Friday night I went to an open mike night in Media. It was a nice little coffeehouse, nobody was there except for performers pretty much, but that seems to be a normal state of affairs more or less. I was originally kind of bummed because I didn’t come with anybody, but it was all worthwhile because I met the most intense band I’ve met at an open mike night yet. They were ilyAIMY, (stands for i love you And I Miss You) and they are really enthusiastic and energetic, they had my feet tapping the entire time. They have this very fun and fast acoustic guitar style, where they both strum insanely while harmonizing urgently (ok, this is a 5 AM article, but that’s seriously what they were doing). It wasn’t the full band, it was the two guitarists/singers, Rob and Heather, and they just quit their jobs to live their dreams. Hell yeah! They’re touring the country and really living, and they’re doing a good job of documenting what it’s all about and how it’s working.

I really like their Mission, too, read that on their site. It’s all about bringing people together… Which is really what the SCDC is all about, too. Seriously, get ilyAIMY’s CD, I did. Support true independent artists, they’ve organized all of this themselves, I’m permanently impressed by their professionalism and organizational skills. And they’re really nice, intelligent people, very accessible and easy to talk to. Mad props!

Well, so I decided to go to an open mike night at The Fire bar and grill in Philadelphia. I asked everyone from the play if they wanted to come along, but despite some apparent enthusiasm everyone canceled. So I went anyway. It was pretty cool, I met some girls on the train on the way there. There was a freshman here and her friend from Bryn Mawr, and a random high schooler from Morton, who was especially cool because she happened to be on the train back home as well, so I didn’t get bored and fall asleep and miss my stop. Thanks Kat, I owe you one. Yeah, any night in which I meet girls is not wasted 🙂 Aside from my raging hormones, I also had a good time playing at The Fire. There were some really amazing musicians there, I bought a CD and I intend to buy more. The first person I ran into there was Ben Garvey, who hosts an open mike night somewhere in South Jersey and is also a computer geek, which makes him extra cool. Basically I hung out with him and some random girl because the 3 of us hadn’t been there before, and we were super-early, as in about an hour early. Ben has finally convinced me that it is a good idea to buy a guitar tuner. I’ve always thought that it would be really hard core if I could tune my guitar by ear, but I think I need to train my ear more, because my 2nd string always sounds out of tune either on the open string or higher up the fretboard. I had thought that that must mean that my guitar needs servicing. I was of course incorrectly attributing my mistakes to my equipment. Ben whipped out his electric tuner and had my guitar tuned perfect in seconds, it sounded better than it had in a while. I also saw Birdie, who really impressed me. And now I’m really bloody tired, so I’ll hit the sack. Gnnight!