Diggin' open mics

There are things amateurs just shouldn't do. Perform plastic surgery, base-jump, do major home improvement projects involving electrical work -- I think it's safe to say these are all things best left to the pros.

Then again, if you wind up with a botched nose job and your house burns down because of crappy wiring you did yourself, perhaps plummeting to your certain death in a blaze of amateur sky-diving glory has a certain appeal. In that case, don't let me stop you.

Despite the disdain many have for amateurs in music, there is a place in this world for them. I like to call this place "open mic night." Lucky for us,open mic night is unlike base-jumping; subjecting the public to a bad cover of "Landslide" isn't a life-threatening proposition. Well, unless it's an exceptionally bad cover and you happen to be in the company of some hardcore Stevie Nicks fans.

For those who play music, the open mic night can be a testing ground; the training wheels which build enough confidence to someday be shed in favor of playing a real show at a real club with a real audience. This isn't to say that facing the audience of an open mic isn't as daunting as any other show, but the difference is expectation.

Maybe I am just overly critical, but I tend to keep my expectations pretty low when it comes to open mic nights. So low are my expectations that I have come to expect the music to suck.

Given that I once saw a guy put on headphones and cower behind his laptop to drown out the sounds of an open mic night, I'd put money on the fact that many of my fellow open mic enthusiasts subscribe to a similar philosophy.

Despite my cynicism, crappy music is not always the norm at open mics.

Lately, I've been pleasantly surprised by the musical diamonds in the open mic rough. Now I can at least appreciate the beauty of the process even if the artist on stage is grating on my nerves. After all, they only have a song or two, right? And the beauty of it is that I didn't have to pay a $10 cover charge to be annoyed by the person on stage.

The performers don't have it easy either, though. They have varying degrees of experience and get five to 10 minutes of mic time, with often questionable sound equipment and play for an audience which may or may not be paying attention to what's happening onstage at all. They don't get paid; they do it just for the sake of their art.

The best part of the open mic night lies in its eclecticism, its total spontaneity and the opportunity to see the very earliest work of an artist before it's been colored by the judgment of the critical public.

So if I've succeeded at making you at least a little curious what all this fuss is about, check out the Trabant Chai Lounge open mic on Mondays from 8 - 11p.m.

Perhaps it's just geography, but this open mic caters more to the college crowd, with minimal Dave Matthews Band covers.