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• 08.16.09
  Essanay Open Mic, 12 Aug Essanay Cafe, Open Mics | (1)

  Man, I love the Essanay. It might just be the only open mic I know of where audience members show up an hour (or more) early to vye for seating so as not to miss a minute of the night's entertainment. The dedicated, regular attendees are, of course, only the half of the story at this fantastic little cafe. Great food, friendly, participant owners and . . . it just has this fantastic vibe that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't been there. Continue Reading...

  Tagged: barbara lyons, bob raym, essanay cafe, fremont open mic, johnny harper, kris olinger, ruby blackshear, san francisco bay area open mic, sean lightholder, south bay open mic
  
• 08.09.09
  Oakland Street Music Music | (1)

  A number of weeks ago, I noticed an ad on craigslist inviting people to get involved in a "guerilla street music event." The series of ad-hoc concerts organized by the Oakland Music Collective is happening Saturday afternoons through September. My band, Kerbside, along with 3 other acts (James Whiton, Retrograde Revolution & Annah), were invited to participate this past Saturday, the first in the series. Continue Reading...

  Tagged: alison streich, arizmendi bakery, brian margrave, guerilla street music, kerbside, kim lightholder, lakeshore avenue, oakland, oakland music collective, sean lightholder, stephen duffy, the man fantastic
  
• 07.06.09
  Bay Street Open Mic, July 3 Bay Street Open Mic, Open Mics | (1)

  Folks, I'm still reeling from Friday night's Open Mic at Bay Street. Aside from it being probably the best-attended event thus far, the calibre of talent that showed up really blew me away. I had some suspicion that it would be an exceptional event with all the email I was getting prior to the event. Three excellent acts contacted me about playing as a feature act -something I very much want to do. However, there were so many great players this Friday; blocking out a half hour for a feature act means limiting the number of people get to sign ...

  Tagged: bay street open mic, fremont, kris olinger, naveen k, one mouth band, overcoming adam, richard langham, sam rogers, sean lightholder, wilson wong, zephyr riot
  
• 04.08.09
  Open Mic Rappers and the April Fool’s Open Mic Bay Street Open Mic, Open Mics | (1)

  No foolin! Or maybe the joke is that there is no joke? Ah: it's a post-modern April Fool's open mic here at Bay Street Coffees. Yeah, I suspected when I changed the Friday open mic to a Wednesday just in time for April Fool's Day that folks might think it was all a joke. Maybe they did: we got about half the regular number of performers this week. On the other hand, it WAS a Wednesday instead of a Friday - so maybe that was it. In any case, this new daddy was happy enough with a low-key event and the ...

  Tagged: bay street coffees, birth, blazzy, DUI, dustin miller, freestyle artist, fremont, kris olinger, pete kelso, raffy espiritu, rap, rappers, san francisco bay area open mic, sean lightholder, tim saenz
  
• 04.07.09
  South Bay Folks Open Mic Open Mics | (0)

  The South Bay Folks is a venerable institution in the San Jose/Santa Clara musical landscape. Certainly the most popular open mic in the area, it's no surprise to find they have a well-run event with talented performers set up in a fantastic space. The calibre of event is apparent from the curb: guitarists chat over cigarettes at outside tables, Mission City Coffee Roasting's serving area is in the front room like a theatre lobby (which handily contains conversation and espresso grinding sounds, keeping such distractions outside of the performance hall) and the performers can be seen down the aisle of ...

  Tagged: bodhran, irish drum, michael mcnevin, mission city coffee roasting, open mic, san francisco bay area open mic, san jose, sean lightholder, south bay folks, thriving artists
  
• 03.16.09
  McGrath’s Open Mic in Alameda Open Mics | (0)

  Last night I was up in Berkeley doing a few bits when I got a phone call from Michael McNevin, saying his intentions were pointing him toward McGrath's over in Alameda. Sure, what's a poor boy to do? I slipped through that tunnel yokey over to the island of Alameda and down into McGrath's where GG Tanaka was conducting the usual cadre of supertalented folks through their open mic paces. Continue Reading...

  Tagged: alameda, bodhran, gg tanaka, mcgrath's irish pub, michael mcnevin, o'reilly's irish pub, san francisco bay area open mic, sean lightholder, the black pearl project
  
• 03.10.09
  Bay Street Open Mic Bay Street Open Mic, Open Mics | (0)

  Second open mic event! This month I moved the performers over to the opposite corner - I think it worked a lot better over there with the audience right up close and no foliage or columns in the way. We had quite a variety of folks out again, from Barbara the octogenarian poet through the bodhran duet with the drum major and myself (above pic there by wifey) to Fresno man El Joe of the River (though, in fairness, Barbara did not actually stay to read). I was glad to see some repeat faces from last month, including Terry & Mike, ...

  Tagged: bay street coffees, ed sherry, el joe, fremont, jake foley, open mic, sean lightholder, west of shannon
  
• 02.23.09
  Bay Celtic Festival in Oakland
  and personal “Irishness” Lightholder Musings, Music | (2)

  I was down at the Bay Celtic Festival yesterday in Oakland. It was my first real excursion into the world of celtophilia since living in Ireland and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. When I got home that night and was describing my impressions to the wife, I mentioned the random folks dressed in renaissance costume, the panicked dodging of aimless, folk-dancing couples in the hallways and the bawdy drunken Irish pub songs being sung with almost religious, hushed reverence. "It was really bizarre," I mused, ". . . like an invented ethnic group borrowed from romantic ...

  Tagged: avalon, bay area, bay celtic festival, celtic, cullan's hounds, diane rowan, fir bolg, identity, irish-american, irishness, megan mcloughlan, oakland, renaissance faire, san francisco, sean lightholder, set dancing, shay black, tempest, Tuatha Dé Danann, west of shannon
  
• 02.09.09
  Bay Street Open Mic - 6 Feb 2009 Bay Street Open Mic, Open Mics | (3)

  What a great night. You might notice the photos in this blog entry are extra awesome. That's because herself took them and kindly let me use them here. If you played on Friday she probably has a great photo of you. Fire me an aul email and I'll see what I can do to send it to ya. So I got there about an hour early to set up annnnnd forgot the bleedin Laptop. Ah well, no harm. Got the PA and recording gear up and running in short order and was delighted to find everything sounded good and worked as it ...

  Tagged: 5 corners, bay street coffee, broadway west theatre company, bruce cates, ed sherry, essanay cafe, fremont, irvington, jake foley, kris olinger, matt huang, mission coffee, open mic, sean lightholder, skye alexander, west of shannon, wilson wong
  

recent posts

• Open mic web comic
• Essanay Open Mic, 12 Aug 2010
• Bay Street Open Mic, 2 June 2010
• Essanay Open Mic, 26 May 2010
• Essanay Open Mic, 12 May 2010
• Bay Street Open Mic, May 2010
• Essanay Open Mic, 28 April 2010