The Maiyeros perform their own special version of the classic, “My Girl,” at Open Mic Night last Saturday. PHOTO/Janell Boone ‘09

This past Saturday, a winter Open Mic Night was held on the JJAC main stage, and was hosted by Daryl Wells ’07 and Steve Kwizera ’07. This event is provided annually in order to encourage musically talented students to perform live on stage. Some highlights of this year’s show included Chris Grava ‘10 and Peter Conforti ’10’s riveting performance of Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Another group that performed onstage was Komander Kim, a fourth form band, with Sean Carey ’09 as the lead vocalist, Alex Cuffe ’09 providing the back-up vocals, Swithin Lui ’09 on the bass, Rohan Sahai ’09 on the guitar, and Guy Dupont ’09 as the drummer. The Maiyeros went up on stage to sing their own excellent version of “My Girl” by The Temptations, which received a great deal of applause afterwards. There were also some impressive acoustic guitar performances by Kerry Takahashi ’10 and Tessa Sacramone ’08. In addition, there were the hosts’ playful antics. Kwizera showed the audience the “proper” way to do the popular “Chicken Noodle Soup,” and Elijah Dabney ’07 performed the Boys II Men duet “I’ll Make Love to You.”

In spite of the remarkable effort of the performers that night, Open Mic Night did not meet up to the audience’s expectations. There were several delays throughout because not enough performers showed up on time. There were also some technical difficulties that prevented the show from running smoothly. Some audience members declared that some of the performers were barely competent, implying that Open Mic Night was not as entertaining as it could have been. Another factor that may have added to the audience’s disappointment was that the overall event was centered on band performances, which made for a rather monotonous evening.

However, Janell Boone ’09 claims that “Although some of the bands may have messed up a couple of times, I think that overall it was a good turnout of a show.” She picked Grava and Conforti’s Johnny Cash performance as her favorite. Another member of the audience said that “although it was boring at times, I was surprised at the skill of some of the performers. It was a great way of expressing individual talent.” Sarah Gromet ’09 admits that some of the performers were excellent, and cited Takahashi on the acoustic guitar and Dabney, who performed multiple times throughout the show, as two examples. She also expressed her disappointment, saying that “…no one’s voices were heard over the blurred, too-loud sound of the electric guitars.”

Overall, Open Mic Night was a great opportunity for students to show off their musical abilities. Some of the performers were amazingly talented and displayed great potential. In the future, this event has ample room for improvement. Musicians representing more diverse genres should be recruited to make the show more exciting, and the sound quality could also use improvement. With these changes, Open Mic Night will prove to be a greater success in years to come.