During the days after my first show at the Lima Rock Club, I focused on getting more shows and enjoy Lima’s most beautiful neighborhoods as much as I could. As I was making progress with booking and doing more research on the venues where I could perform. I came across the Facebook page of Molly’s Irish Pub in Miraflores. They had an open-mic night every Tuesday. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go play a few Black Sea Storm‘s songs in a Pub environment. Although I’ve been playing live music for decades now, performing at an open-mic was going to be a first for me. The main appeal of an open-mic is that I don’t need to spend time with booking the actual show. Although I am very proud to be a full autonomous touring musician, the booking part of the process is the one I enjoy the less. In that sense, I find the idea of being able to take my guitar on my back, walk into a bar, play a few songs an efficient way to share my music with a live audience without killing myself for hours on WhatsApp’s messaging thread.
Immunity to Rejection
Since I’ve been booking shows in Latin America, I have a ratio of about seven to one rate of success. More precisely, I need to contact five to ten venues to get one show booked. This whole process is taking a lot of my mental energy. It’s overall tiring, and one needs to be immune to rejection to keep doing it consistently. The way I deal with this particular aspect of things is that I know why I am doing what I am doing and in the conditions I am able to keep doing it. I don’t care what people think about my music. In that regard, I don’t take rejection personally. I also keep in mind that pretty much all the shows I played so far went pretty well. I know that once I book a show, it will somehow turn out to be a good show. Those are the reasons why I just go for it, without letting rejection affect me. I love what I am doing, as long as I can keep doing it, nothing else matters.
I am hoping that once the project is better known in specific markets, the process of the booking will go a bit smoother with a higher success rate. Actually, I dream of times when some of the venues/promoters would be calling me instead of me calling them. When Black Sea Storm performing live will create more opportunities for others rather than me asking for an opportunity to perform live.
On the brighter side of things, booking has been improving my communication skills in Spanish. Learning about each country’s own culture in the booking process is interesting to me. This know-how could be useful to my musician friends and me in the future.
Reflecting on stuff while waiting for the open-mic master
On Tuesday night, I went to Molly’s with my guitar on my back. I got there around 9 PM. I was the only musician present at that point. I waited about thirty minutes looking at the art displayed on the pub’s walls and taking pictures for the Black Sea Storm Instagram account. Moments like these are a bit awkward for me since I don’t drink alcohol anymore. I don’t really know what to do of myself at a bar other than playing music or talking to people. Socializing at a bar without a drink in your hand can be a challenge. It’s impressive to me how culturally we’ve been conditioned to consume to socialize. In western culture, at least it is almost impossible to say to someone, hey, let’s have a conversation or lets hangout. It needs to involve the consumption of some sort of liquid, or it does not feel natural socially.
If the goal was solely to intake fluid, we could all do that at home by ourselves. The real reason why people go to bars and cafés is to socialize, but if you don’t consume these addictive beverages, socializing becomes very difficult. I quit drinking alcohol in April 2016 and coffee around early 2018. The biggest challenge for me wasn’t the withdrawals from the addictive substances, but more the effects on my social life. Since I am very much of a flaneur, I don’t like to call people and make plans all that much, but instead, I do enjoy meeting people by accident. Not drinking anymore made me rethink the way I could interact with people and reorganize my social life all over again.
Almost Showtime
Around 9:30 PM, Ryan, the man in charge of the open-mic event, showed up. He was a British ex-pat living in Lima. It was actually going to be the last event Ryan was putting together before going back to England for good. He seemed to be quite experienced with organizing an open-mic event. He asked me to tune up my guitar and put it on a stand on stage. This made me a bit nervous about being physically separated from my instrument, but I understood the idea behind it. Ryan wanted things to go smoothly, avoiding downtime at all costs once the event kicks in. Some other musicians started to show up. Ryan decided that I would go first after he played a couple of songs himself. He actually knew how to play the guitar and sing. There were a couple of other musicians to accompany him. This was when I realized that the guy probably got the job so he could gig every Tuesday.
Ryan told me to be ready and go on stage just after him. I was ready, but I wanted to record my performance as well. I needed to find a corner where to put my cellphone, press record, and go on stage. I started to record Ryan’s performance and decided to forget about the camera, so I could directly go on stage when it was my turn to play.
Well, in my permanent nomadic situation, I can never really forget about the camera, which also happens to be my cellphone. I rely so much on it, although I don’t have a cellphone plan. Each time I am playing and recording, I also have to make sure that no one is stealing my cellphone. In that regard paying the streets regularly helped me develop skills where I can play, sing, and be fully aware of my surroundings all at the same time.
Welcome to the Real World
As soon as Ryan was done, I went on stage. The sound level went from a third piece band doing catchy covers to me alone playing my own songs in Turkish in an Irish Pub environment. People were still politely supportive, but I felt a bit out of place. I had not played in a long time at a venue where art isn’t at the forefront. Here your sole purpose as a musician is to entertain, so people have a good time and consequently have more drinks. I played three Black Sea Storm songs (Acoustic Versions) Yollar Üstünde, Kırık Camlar, and Boş Yelkenler Altında. I decided to avoid songs with quiet arpeggios. So I had more of a chance to pierce through the ambient bar noise and eventually grab the attention of some of the listeners present on that Tuesday night at Molly’s.
My first impression after the show was that I wasn’t able to connect with the crowd the way I usually do. My guitar sounded way different than usual. I felt a bit disconnected with the audience on a musical and verbal level. This was when I came to realizing how sheltered I was, playing theatres, cultural centers, or alternative bars and restaurants. Playing in front of people open to alternative sounds is very different from playing for people for whom listening to live music isn’t their first motivation when going out. This is, of course, my perception of things.
The Open Mic Scene in Lima
More musicians started to show up. I decided to stay to support them and see what the local scene had to offer at an open-mic level. I was actually quite impressed. Not only the level of musicianship of individual players was outstanding for the most part, but the number of different acts that went on stage that night was pretty high. I didn’t count, but it seemed to me that about 20 acts went on stage that night.
This observation of mine reinforced my idea that Lima is definitely a gigging and music-oriented city. All the people playing that night were playing for free without booking, and most of them had a decent musicianship level. There were a high number of people wanting to play. All these factors were revealing me something about the music scene in Lima.
At the end of the night, the satisfaction factor wasn’t the same as playing a complete Black Sea Storm show, but being a part of a social event was fun. That Ryan guy was quite a character and had the perfect personality to host such an event. He was throwing some funny jokes in between the songs. British humor usually does it for me. Ryan was perfect for the job, too bad that he was retiring from the open-mic scene in Lima.
Would I do it again?
Would I do an open-mic again? Yes, of course, it is a time-efficient way to be able to perform live, meet people, and grow as a musician by playing in a different type of setup. I can also see how, depending on the type of venue, the flavor of the open-mic night could be different. On this occasion, we were at an Irish Pub with everything that this particular setup involves. Still, I can see it happen at places more focused on culture and independent music.
This was my second show in Lima. I was able to book two more shows coming up the same week. I was pleased to be playing as much as I could while being in Lima. Ideally, I would like to always be playing three to four shows a week while traveling across Latin America. Playing live gives me some extra energy and motivation.
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