openmikes.org

Riverview Cafe

Upcoming Dates ?
Thu, Jan 08
Thu, Jan 15
Thu, Jan 22
Thu, Jan 29
Thu, Feb 05

Open Mike
Every Thursday at 5:30pm

3753 42nd Ave S
Minneapolis, MN

612-722-7234

I am a regular at this open mike. (By regular I mean regularly late to get on the list, between 6 and 6:30 p.m.).

If you are a fresh face, newbie, you are guaranteed a spot on the list and the regulars, like me, tend to hang out and play two songs later on, or some are very willing to let their spot go altogether. These guys have musicianship as well as friendship with each-other.

Michael HegGER (8/2008)

Starts at 7pm but be there by 5:30 if you want to make the list.

Shane (7/2008)

This is one of the most welcoming places I've had the pleasure of playing. No muss, no fuss. Lot of talent and variety. Receptive audience, even a sing along to the choruses. All I can say is I had great luck and a great time. My thanks to all.

Dave (6/2007)

An update: I note the sign-up time listed for the open mike has been changed from 6:30 p.m. (as it was last week when I originally wrote) to 6 p.m. I was chatting with another musician last night who tries to show up for this open mike with more frequency, and he said you generally have to get there by 5:30 p.m. -- if not earlier -- to get on the list. Good luck with that…

heyday (5/2007)

This place epitomizes one of the issues I have with some open mikes: The "regulars" either get there so early or phone ahead or have someone else stick them on the list that by the time the sign-up sheet is supposed to go out, it is already full. The place's website says the show starts at 7 p.m., and this website would seem to indicate that sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m. I know it's been 6:30 p.m. in the past.

So tonight, I get there are 6:05 p.m., head straight for the guy with the sign-up sheet, and he tells me, "The list is full."

"But I thought the sheet didn't go out until 6:30 p.m.," I said.

"No, 6 p.m.," he replies.

I'm told I can play on the "overflow" if I want. No thanks.

The last time I went there, last fall, I got there at 6:15 p.m. -- 15 minutes before the list was supposed to go up -- and I was told that the only spots still open were 1 and 11.

I took the first spot; I wasn't in the mood to sit through 10 acts to play three songs. For those of us who work during the day and have to go home, pick up our instruments, then head straight to the venue, things can get difficult. But there seems a contingent of people who get to this place in the late afternoon, fill up the sign-up sheet, and the rest of us don't have much of a chance. So I guess my advice to would-be players is if you're going to play the Riverview, take the day off and get there by mid-afternoon. Take a book, order a cup of coffee and wait for the rest of us mooks to show up late and get turned away.

heyday (5/2007)

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