Had an Open Mic night in my university today. Played Dion, Animals

>>73901089
should have done an edgy song like nine inch nails closer
that would have got their attention

Out of all the Beatles songs you decided tout play fucking Yellow submarine?

What else? After getting little to no reaction from House of the Rising Sun, that was a last resort.

>>73901089
on guitar? play one of those sentimental paul mccartney beatle songs like blackbird or in my life. if they've never heard the original, they've at least heard aa cove of it before in a car commercial or something. you're not gonna light up the crowd, but a few entry level dad rock girls might think it's attractive. play true love will finnd you in the end if you're scoping out an art school thot.

>>73901089
no surprise, most people at open mic are there to perform/watch their friends. You have to either bring people or be something really fucking special. What was the racial makeup of the room?

35% white, 15% latino, rest were asian

>>73901089
>playing covers and not your own music
well that was your first mistake, no one cares if you can play a 40 y/o song, it's been around for a while so a lot of people have already done it with you
>open mic at university
there's your second mistake, the music scene at my university sucked ass, mostly shitty pop-punk bands, wannabe trap rappers, and bedroom producers trying to channel what I can only describe as Flying Lotus on heroin without anything that makes it cool. Find a better music scene.

>>73901216
okay, I can help!

asians, oddly enough, will respond best to top 40 shit r&b dance. Their playlists could be mistaken for a black woman's. But you can subvert that and just stick to major songs in recent memory. People love hearing Royals arranged on acoustic (D forever then C and G) and Somebody That I Used To Know has never let me down

you are going to have to meet your audience halfway if not all the way. As much as the songs you pick may mean something to you, they mean less and little to an open-mic audience, Like I said, they usually aren't there for you. So, if you can arrange a dance song into acoustic, people will be taken by the novelty. Or, grow some tits and they'll listen to anything you have to say

t. played lotsa open mics

>>73901089
Man I love the Animals more than anyone so I hate to say this but...

At LEAST 65+% of people in the college age bracket have NO IDEA who these older artists and songs are

I have a buddy whos older and gets tickets to stuff and offers to invite some girls in our circles

>Heart, Pink Floyd AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
>girls:
>uh call us if its Beyonce or something

Think all those people on twitter congraulating Kanye on working with artists theyve never heard of like PAUL MCCARTNEY were just trolling? Think again.

>>73901335
>tfw my girlfriend bought me tickets to an Earth Wind and Fire concert tomorrow
at least it isnt gonna be full of annoying teenagers

Then it's basically playing pop or dumping openmics and sticking to jamming with rock/metal friends. Yeah, I have a metal friend, though he doesn't seem to be so keen on playin for these people. Since we tried to play Paranoid for the crowd and no one knew it we never really played again on openmics.

>>73901395
it's trial and error. Most people have shit taste. Look's are a big part of how successful your nights gonna be; music is secondary. People like to be entertained by good-looking people, unless you are fucking AMAZING and even then they might not pick up on it. You have to remember that you are not playing for your peers, you're playing for the public

be really good, play stuff you hate, or look really good

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38KB, 644x644px

>>73901089
i was also born in le wrong generation.

>>73901089
I performed a while back when I was invited to join in on an open mic coffeehouse. I had compliments from the crowd after I had performed some songs from Sufjan Stevens plus a mix of my own original songs.
Instead of covering songs everybody's heard from generic guitar-dudes, you should be more diverse with the genres you play and the songs you pick. Play something that'd either invest the audience's interest, something REALLY familiar, or something original.

>>73901524
I've found coffee crowds to be way warmer than bar crowds. They'll give ya feedback, too. I think it's part of their "I'm cultured and above judgement" schtick. Biker bars on the other hand...

>"YOU SOUND LIKE NEIL PERT, LEMME BUY YA A PITCHER, HERE'S MY OLD LADIES NASTY TITS"

I play a lot of open mics around. Typically most school related ones I've played are full of dudebros trying to score and ultra basic girls who are there because the dudebros are there.

My recommendation is to go play some out of the way places. Smaller bars and coffee shops are surprisingly good places. You'd think that it'd be a hotbed of pretentious pricks, but from my experience, most of the people who go to those open mics are just genuine music fans who love playing and love listening. The larger bars are a nice balance of the two, so you might also meet girls while being appreciated. I tend to stay away from those though because I'm intimidated by the larger crowds, and there's usually a really high skill level.

>>73901089
Do people really need to hear another shitty cover of fucking Yellow Submarine or House of the Rising Sun?