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Open mics provide local artists a setting to showcase their talents

By: Katie Olson, Editor-in-Chief

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For students seeking to improve their performance ability on stage, open mics in Denton are  abundant in opportunity.

The various venues include LSA Burger, Muddy Jakes, The Labb, Audacity Brew House, Abbey Underground and The White House. Each open mic offers its own variety of unique performers included, but not limited to musicians, poets, rappers, performance artists and comedians.

If looking for an 18 and up atmosphere, Audacity Brew House caters to the community and students looking to better their skills in their respective arts.

Local artist and Audacity Brew House Open Mic host Caleb Coonrod shared: “One can learn just as much from an Open Mic as they can in class. Watching other artists and observing their approach seems to enhance an individual’s knowledge and creativity, which will improve their work.”

Abbey Underground, a 21 and up venue also caters to these artists. Local artist and Abbey Underground Open Mic Host Jake Steinburg explains from experience that Open Mic also provides a setting for artists, both local residents and students, to improve on their performance ability.

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Steinburg said: “My introduction to the music community came through open mics. A blues friend of mine by the name of Pete Miller broke me from my stage fright by taking me to open mics, completely unprepared, and told me just to play with him.”

He added: “As the social function works, you meet more people, and you become more and more a part of this community to where everyone wants to just continue to cultivate that same feeling of freedom and expression.”

Open Mic events are advertised through social media, flyers and word of mouth. Sign ups for Audacity Brew House begin at 6:45 while Abbey Underground Open Mic starts at 7:30. Coonrod elaborates that there are many regulars who attend open mics at Audacity while others come and go.

Coonrod elaborated: “Some artists decide they are not serious about it and quit while others   continue getting better and better.”

He added: “In this sense the ‘regulars’ kind of change, but true artists, even those who have moved on, still drop in from time to time to scratch the itch.”

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Overall, the experience of open mic itself is a moment where different groups of people come together and express their talents freely with other artists and even those in the audience.

Steinburg shared: “You can go from a single performer to a full band to a spontaneous jam of people who’ve never met one another, maybe even borrowing instruments from another person just to participate.”

He concluded: “It is very much a forum for people to express their own creativity, to express themselves in whatever way that they want to get better at. To me, that’s the most important part.”

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