Monday Night Open Mic and Antihoot returns to Webster Hall

Both of our favorite impresarios are back in town. Ben Krieger was off on a manly man's week in the wilds of Oregon, and Lach has newly returned from a month in Scotland where he performed his one man show and ran the Antihoot as part of the Fringe Festival.

Things were kind of quiet at Sidewalk tonight. On top of the smallish crowd, Ben switched things up by making it a one-song per performer night all the way through. Just as I was leaving at around 10:45 or so they were going into round two in which everyone who stayed around could get up for another song. I like the idea of a one song all around night once in a while but with a smaller crowd I guess people could have stretched out a bit. Anyway, there's something to be said for maintaining a brisk pace.

Despite the low key crowd there were some interesting performers, Love, a Japanese songwriter/DJ performed as did a poet named Sophia who read an intense but interesting piece. It was great to see Ariel Bitran again who played some really cool and intricate guitar stuff. There was a Hungarian guy, Gabor, who lives in Italy who did a U2 medley, and oh yeah, there was me, who played the first new song I've written in quite a while.

Just as a few of us were talking about tomorrow's return of the Antihoot to Webster Hall Lach moseyed in. Word from Britain-at least what I read in the papers--is that Lach is the inspiration for a new breed of English Antifolk comedy--that's a story for another time but it sounds kind of interesting--maybe some of those folks will turn up at the Antihoot. Anyway, with the return to Webster people are wondering if the Anti-Idol competition will also be coming back. I was glad that when that wrapped up at the last show in July the five finalists shared in the prize (they were Tyler, The Fools, Supercute, Rob Shapiro, Cal Folger Day and Crazy and the Brains). Somehow it seems as if it would have been weird had there been a "winner" of the open mic. I get the sense that there are mixed feelings around about the competition with some folks taking it in stride and others feeling that it changed the vibe of the scene. My own thought is that this time around if extra promotion is needed maybe they could try something else like...nudity, for example. Or maybe free cotton candy. Or both. Anyway, I think it's good that the Antihoot is back. A nice scene developed there and it will be interesting to see how it goes as it revs up again. I'm sure that there are plenty of folks out there who will appreciate another place to play and work on their stuff. See you there.