Open Mic Tour Colorado
Sometimes you book a tour and everything gets cancelled. At the end of September 2021 I was asked to play two festivals, one in Pennsylvania and one in North Carolina. The day festival in Emmaus, PA was on a Friday, so I booked a show in Richmond, VA on Saturday in route to the last day of a festival at Panther Lake (near Rocky Mount, NC, and Raliegh, NC) on Sunday. As the dates grew closer things started to get cancelled because of a apparent covid outbreak. I don't watch the news so I don't get the direct propaganda feed and only hear about these things second hand.
First the festival in North Carolina imposed a vaccine mandate for all concert goers and artists. I notified the organizers that I could not play at that point. They said they would look into making an exception for me but I said I would not want that, if those are the rules that they wanted to implement then those are the rules that they should stick with. Then I wrote the venue in Emmaus to check on the event and they notified me that the event was cancelled due to complications with the venue or something like that. Lastly my friend in Richmond had let me know that lot's of shows were getting cancelled in the city due to covid. I told him if the venue wanted him to cancel the show I wouldn't have any hard feelings. It wasn't worth it for him to make a big deal over me driving down to Richmond for a one off show that nobody was going to come to. So my little weekend tour had been axed. It wasn't very dramatizing for me, when states first started locking down in March of 2020, multiple tours I had planned got cancelled and thrown out the window. I had foreseen this happening, and I had planned to have the time off, so I decided I would travel somewhere and do something. I found a cheap flight to Colorado and started researching open mic nights for songwriters out there. It seemed like there was a lot, especially with all the brewery's that Colorado has, many of them have open mic nights. For those of you who don’t know, open mic nights are nights where anybody can take the stage and play, usually held at a bar, coffee shop or music venue. Players usually receive a minimum of at least 3 songs, there is usually a signup, typically first come first serve, you get to pick your slot.
9/24/21 - I left Philly on a Friday after work. I got a ride to the airport. The line to get checked in was super long. I thought I may actually miss my flight. When I finally got through security I ran to my gate. I made it with a little time to spare, they just started boarding. After boarding the plane they told us we all had to exit the plane because it didn’t pass inspection, something about the airplane pressure needed to be fixed? FYI never fly Frontier. We all exited, and I made a B line for the bar to get an overpriced airport beer and some fries before the bar closed. I’ll make a long story short, it was a three hour delay. We boarded a new plane and I got to Denver much later than I thought I would. I missed my first open mic night by a couple hours. Initially I had planned on taking the train into Denver (much cheaper than a cab), but it was past midnight and the next train was 30 minutes away. I just got a cab, which was like $65-$70 bucks. Brutal! But, I did not want it to take forever getting to my air bnb. I found a air bnb for the first night which was quite literally a hammock in a back yard, only $15. The place was a weed smoking hostel. I walked into the backyard at approximately 2 am, which is 4 am eastern time, which was the clock that my body was currently operating on. There was somebody passed out on a couch outside under a pretty large awning, with South Park blaring on the TV. I pulled out my sleeping bag and made myself comfortable in the hammock (not protected by the awning), sleeping underneath the stars.
9/25/21 - I woke up and made myself at home in the hostel. When I walked inside there was some dude ripping bong hits at 7am. I made coffee and warmed up inside the kitchen. I met the owner, he was a super nice guy and gave me suggestions for places to hike. I left the house and walked 4 miles with my guitar in hand to the Hertz Rent A Car where I picked up my car reservation. From there I stopped at a Diner and ate an amazing burrito with green chilies. The I made my way to Gunbarrel, CO. There was a place called the Rusty Melon that had advertised an open mic. I went in and grabbed a beer to investigate. I immediately made some friends at the bar, making small talk about conspiracy’s theory’s and government corruption, my kind of place! They told me open mic starts a bit later but it’s solid every Saturday night. The one guy at the bar also gave me some suggestions for hiking which I took him up on. I headed off to Green Mountain to embark on the Royal Arch hike. The park was packed, the Royal Arch hike was closed for construction but The Flatirons hike was open and I hiked that to the top and back. After that I headed to Boulder, CO and walked around. Lot’s of street musicians and nice local shops. I met some folks outside a bookstore / coffee shop and I got asked to be in a music video. I agreed, I still haven’t seen the video yet but hopefully it will be out soon. The gave me a free kombucha and headed back to Gunbarrel. The open mic was awesome. I talked to the host, and he offered me some extra time because I was from out of town. All the players were really good and everybody was able to play a second set. They gave me a discount on my tab, I made some new friends and handed out some stickers. I couldn’t find a place to stay (sometimes on tour the promoter will offer to put you up for the night, much harder when you’re not on an official tour) but I found a truck stop where I felt pretty comfortable catching some z’s.
