Open Mic Night at The Grind

and we have the post for the 5/12/11 Open Mic Night! :D

I apologize for the delay, I don’t like to post until all photos and videos have been uploaded and let me tell ya, those videos take dAaAays! I pinky swear the next posts will not take this long to be up!

First of all, BIG thanks to everyone who came out! It was a great open mic and this month we were able to capture even more photos for our flickr :) Again, I would like to remind everyone that if you have pictures from any open mics I would LOVE to put them on our flickr, so please send them to Grindopenmicnight@gmail.com :)

Performers:

1. Zen Zenith

2. Zach and Garrick

3. Aidan Young

4. Reid Gaffigan

5. Donna Graves

6. Matt Ray

FEATURED BAND: WEST OF SUNSET

7. Corey Wolffs

8. Brandon Zahursky

9. Moses and Mike

10. Nick Vasquez

11. Dylan Marx

12. Laura Nelson

It’s always nice to see familiar faces get up and perform for the first time, we encourage any of you who play and instrument, write poetry, etc.. to get up there! 

Next open mic is on JUNE 9th! Sign ups start at 6:30, and June’s featured band is our very own host’s band, PLEASE DO NOT FIGHT! These guys put on a great show, so you don’t want to miss it! The following month we will have RIN TIN TIGER on JULY 14th! 

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there!

-Chelsea

Helllloooo everybody!

As you may or may not have heard we’re going to be trying something new . Let us present: Open Mic Night Summer Nights! The next four open mic’s will feature a local band (all of the chosen bands have played at our open mic before) who will have their own 20 minute set. Everything else will stay the same! Sign ups will still be at 6:30 and we run 7-9:30. This starts tonight, May 12th 2011! You won’t want to miss it!

I would consider myself pretty well versed in all the acts that have come through since The Grind’s Open Mic Night began and lemme tell ya, the featured bands all play great music and I personally have realllly enjoyed every time each of them have come to play at the open mic’s. 

Starting us off with the first Summer Nights Open Mic will be WEST OF SUNSET. West of Sunset alternative metal band Redwood City. 

Next month on June 6th will be PLEASE DO NOT FIGHT. Please Do Not Fight is an Indie Pop band from San Francisco, and our host Zen is in this band!

The following month on July 14th will be RIN TIN TIGER. Rin Tin Tiger is an Indie Folk band from San Francisco. 

August 11 brings us TRIBAL SUNS. Tribal Suns is a Psychedelic Indie Folk band from Redwood City.  

I would also like to add that I video record the acts and take the photos for the open mic, which is a lot of work! If anyone would like to help me with taking photos please email me or talk to me at the open mic. This will help out tremendously! I would like to encourage you to email any photos you take so we can add to the Flickr. Thank you! 

You can check out each of these bands and find out more information about them by visiting the Facebook links provided. You don’t want to miss these Open Mic Nights! If anyone has any questions at all you are always welcome to send an email to grindopenmicnight@gmail.com . Can’t wait to see you all there!

 
-Chelsea

One of things I feel is really unique about Open Mic Night is that it’s sort of (for the most part) a free-for-all. Aside from the usual singer-songwriters we have poets and jugglers and Michael Jackson impersonators and bands. We have punk bands and metal bands and rock bands and funk bands. Bands are great! I love bands. I’m in a band myself and it’s pretty much the bees knees. But they are loud. Really loud! Sometimes so loud that people have to move to the back of the room because, let’s face it, The Grind is small and the floors are made of concrete so the sound bounces around and goes crazy.

But we don’t want to limit anyones creative expression so we’re not going to tackle the noise issue. What we are going to tackle is this: If you are a band you - just like everyone else - have 10 minutes. That includes your setup time. So if you get up and spend 7 minutes setting up a full size drum kit and four amps, you only get to play a 3 minute song. If you take 10 minutes that is your entire act. We’re also going to say that you can have no more than a four piece drum kit (Kick / hi-hat / snare / tom). A full kit just takes too long to set up and for the sake of everyone (both you sounding good as a performer and the ears of the people listening) for the acoustics of the room a smaller kit is better.

