fungusyoung
Senior Member
This must be one of the oldest member supported folk music listening rooms in the country, located in Bethlehem, PA... a couple blocks off the edge of Lehigh University's campus. Think it opened in the mid 70's.
First of all, I love going to see shows there. Very small, minimalistic stage set-up, but absolutely stellar sound and a tiny capacity... when they've got folks crammed in there like they did for Bill Kirchen late last year, maybe 75 people could fit in at the most. It's BYOB and they serve coffee and stuff in the storefront area.
I'll be honest- I was terrified when I first played there in late March. One thing I didn't know was how dark the crowd is when you're onstage. Not that the lights are overly bright up there, but they let folks see you and blacken the rest of the room. So, that was kind of bizarre not seeing faces or not knowing if I was connecting with anyone or not... seriously, I could only really make out shadows of those that were sitting 5 feet from the stage... everything else was a blur or black.
So, I played their open mic for the third time tonight, and it was my best slot there so far. Nothing stupendous, but my two strongest originals went well, and then I played a cover of the Bottle Rockets' "Indianapolis" to close... even though I don't even know it all that well yet... I even skipped the middle verse to bring it home faster. Anyways, very supportive crowd... and an eclectic group of players can always be expected. The turnout can run the gamut... first time I only got 2 songs because it was so packed, but the last couple times were the standard 3 tunes.
As a side note, I brought the newly acquired DV6, and it sounded fantastic. Really great guitar that I look forward to bonding with even more over time. Might play out with her a couple more times in NY this week.
They host open mics the first and third Sunday of each month. Sign up is a lottery and that is at 7 PM, then things get started promptly thereafter and normally wrap up by 10:30 or 11 PM. One thing is for sure, you'll never sound much better than you do on the stage at Godfrey Daniels.
http://godfreydaniels.org/
First of all, I love going to see shows there. Very small, minimalistic stage set-up, but absolutely stellar sound and a tiny capacity... when they've got folks crammed in there like they did for Bill Kirchen late last year, maybe 75 people could fit in at the most. It's BYOB and they serve coffee and stuff in the storefront area.
I'll be honest- I was terrified when I first played there in late March. One thing I didn't know was how dark the crowd is when you're onstage. Not that the lights are overly bright up there, but they let folks see you and blacken the rest of the room. So, that was kind of bizarre not seeing faces or not knowing if I was connecting with anyone or not... seriously, I could only really make out shadows of those that were sitting 5 feet from the stage... everything else was a blur or black.
So, I played their open mic for the third time tonight, and it was my best slot there so far. Nothing stupendous, but my two strongest originals went well, and then I played a cover of the Bottle Rockets' "Indianapolis" to close... even though I don't even know it all that well yet... I even skipped the middle verse to bring it home faster. Anyways, very supportive crowd... and an eclectic group of players can always be expected. The turnout can run the gamut... first time I only got 2 songs because it was so packed, but the last couple times were the standard 3 tunes.
As a side note, I brought the newly acquired DV6, and it sounded fantastic. Really great guitar that I look forward to bonding with even more over time. Might play out with her a couple more times in NY this week.
They host open mics the first and third Sunday of each month. Sign up is a lottery and that is at 7 PM, then things get started promptly thereafter and normally wrap up by 10:30 or 11 PM. One thing is for sure, you'll never sound much better than you do on the stage at Godfrey Daniels.
http://godfreydaniels.org/