9/26/21 - The next day I met up with my friend Jeff who lives in Aurora, CO. We drove to a hike, I can’t remember the name of the hike but it was 30-45 minutes south of Aurora. We hiked for a good while, for any east coast people I would recommend always carrying some lotion or some chap-stick. The dry sunny climate gave me the worst chapped lips I ever had in my life! After that Jeff took me to his local weed store ( I always have to go when I’m out there, the east coast still has some catching up to do) then I dropped him off. I drove to Lakewood, CO to check out the open mic at Green Mountain Brewery. It was a nice spot with good beers and friendly folks. They had an open mic band that would back the artists up, if you wanted it. I talked to the host before hand and let him know I was visiting from out of town, and then I signed up on the list. It was a really awesome community, they had an area in the back for the artists to store there gear, and somebody brought in a crock pot full of brisket for all the artists to eat! It was a really good crowd, people seemed to enjoy my set, again I got a decent amount of time, 15 minutes so I didn’t have to rush. Multiple people talked to me afterwords and thanked me for coming to play. I met another musician there named Drew Albright. We chatted for a while and told me about another late night open mic in the city at a place called Reggie’s. I decided to go and try that one, I waited until the open mic at Green Mountain was over and said my goodbyes, chatted it up with the owner a bit, made my connections then headed off to Reggie’s. I got to Reggie’s but I had missed the beginning of the signup. There was one spot left on the chalk board toward the end and I wrote my name down. I talked to the organizer and asked if it was possible to get on sooner, that I couldn’t stay for the whole thing. He said he would definitely try and squeeze me in if somebody dropped out. Like the previous open mic there was a band. Many folks were just coming in and letting the band back them. The crowd was much younger than Green Mountain, and people were drinking pretty heavy, especially the band. The band was spot on though, really good, but I saw the writing on the wall, if I played it would be towards the end of the night. Nobody was in a hurry, and after a day of hiking and driving across Denver, and already a few craft beers deep I decided to finish my beer and take off and find a place to crash. I drove west towards Red Rocks, and found a Walmart parking lot that had a good amount of campers already setup and parked for the night.
9/27/21 - I woke up at the Walmart parking lot, it was a little bit chilly that morning. I found a coffee and drove to Red Rocks as a recommendation from Drew the previous night. I was not the only person who had that early morning idea. I hiked around for a while and then got back on the road. I drove further into the Rockies and hiked the Burro Trail. It was a pretty steep hike, and I made it to the windy peak and back. After that I drove to Longmont, CO and checked out the open mic at Bootstrap Brewing. This was another nice brewery with a little outdoor area next to the stage area, so you could sit outside and still hear the music. This brewery was the first place that asked you to wear a mask. The previous spots I felt like covid didn’t exist, it wasn’t heavily enforced but most people wore one when they got up and went to the bar to get a drink. It was another good open mic, the host gave me a big introduction for being from out of town, I got 15 minutes give or take, and the host let me play an extra song at the end of my set. Folks there were still friendly, but nothing compared to the previous open mic nights people were super outgoing and welcoming. They did give me a free beer or two for playing music which was nice! After the open mic was finished I left and found myself another truck stop where I camped out for the night.
9/28/21 It was the last day of my trip. I really wanted to make this open mic that I heard about in Boulder, CO, but there was no way I could make it there and back to the airport in time using public transport. I dropped off my rental, then I walked quite a ways. I grabbed a coffee at a small coffee shop and talked to some local musicians there, handed out some stickers. Eventually I found the train stop and took a train to Union Station in Denver. From there I set up close to the train station and busked for a couple hours. I made enough money to grab some lunch and pay for my train ticket to the airport. The flight home was much easier than the flight out.
There are a lot of things I like about open mic tours. There is usually a built in crowd, and I find that people who typically come are open minded and really want to hear live music, no matter what the genre. Also you don’t have to spend time booking anything, you just show up and play. You can even let the open mic host know ahead of time that you’re coming through, and they may make you a featured artist, or at least hold you a spot and give you a little bit of extra time. Sometimes at a regular gig there is a lot of posturing among artists and even members of the crowd, sometimes you find this at an open mic but it’s laughable because, you’re at an open mic, it’s supposed to be a chill place where seasoned musicians and novices come to share their material. An obvious draw back to an open tour is that you don’t get paid. A lot of places give you a free drink, which is a nice gesture, usually the open mic host is getting paid if anybody is. I recommend bringing stickers, cards and some merch. People who come to an open mic are not usually prepared to buy merch from an artist, but a lot of times they’ll take a free sticker or card, this was you can guarantee they’ll remember you and check out your music later.
