Tosco House Party 1/6/2004

Tosco House Party Open Mic

Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2004
Location: Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
Purpose: Tosco House Party

My wife was busy planning and booking her FREE TRIP to England this past Tuesday night (a friend of hers won 2 free tickets to London)...so I used it as an excuse to sneak out to NoDa. I wanted to check out Wine Up! where I'll be playing on Feb 6th (Gallery Crawl night)...but I also took my guitar with me because I knew the Tosco House Party was happening at the Evening Muse that night.

I guess I got to the Muse about 9 or so, and I was amazed at how packed the place was with musicians. I mean, most of the open mics you go to around town these days are new...and are still finding their audience. But the Tosco House Party (which I've heard about for quite a while) has already built its momentum. It was standing-room only at the Muse when I walked in...and there was a cute 9 year old girl who was playing fiddle as her dad strummed along on guitar. Apparently, the kids get to play first....which is cool. I ran into Rick Spreitzer at the door, who passed me the sign up sheet and asked if I'd like to play. I signed up as #28, which meant I'd have to wait until 11:30 or so.

I spoke to several of my songwriting friends who were waiting to play (Ladd Van Devender, Steve Simpson, Jeff Williams), and ducked across the street to check out Wine Up!

wine Up is a cool wine (and beer) bar that just opened up behind Boudreaux's restaurant (across the street from the Evening Muse). I must admit I felt a little like a true Nashville songwriter, ducking out back from a gig to another bar get a beer before my set...like many-a Nashville picker has done from the Grand Ole Opry to Tootsie's.

Anyway, Wine Up! is a cool little place with a big red bar, nice small rounded tables, a small 4-inch stage, a magnetic wall where you can make sentences out of the magnetic words, and a couple of billiards tables. It opened about 3 weeks ago, and is just starting to find its following. I spoke with Ann Q who co-owns the place about how she had to fight through the Charlotte bereaucratic red tape to get the appropriate zoning, health, and liquor licenses. She told me about how she bought nearly all of the furnishings at close-out auctions...and how she used the neighborhood's local drug addicts as construction workers. Ann is very friendly...and fully-assimilated--if you discount the traces of NY City accent that slip out from time to time. (wink) It's a cool place, and my Feb 6th gig should be lots fun.

After two beers, I ducked across the street to see how the open mic was progressing. Sure enough, it was nearly my turn...I was up 3rd...as they say at the rodeo--"better be gettin' it on yo' mind". I jogged down the street to get my freezing cold guitar out of my car...and ran back to the Muse--but not before my hands were (as OutKast says) "ice cold"!

I managed to tune up and warm up in the bathroom at the Evening Muse just in time to go on. I played "Christmas in July"...and was pleasantly surprised that several in the Muse crowd started to bob their heads and--did I hear right? Sing along? It struck me today as I was thinking about the performance that although they hadn't heard my song before, they actually were singing the refrain by the end of the song. In fact, I remember pausing a little bit before the last "Christmas in July"...and hearing several folks finish it for me. I think this is the first time that I've heard the crowd sing my lyrics. (I guess that's one of the benefits of playing acoustically...and of playing for a crowd that actually came to listen...)

I passed out several CD samplers to the head-bobbers that I noticed...said goodbye to the songwriters I knew, making tentative plans to cowrite with a couple of them...and ducked out into the freezing cold to try to make it home before midnight...which I just missed.

Listen to Brian's music now!