From the V.I.P. seats

This thursday we had our very first open mike night in Savanna. I was a bit scared that nobody would turn up on this night. I have no idea why, but i just had a bad feeling about it. At a certain moment, that fear almost came out. A few minutes to eight, only Cecile and her guitarist, Erik were there, and I was still waiting for Renee Stevense and the open mike artists to turn up. but after a few minutes everybody luckily turned up.

This afternoon I got there a little earlier to discuss some options with Hans (the owner of Savanna) to give the nights something extra. We decided to amplify the performances over the in-house sound system. Besides that we arranged Hubert (VleeschNochVisch) to play some cd's in between the sets. Hubert told me he wasn't really common with this kind of music, but the songs he played, perfectly fitted into the night. Cecile started off with a good set, with quite some of her new material. Something what should be complimented, i liked it a lot more than her older songs, which were ok too.

After Cecile left the stage ( we had some problems with a broken microphone cable, but in the end we managed well to get it all working), it was Renee's turn. Renee plays her set with a double bass, which, in my opinion, is a great addition to the cool stuff she is already doing with foot-rhythms.

They both played their second set straight after the first set in the same order, unlike the planning, they thought it was better for the flow. Well, since i'm not a musician, i can't decide whether they're right about that or not. So i let them, The open mike artists were okay with it, so why not.

Most people say the second set of both artists were better than the first one, i can't really tell because i was off organising stuff during the first set, some problems needed to be sorted first.

After Renee's second set, it was time for some open mike action. And what an action, Jascha started off with half an hour of fingerpicking guitarsongs, accompanied by suprising lyrics.

It was really enjoyable, but i was more fond of Jascha's mate, Phinx. This guy filled the night till 11, with some of his louder songs on the piano. Louder songs were absolutely necassery, since we only had one mike there (yeah, that's why it's open mike night, not open mikes night) We needed to amplify the piano with the same mike as his voice, but he solved it really professionally.

Tonight was definetly the best one so far!

Jaap