I’ve been going to Hotel Utah’s open mic on and off for a while now but only recently started to attend every week, about 6 -7 weeks ago. I like this place – it’s right in my backyard and this open mic, as many others, has its own unique blend of performers and atmosphere. The Utah at my place of work, more commonly known as The Ute, is a popular place for my fellow employees to celebrate things worthy of drink! To that we recognize important company milestones; employee departures; the end of tough weeks; or for a big what the hell – The Ute is the place we go. So I’ve been there’s countless times not just for regular beer consumption but for the open mic. I first played there in September of 2010 when I was just a burgeoning artist and wanting to whip out my first few completed songs and test them.

What I didn’t expect was how intimidating that place can be for such a small room, but it’s an interesting combination of amazingly talented performers and the ambiance that really make it feel the way it does and it’s intimidating – you’re being recorded and you’re in front of some pretty damn amazing peers as well as some who are famous and have been in nationally touring bands and even had hits on the radio and MTV back in the day. I go back and listen to that recording and several others that remain private of some of the same songs on their amazing website HERE – it’s good to go back and see how I’ve grown since I’m fairly new to this stuff still.

Brendan Getzell is the new host of the open mic at The Hotel Utah as of 53 weeks ago and he’s doing an amazing job as well, and seems to be quite a natural at it – Brendan combines excellent musical talents and fantastic songwriting with his wit to always make it entertaining – I highly recommend visiting the open mic some time even if you aren’t a musician as there’s always going to be some surprises and tons of talent.

So at 10PM on July 23rd, I will play the featured spot for 30 minutes and I may have drums in tow (and even a drummer!). I’m pretty damn excited about this – it’s a landmark in my short musical career and one that I’m proud of.

My plans are to make The Ute my main open mic and still frequent the others but not every week like I’ve been doing – it’s hard to maintain a good balance in the old checking account and do open mics every night. Sure, I don’t have to drink but you know these places need people who will spend a little coin as they don’t operate without it. I don’t want to call out the hit and run water drinker types but come on folks – spend some money, they wouldn’t be here if everyone drank water…

That was a rant? 🙂

Anyway! So I’ll be the featured artist that night and I’m extremely excited about it and I wanted to post this ASAP.

Come check it out!

EDIT: I need an editor…

Brent