And it is Salt this Sunday... we are back to the First Sunday Of The Month, tra la la laaaa :) :) :) | | posted by Salt team | Comment (0) |
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