Open mic profile - Thundering Word Heard

Every Tuesday I'm going to do a favour for all of the aspiring performers in our midst: not just tell them that they need more practice, but present for them a profile of one of our fair city's dozens of open mic nights -- a place to hone their microphone skills, perfect their creative craftsmanship, exorcise journal entries mourning the death of pet cats, and learn how to play an unprecedented fourth chord on their acoustic guitars.

The entertainment these evenings provide is admittedly a mixed bag -- and this is precisely a large part of their appeal, for unlike some more predictable forms of entertainment (cue the car chase in 3... 2... 1...) you never know precisely what you're going to get next; the potential playlist is more enormous than the capacity of the largest iPod yet, and unlike even the most permissive radio station (well, maybe CiTR) if you don't like the mix or the flow you can stand up and throw down your own set to get things back on track.

And even though they may send your date into a deep slumber, open mics provide a vital rung on the cultural ladder -- a place for performers to workshop new material, to figure out what works and what doesn't... to make all of the mistakes right off the bat and get them out of the way. After all, no one makes their debut at the Orpheum. (Well, no one except the Man They Call Reveen... and even he spent a few years building buzz in the South Pacific.)

So without further ado, I present to you: Thundering Word Heard!

Open mic nights tend to align themselves toward one end or the other of a spectrum containing music (especially blues, Celtic and folk music) at one end and poetry (increasingly these days, aggressive "slam"-style spoken word) at the other. (Rap freestyling and stand-up comedy (especially improvised) also have open mics unto themselves on a similar but parallel continuum which I won't be delving into here... if only because they unnecessarily complicate my contrived model 8) Every Sunday night for over four years (our longest-running presently, for anyone who cares to keep count) one open mic has dared to straddle the uneasy but fertile territory at the confluence of all these disciplines, giving us what the West Ender votes year after year Vancouver's favourite open mic: the Thundering Word Heard music/spoken word fusion open mic.

What this adds up to is variety; while at a conventional, single-focus open mic, you might well hear a dozen poets read a dozen eerily similar poems all in a row or a dozen singer-songwriters play a dozen consecutive carbon-copy tunes, what TWH provides is an always-on-your-toes continual shifting of gears between oration, musical performance, and the occasional hit from left field such as a tap dancer or the category-defying Daniel Packard. Best of all are the moments of fusion -- when a poet spontaneously picks a musician out of the crowd to lend a desired improvised ambience to perfect a piece.

Many if not most open mics are at bars or coffeehouses, but this hot venue is the Parisian Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main street at 28th Avenue) -- a narrow room with great sightlines all the way to the back, evoking a makeshift salon des refuses in a covered alleyway. (When I say "hot" I'm not kidding, especially if you're sitting next to the kitchen -- but as the season changes to autumn, it's about the most welcoming ambience possible coming in from the rain.)

Each evening is hosted by T.Paul Ste.Marie, a man whose pompadour sets him apart from the crowd like a shark's fin among beach swimmers. Getting each evening off to a start with the same audience-participation poem, "Invocation", from which the series draws its name, he demands the audience respond with "Passion!" when asked what they need. Then he demands they demonstrate it on his stage, a challenge surprisingly many are fit to rise to. Soundman DJ Cassady takes over ably from co-founder DJ Dutch Boy, ensuring that even the most timid first-time mumbler can be heard clearly even at the back of the room.

The show starts around 9 pm, generally with a touring or local featured performer of no small skill, but would-be performers are advised to arrive up to an hour earlier to sign up. Admission is by donation (the hat is passed, with great gusto, to generate a salary of sorts for the feature) but before you leave your pocketbook at home know that the kitchen will do its level best to ensure that you leave the night with one of its choice offerings nestling in your belly. (When you're up against crepes, why fight it? As Frank says, there's no crime in giving yourself over to pleasure.)

Microphone graphic respectfully borrowed from http://aymiee.com/