Stories / Experiences? Is there a good one near you?
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I reckon alongside the Commitment to release something thread, getting a little live set organised could be a good excuse to pull in a load of loose ends and get my shit together a bit. Maybe some others feel the same?
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I attend regular ones in Essex. Even released a live album from one performance.
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Been to Nottingham and Leicester nights regularly over the last couple of years.
Nottingham is less regular, but usually well attended and has guys doing visuals and shit. Decent venue and sound system too.
Leicester slightly more regular but less well attended, nice crowd though, real friendly bunch, venues can be a bit varied, quality wise, depends on what’s available. Leicester isn’t exactly brimming with decent venues.
I keep meaning to go to the Derby one, as it’s every month, at a decent venue and the guy organising it is a top bloke by all accounts, but it always seems to fall on days that I’m busy.
The guy that got most of it off the ground is called Martin Christie and he keeps track of all the nights on his website electronicmusicopenmic.com and Facebook etc… he even manages to attend a bunch of different nights all over the place. There’s even nights going on the list as far away as Australia and Canada.
It’s been fun being a part of the post-covid growth of the EMOM scene, it’s getting pretty massive
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Pretty UK-heavy that list
Are these things happening much elsewhere?
(If anyone knows of something similar in or near Vienna, I’d love to hear about it)
If you build it, they will come. If you get in touch with Martin I’m sure he’d be happy to give you some advice about setting one up for yourself.
Maybe drop Florian off of bad gear an email, see if he’s game for getting involved, he’s near Vienna, isn’t he?
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Good shout.
There may well be tons of events here already… I’ve been too much of a hermit the last few years to have noticed
And yeah pretty sure Florian is here somewhere. He has a deal with Klangfarbe, the main gear store
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There’s one in Montreal (Quebec) called Brain Freeze. It’s a monthly event (or so). You have to register to the person in charge, then your name gets on the flyer. Limited places cause limited time (from 8 pm to 11 pm). There are Visuals and Quadraphonic Performances too. Cool hang out with cool people!
Edit : the next one is tomorrow September 6 where I will perform for the first time.
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There’s a venue in Colorado that hosts a regular open mic (mix of comedy, bands, acoustic stuff) that I did a few sets at. Always seemed to go over well with the audience, I think they like seeing something different from the usual. I booked a few shows there after that.
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I’ve been thinking of setting-up and running something myself - in the Leeds area. I actually live over near Ilkley, but Leeds is within easy reach.
Anyone else in the area? I can see a few events not too far away, but Leeds seems to currently have a big hole.
Edit: joined the EMOM Facebook group, so I’ll see if any locals are signed-up.
There was one in Leeds last Thursday, at Wharf Chambers I think.
It’s there fairly regularly.
I’ll try and look it up. Not appeared on my radar though. I was at a Festival, gigging anyhow, so couldn’t have made that one.
Tbh though, I’ve just checked the event for that Leeds event. 15 mins to set up and 15 mins to play!? Is that common?
I’ll try and bob over to the next one to see what people are up to, but 15 mins to play…!? Don’t think I could squeeze what I do into 15 minutes. Still, if there’s a budding scene, things could spin-off…
That’s standard open mic set length mate.
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Fair enough. Probably not for me as a performer, promoter or punter. …but I will try and call in there, to see what’s happening. Maybe I’m wrong? 
I’d be more interested in putting on gigs (maybe some of the same performers who’re doing open-mics) with an hour or so each.
It’s certainly part of the assumptions here (How to start your own EMOM night) and ties in with my experience of blues jams. Allocating an hour seems more like a multi-act gig.
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Yeah, I’ve always kind of seen the format as a place for inexperienced artists to have a bit of a go at performing in front of people without a lot of pressure and for more experienced artists to try out new or different ideas.
The thing is that the more people you can get playing, the more people you will have to play to. Start giving people 30 or 40 minute slots and it’s just gonna end up being three geezers playing at each other in an empty room, and venues won’t put up with staffing the bar or providing a sound tech if you don’t pull in a few punters.
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Then it’s a gig, not an open mic. Open mic/open stages for performances are usually quite limited in time per performance, it’s more dynamic, it allows room for people to experiment and bring whatever quirky piece they’re working and want to showcase, allows for improvisation work that doesn’t demand much preparation, etc. There’s a monthly open stage for circus/dance performers close to me, usually the longest pieces are about 20 min, longer than that and you lose the “cabaret” vibe of it.
If you want to play 1h+ gigs then organise it as its own event, I would never go watch an open mic/stage where each performance is 45+ minutes, that’s not the point in my opinion.
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