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New Open Mic in Santa Monica Starts Tonight

Hello ladies and gents,

I am starting a new open mic night in Santa Monica tonight (Thursday, 2/3/11). It's in the Old Rapp Building, which is the oldest still-standing brick building in Santa Monica. It's a neat little space with great acoustics, and is connected to the big Hostelling International hostel.

Here's my still-forming vision for the open mic: First, it's weekly...every Thursday night. Once a month, I want to make it a special night. Still partly open mic, but then either booked sets or some sort of songwriter in the round thing. I'd love to give it the feeling of Levon Helm's Rambles or something similar. Something that encourages collaboration and community in this town, that's laid back and fun but filled with great people.

I've done some Songwriter Nights in this room before, and the sound is great. It's pretty much just a room with a high ceiling and wood floors without much in it, so there's a great natural reverb going on. I'd love to do some live recording there in the future if these nights take off. I've found some great people in this No Depression community before, too, some of which I wasn't able to book because my old night went on hiatus for a while.

For tonight, I'm just going to be hanging out in the room and playing if anyone wants to come down and join me. It'll be real low key since it's the first night. I'd love to get input on what YOU think would make this into a great way for us to form a bit of a community here in LA.

1436 2nd St. (between Santa Monica and Broadway)

Santa Monica

8pm

Enter through the big hostel entryway. You'll see it.

If you're still reading, a little more about the room: The Old Rapp building was built as a saloon in the late 1800's, and is now a historical landmark maintained by Hostelling International's Santa Monica hostel, a 260-bed budget travel hostel that sees guests of all ages from all over the world come through its doors. The hostel was literally built around the Rapp Building. This means that when we play music in the Rapp, there's a good amount of foot traffic and people from the hostel wander in to listen. The hostel also promotes the night to its guests all week.

Give me a shout through this site if you want to come down tonight. Oh, and no amps please. They will overpower this room.

Thanks for reading. I am long-winded.

Patrick Dunn

Tags: acoustic, mic, monica, open, santa, songwriter

Attachments:

Rapp.jpg, 67 KB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by The Knuckles on February 3, 2011 at 10:43am

Sounds very cool Patrick. I cannot come tonight but keep us posted about future events. The building sounds amazing... love playing in old soulful places.

Best,

Rodney

www.theknucklesmusic.com

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 3, 2011 at 10:46am

Will do. I'll set up an online home for the night once it's up and running.

Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Damngivers on February 3, 2011 at 2:27pm

Sounds cool Patrick. Hope to join you soon.

Gerry

Permalink Reply by Mark W. Lennon on February 5, 2011 at 1:55pm

Great idea, I want to try and be a part of this...I work at the Promenade so I am RIGHT there, please keep me in the loop.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 9, 2011 at 1:09pm

Hey folks,

Thanks for the initial interest. Last week was fun and intimate, and I'm looking forward to building this up relatively quickly.

There's another open mic tomorrow night (Thurs, 2/10) at 8p.m. Feel free to come down and hang/play.

I think I forgot to mention in my original post, feel free to bring different instruments if you're up for sitting in and getting a jam going. Just keep them acoustic for now. We have a PA that you can plug into, though.

Thanks,

Patrick Dunn

www.patrickdunnmusic.com

Permalink Reply by Wendy Allyn on February 10, 2011 at 3:56pm

Hi Patrick,

Very cool!! I'm really happy to hear you're starting it up again! I'd love to join in soon, I'll be out of town for a few weeks but when I return I'll be there with the acoustic. That room just rocks for unplugged stuff.

~wendy allyn

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 10, 2011 at 4:00pm

Awesome Wendy!

Looking forward to hearing you play!

Permalink Reply by Jake Matthew Loveridge on February 11, 2011 at 3:13pm

Hello Patrick,

I am looking forward to meeting you, and joining in on the fun. I have worked in the music industry for many years as a production manager and tech, and have expanded out into the world of artist management.

At the moment I am working with an artist named Emily Grace Clark on a new EP, and I think we will be heading down next Thursday to join in.

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to meeting you.

Jake Loveridge

520-390-8732

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 16, 2011 at 4:25pm

Hey Jake,

Come on down! I'll be setting up a little after 8 tomorrow night (Thurs). Bring any friends/artists/whatever you want. Since it's still a new night, the crowd totally depends on walk-ins, but we've gotten a good group from the hostel the last two weeks.

Shoot me an email if you need anything: contact {at} patrickdunnmusic {dot} com

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 17, 2011 at 1:16pm

Doing this again tonight. Also thinking of shooting for the last Thursday in March to be a bigger night. Still figuring out what I'm going to do with that (suggestions welcome). Leaning towards an in-the-round thing. Coming to a previous open mic night would help me to book you for this for sure.

Also, would anybody be up for also using such a night as a monthly meeting of SoCal songwriters to sit down for a few minutes and talk about ways to build our community?

If you want to come down tonight, shoot me an email contact {at} patrickdunnmusic {dot} com, or just show up around 8. I might be a couple minutes late, so if you don't see me right at 8, I'll be there within 5 minutes (I have a meeting upstairs).

Thanks, and feel free to bring playing or non-playing friends.

Patrick Dunn

www.patrickdunnmusic.com

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on February 24, 2011 at 6:16pm

Once again, this is happening tonight. Come down any time after 8 (but before 9:15) to play a few.

-Patrick

Permalink Reply by Patrick Dunn on March 3, 2011 at 2:40pm

Come one down tonight:

1436 2nd St.

Santa Monica

8pm

Open mic and/or jam.