open mic - chair club

I thought I should do a bit of a write up about the most popular jam in Shanghai. It’s at a small club called Chair.

Someone had the bright idea that since most musicians have Monday off, everyone should be available to come out and play together. That combined with the free drink for performers, and a free shot of tequila for everyone still there at 12am, it usually gets pretty packed.

This is a different kind of jam than your normal open mic or jam session. Usually an open mic will give you the stage for a song or a short set. At Chair you need to do your song with the house band, or with other musicians in the house. So it's usually better to choose a song most people know, or it could train wreck pretty quickly!

The house band normally start it up with a couple of tunes. Then the hosts Denise and Smokey start opening it up to the musicians.

Sometimes it can get into a bit of a mess if you don’t have anyone leading the band. But most of the time there is someone taking the lead, or at least cue the ending.

Here’s a bit of a mix of last nights artists:

It’s interesting to see singers come the first couple of times requesting unusual or difficult songs that no one knows. Then you see them a few weeks later asking the band to play something simple like a 2 chord song.

Some of the popular 2 chord songs are: Use Me - Bill Withers, Miss You - Rolling Stones, and Moves like Jagger - Maroon 5

There are others that are kinda like Shanghai standards that everyone pretty much knows like: Just the 2 of Us - Bill Withers, Superstitious - Stevie Wonder, What You Won’t Do For Love - Bobby Caldwell, Stand By Me - Ben E King.

Some singers (or aspiring singers) have ‘their’ song that they always do. It’s not ‘their’ song, but they always do it.

Usually there are a number of guitar players, pianists, drummers, lots of singers, bass players, and horn players. On occasions I’ve seen cello, didgeridoo, accordion, harmonica, tuba and some traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu.

Although I don’t go too often, this is where I hear ‘new’ popular music. Younger singers will naturally ask to play what’s popular at the moment.

The boss is actually a bass player. Super cool, cause by the end of the night, “the dregs” take over….... and it’s a mess, but he just lets it go. If it were me it would probably end earlier on a higher note.

Last night it was pretty packed. Lot's of musicians came, a whole bunch I haven't seen for a while and some new faces too.

I thought Kayleigh singing Princes song Kiss was probably the highlight of the night. She just killed it!

Without a doubt at Chair, there is always a surprise or two, and last night had even more!

I thought this was funny (0:25):

I think his name is Uber, he just goes and helps himself to the tambourine mid song. As you do...

Shanghai is a pretty international city and there are some culture clashes here and there. You need to be a bit forgiving and open to ... well, differences in people's actions I guess.

But I think the craziest moment of the night was this Ukraine singer guitar player playing some kind of a pop breakup song. We got to the end of the song and we brought it down in volume, as he started talking with the audience. He said a few normal things like ‘everyone having a good time?’, something along those lines. But then he said something like “does anyone like me” or "would anyone like to get with me” (I don’t remember exactly).

Well… surprise surprise, someone was like ‘Yeah!” and he put his guitar down and walked over and kissed her, and didn’t come back to the stage….. We were all still playing the song, kinda looking around like….what’s going on here? Then someone threw a condom at the stage, and Smokey got back on the mic to make a few jokes about it.

I just can’t believe it worked….it was too easy. I mean really??? Maybe people just want something exciting in their lives...I don’t know. But what I do know 100% is that is why I will never be a rockstar!

Anyway, if you ever happen to be in Shanghai on a Monday night, you should definately go and check it out. Always a good night!