The reason we’re doing this is to keep the Open Mic Night fair. Each performer gets 10 minutes and when we have a full sign-up sheet with four people on the waiting list that’s really important to keep to to make the night happen and ensure that everyone gets their chance. When a band rolls in and takes 15 minutes just to set up and then plays three songs at full volume it really ruins the flow of the night for everyone.

That being said there are exceptions and they are as follows:

- You’re the featured act.

- The featured act has agreed to let you use their drum kit/gear.

- Maybe it’s a slow night. Maybe we only have a half full list and as a result have extra time to set up a full kit or let you play three songs. This is fine, just please check in with the host (usually me, Zen) and make sure we can accommodate you. I will likely okay whatever it is you want to do so long as you’re prepared to set up and break down as quickly as possible. Please do not try to sneak a third song in without talking to me first.

Hopefully this makes sense to everyone! Please just use your common sense and best judgement - we want to keep Open Mic Night a fun welcoming environment for all performers and patrons. I’m 100% positive it will continue to be that way and please don’t hesitate to e-mail me if you have any questions or opinions about the policies laid out here. Thanks for your support!

zen@pleasedonotfight.com

See you Thursday!!

Much respect,

Zen

Hey everybody! We had an awesome set this Thursday. Thank you so much to the performers and everyone who came to watch! We had a full list and all the acts were great! 

     This month’s performers:

1. Take the Fall 

2. Courtney Whittaker and Rafi

3. Zen Zenith

4. Sam

5. Aidan Young

6. Coordinates

7. Corey Wolffs

8. Hannah and Aidan

9. Chavail Gans

10. Kailey Huestiss

11. Grantious

12. Moses and Aidan

13. Kyle Schmidt

14. West of Sunset

     Here are a couple videos from Thursday! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0PTHOlqc_8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgjRtkjmrLs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uXtVg6Q1BY

     Be sure to check out the rest here and the pictures here. The numbers from the list correspond with the names of the videos (EX. 7. Corey Wolffs) PLEASE if you have any PHOTOS share them with me so I can put them on the flickr! Send them to grindopenmicnight@gmail.com.  Thank you!

-Chelsea

     Hello hello!

     I’d like to remind all of you that tonight(4/14/11) is Open Mic Night at the Grind!! Last month was pretty amazing and I’m excited to see what this month’s open mic brings us. Remember that sign-ups start at 6:30 and we get the ball rolling at 7:00 sharp. Performers, try to come on time because the sign up sheet has been known to fill up fast :)

     If anyone has any questions at all feel free to email me at GRINDOPENMICNIGHT@gmail.com, or make a post on our Facebook! Can’t wait to see everyone there!

-Chelsea

     Hey folks, I’d like to let you all know that the Tumblr for the Grind’s open mic night is back!

     My name is Chelsea and I’ll be taking over the Grind’s open mic tumblr. I moved to Redwood City late February 2010 and I’ve been going to every open mic since March 2010. As you all know, Zen Zenith hosts the open mic every month. In the midst of being a busy guy with outside life stuff, somewhere along the way this tumblr stopped being updated. I offered to take over the tumblr, excited to be part of the Grind’s open mic. So here I am!

     I hope to add a lot more to this tumblr by including things like more pictures and ViDEoS! I’ll make sure to add the names of each performer as well. While watching open mic I will try capture every bit of it with pics/vids using my handy dandy iTouch. I would absolutely looooove if you guys had photos of all things open mic you would like to post, so if you do, please send them to Grindopenmicnight@gmail.com.

     ALSO! If you are a performer and you have CDs or any kind of merch, I would like to know about it! Shoot me an email using the previously mentioned address so I can post a link on here directing people to your band’s page or your email.

     I look forward to watching next week’s open mic, on APRIL 14, 2011, and seeing all of your wonderful faces. :)

-Chelsea

Señor Moon

Hayden

Sam

Nick Ross

Sam + Elliot

Petr

Zen and Geoff of Please Do Not Fight

Aidan

Jeramie & Mike

Kyle Chiamos

Zach & Victor

Cal Perry

Thank you to everyone who came out and made it such a rousing success! The first step in bringing all ages gatherings and local music back to the Peninsula has begun!

Please join us for the next open mic on March 11th! We can’t wait to enjoy your art over a cup of awesome Grind coffee.

Sign-up will be at 6:30pm and the show takes place from 7pm - 9:30pm!

Also, become a fan on Facebook!