I went to Viento y Agua Coffee House last night for their open mic. It was amazing. It’s a medium-sized coffee shop and it was packed — standing-room only and a crowd hanging out the door. The talent was extremely diverse. Hip hop, ukulele soul, emo, indie, spoken word, poetry. It was really incredible and run very smoothly which required some juggling with such different types of participants. I was impressed.

I was a bit disappointed that it was a 1 song limit. It’s hard to feel comfortable in that brief time. But the limit was just as strict on spoken-word performances: 3 minutes. So it underscores the intent of the evening to be a creative showcase and not a songwriters’ night. Great experience and a great venue.

I played “Let’s Stay Together for the Dog” and messed the chords up in the same place I always do. So I might be re-retiring that one for a while. It’s a great song but I rarely pull it off perfectly. And that’s frustrating.