A new open mic night at the Firefly, Worcester 05.06.12
There's been a vacancy on the open mic night scene in Worcester since the end of the Tuesday Angel Opens, hosted by This Wicked Tongue front girl Tina V a couple of months ago. Luckily, she's revived the event in reassuring partnership with Malvern stalwart Mike Mann at the Firefly in Lowesmoor - so I popped along to check out their first night...
...and it is looking pretty good, I have to say! The event kicked off with Tina herself duetting with Mansize front girl Anya Pulver. These two do so complement each other vocally and really have the ability to free-form improvise mash-ups of classics on the spot. This gives the impression that you're free to try just about anything - if it works then brilliant, but if not - well it was worth a shot - which is what these events should be about!
Duets seemed to be pretty much the order of the evening though - and some great pairings to follow in newbies Emma & Kieron and a long-overdue appearance from Andy & Steve of Marina Del Ray, finishing their set with one of my all time favourites in Company Car - a classic.
But it's never been just singer/guitarists at Tina's open mics - and it was a real pleasure to catch the completely unrehearsed but totally brilliant beatboxing and rapping pairing of AJ Prowse and Ya Boy Leroy - absolutely stunning!
Time for Malvern to show that it, too, can outperform in the duo stakes as Tyler Massey and Mike combined to incredible effect on numbers like Tyler's own Everything and bluegrass classics like Red Clay Halo and Miss Ohio. These are two musicians of some real class and quality, so no surprise really.
This was a totally successful first night for what'll hopefully become a regular fixture and complete the weekly Worcester open mic schedule. There was just enough time at the witching hour to fit in a set from Ledbury's Mike Knowles whose star is definitely in the ascendency. Now, it has to be said that a late-night spot is probably about right for possibly the edgiest muso going. I can mention a couple of his song-titles like I'm So Sad and Best Song In The World but the content is definitely out of bounds. If you're of a broad-minded disposition catch him as one of the members of the Tap House Band on Mondays - he comes highly recommended!
22 Jan 2013