...earlier today, I read a post by JerseyMike wondering "where are the hot new harrisburg bands?".  My experience in the central PA area have been that the majority of the venues that are booking local acts are NOT RECEPTIVE to original music.  In fact, there were a couple of venues that flat out told me "no originals" when I talked to them about booking the band.  There was a club downtown that used to promote original music, but shut it down due to lack of interest.  Same thing in Summerdale.  We talked to the folks booking legions, Elk and Moose clubs, etc., and they all wanted to make sure we were going to be playing familiar (read popular covers) music, because that's what their patrons want.  Again, my experience has been that even when we covered popular bands (Skynyrd, Nickelback, etc.) if we weren't playing "Sweet Home Alabama", or "Control", it still wasn't well received.  Digging deep into the classic vinyl archive seems to be discouraged.  If you're not playing what's on the top 10 list of the venues jukebox, you might as well be taking a break.

Have I just been going to the wrong clubs?

Well, it was another open mic night at the Verhovay club last night.  It was a slow night.  We did our first set with no major glitches.  As we were finishing the set, we wished one of the patrons (Steph) a happy birthday by playing and singing the traditional “happy birthday song”.   John C. started out the open mic portion of the night.  He did an awesome job on some old Dylan tunes.  We also did a couple of standards.  I even played piano/organ on a couple of songs.  Frank came out and did a great job on a couple of tunes.  The close of the evening saw me dinking around with some old Billy Joel tunes on the piano.  Someday, I’m going to learn to play that thing! 

After we packed up and loaded out at the Verhovay, Scott and I stopped up at Nathan’s for their open mic night (which doesn’t really get underway until after 10pm).  I ran in to a couple of friends, and later in the evening Scott and I did a few tunes just because we were there.  I even went out on a limb and did a solo version of Bad Co’s Seagull.  Fortunately, there were no cameras or recording devices!

We would have hung out for a bit afterwards, but it was getting pretty late, and I still needed to get to work in the morning.  Thanks go out to the Verhovay for letting us play, and Brenda the bartender for not letting us go thirsty.  Also, thanks to Nathan’s, along with Glenn and Carl (the open mic hosts) and Meranda, because there “ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”!