Open Mic Aug 6th 2006.

and as promised ... a post about my open mic.

actually, i've done two. one was with the Troubagangers and the other was Project OMG (last Aug 19th).

Troubagangers:

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this was quite nerve wrecking - cause it had been such a loooong time since i last sang at an open mic - not only that - this was only my 2nd time ever singing an open mic. to make things worse, i was in the company of people who were really used to singing open mics. most of whom had their own CD's for sale that night. plus ... there were lots of people walking in to sing who were realllly good too.

however, all things considered, i think i put up a decent performance. good enough to give me confidence to try another open mic last Aug 19th!

anyway, i went up right after this band called 'Ask Me Again' ... who were really, really f*cking awesome. i wanted to buy their CD immediately! the place was packed with people whom i can only imagine have heard of them before. when i was told that i was going up right after them - i was a wreck!

when my name was actually called, people actually started getting up to leave. luckily, i had a fair amount of friends there to support me (THANK YOU GUYS FOR COMING!!!) and they clapped loudly for me - that got the attention of most of the people who were getting out to leave - so they stood around a bit to check me out 1st.

i was given 15 mins. i sang 4 songs. 3 are my own compositions ... "Come Back to Me", "I Do It All to Myself" and "Don't Judge Me". my 4th song was my own rendition of U2's "With or Without You". i f**ked up a bit with some lyrics with my 1st and 3rd song. chiefly because there are new songs and also because i was nervous as hell!

i felt quite good towards the end of my 1st song because there's a part of the song where i go acapella and i just sing without playing my guitar. people were clapping along to my singing! which made me believe that i had their attention and they were actually listening to me! lol. i even saw some people who got up to leave earlier sit down again ... which was a nice thing to see.

whatever it is, this open mic has given me the confidence to want to invest in a proper semi-acoustic guitar so that i can give a better performance. i intend to do more open mics. eventually - i want to record my songs proper and distribute them DIY - very low key and see where that takes me. if i can get ONE person to come up to me after an open mic and buy one of my CD's which i will probably only sell for like rm10 or something ... i'll feel immensely sated.

Project OMG:
this was done very near my house ... at a place called FOOD FOUNDRY. (click on Project OMG to check out the blog.)

OMG is an abbreviation for 'Open Mic Gig' - they are pretty much a greener version of the Troubagangers. they are a younger crowd looking to help show off local students works ... be it short films, shorts, poems, songs and such. very cool. i found out about them when i was surfiing through kakiseni.com for auditions.

i sang 3 songs ... i planned to sing "Insomnia", "I Know Why" and "I Wanna See You Everyday". the 1st song is quite emo and the 2nd one is a song i haven't played in a loooong time (which is the reason i wanted to play it). while the 3rd song is a really, really new song.

when it was time for me to go up to sing, i surveyed the crowd and realised that most of them there weren't really interested in listening. they were largely there for 'dinner'. as such, i figured an emo song would just turn them off even more. so i had to change at the last minute and played another one of my gushy love songs "If I could Only" and snubbed "Insomnia".

it wasn't too bad. although, i did not practice sufficiently and was a little shaky singing and playing it.

"I Know Why" was better. but i don't think i did my best. and on my last song, i screwed up royally, i forgot my bridge and final verse lyrics! i had to make it up as i went along and in the end - it sounded a lot like the 1st song i played. *sigh* ...

oh well ... of course, since it was my own song, no one was the wiser. once again, i had a fair amount of supporters (THANK YOU ALL!!!).

they all had nice things to say ... but i personally know i usually do a lot better than that ... oh well. there will be a next time. :)


so that's it lah. i'm off...

p/s: coming soon - i'm in another play! and i've gotten the biggest role i've ever had the honour of getting! (it's practically a lead role!haha) the play is called "Frankenstein in Love" and will be staged on OCT 27th till NOV 3rd. stay tuned for a production blog and my own personal entries about it here ... !!