Open Mic Night at Spice of Life in Soho:

By Peter Felton

Open Mic events are truly interesting theatrically because there is a wide variety of different types of performance, as well as a wide range of skill levels of the performers. The Spice of Life is basically a bar with a lower floor where they have musical performances almost every night of the week. Monday is Open Mic Night, which I went to with a few others to see my flat mate play a few songs. Although we were only there for about an hour and a half, we saw about ten different acts, since each group performed two or three songs.

What really struck me about the performances was their diversity. There were folk singers, jazz duos, acoustic songwriters, middle eastern guitar, and even an Elvis impersonator. The skill of the musicians was equally diverse; some acts were excellent, while others were difficult to sit through.

As I walked in there was a young man at the mic. He explained that he was visiting London from Austria and started playing an original song. Although his musicianship was mediocre, he was a decent performer and seemed confident and comfortable on stage. To our surprise, in the middle of one of his songs he started speaking to the audience, telling one half of the room to sing the melody, and telling the other half to sing the harmony. I didn’t expect this to really work, since its usually only famous artists headlining big venues that can pull this off successfully. But the audience was very cooperative and open minded, as well as musically inclined, so the effect of the audience singing along with the performer worked well and added to the performance.

My flat mate, Matt, did an excellent job both musically and as a performer. He was himself on stage – cool and collected, sipping a beer in between songs. He had a great stage presence even though he was not a flashy performer. He focused on the music, with smooth guitar licks and chord progressions accompanied by memorable vocal melodies. It was obvious that he was well rehearsed, and he got a very positive response from the audience.

After Matt there was a terrible folk duo of a female vocalist and male guitarist. They were putting a great deal of effort in the their performance – with lots of on-stage interactions and movement, which I thought unusual for the particular musical style. While the performance was interesting, their downfall was the actual music. Most of the audience did not seem to enjoy their set due to the poor quality of the music. Interestingly enough, the Elvis Presley impersonator had similarly questionable musical talent but got a much better response from the audience due to his ability to engage them and make them laugh along with his novelty factor.

The Open Mic format for a performance event is interesting because, while the actual music is the most important element, variations in performance style are highlighted.