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Section Header
Creative outlets over coffee

Photo
JACOB KONST/Arizona Summer Wildcat
Roberta L. Howard reads at the open-mic night at Reader's Oasis on Sunday. Open-mic takes place on the last Sunday of the month at Reader's Oasis.
By Cara O'Connor & Andrew Salvati
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Wednesday August 6, 2003

When Friday night rolls around, some UA students park their cars in the lot along Speedway Boulevard and head to Dirtbag's, while a few others make their way to Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea, trading booze for lattes and dance music for tunes of a more acoustic bent.

Friday night is open mic night at Bentley's. Anyone can sign up for a 15-minute performance time slot.

Open mic nights across Tucson are providing a creative outlet for performers, as well as evenings of leisurely entertainment for those in attendance.

"This is a really good place for people who are working on new music, to try it in front of people," said John Clinebell, 25, a regular performer at Bentley's open mic.

When Clinebell was studying media arts at UA, he had a band called Tricky Luz. After he graduated, he turned to open mic so that he could keep performing.


Coming to a coffee shop near you

Lamplight Reading Series
3400 E. Speedwy Blvd. Ste. 114
First Sunday of the month at 4 p.m.

Bookman's
1930 E. Grant Road
Every Wednesday 7 p.m.

ITL Coffee Shop
415 N. 4th Avenue
Every Wednesday 7 p.m.

Land of the Pharaoh's
274 E. Congress St.
Poetry jam First Saturday of the month 8 p.m.

ITL Coffee Shop
415 N. 4th Avenue
Every Wednesday 7 p.m.

Oasis Vegetarian Eatery
375 S. Stone Ave.
Monday 7 p.m.

Epic cafe
745 N. 4th Ave.
Every Thursday 8 p.m.

Bentley's House of Coffee
1730 E. Speedway Blvd.
Every Friday 7:45 p.m.


"My life's passion is music. There's no better feeling than to get up in front of people and sing my stuff."

Clinebell said that he would prefer to play music all the time, but that it is not practical. "It's not like you can take a guitar with you to work," said Clinebell, who has a day job as a support systems analyst at UA's SALT Center.

Open mic nights provide a good opportunity for amateur musicians and poets with day jobs to perform. They are not exclusive to people who are full-time artists.

"This does have a broad range demographically," said Linda Rothchild-Tepper, who organizes Bentley's open mic night. "You have your professors and you have your guys getting off a train from another town who look all scraggly, and the next thing you know they're making beautiful music."

Some of the artists have never performed in front of an audience before and others have been performing for 15 to 20 years, said Clinebell.

"For the most part, it is just people who enjoy playing music," Clinebell said. "It's not like a high-pressure environment or anything like that. It's all pretty stress-free."

Clinebell said there is something for everybody. Musicians at Bentley's play all types of music, including bluegrass, jazz, rock, country, blues and a variety of cover songs.

Clinebell says his style is "percussive" and "acoustic," similar that of Dave Matthews Band. But Clinebell is no Dave Matthews. While Dave Matthews is rocking out in front of sold-out crowds of tens of thousands of people, Clinebell is sitting in front of a computer monitor at the SALT Center.

He does have dreams, though. While many open mic performers are content to play old Rolling Stones songs, Clinebell writes all his own music and would like to someday record it.

"I never play covers. It has always just been more fun to write my own," he said.

While open mic is a casual event for entertainers like Clinebell, some people are very dedicated, even religious, in promoting the arts through open mic poetry and music forums.

Bob Steigert, who runs the open mic night at Epic Cafˇ, is one such person. He has made music and the arts his life.

Steigert organizes forums for poets and musicians to come together and share their art.

He is also the assistant co-producer of the Zeitgeist musical series and is involved in theatre, music production and booking at the Mat Bevel Institute.

Steigert's lifelong dedication to art and music stems from his life philosophy, religious belief and need for expression. He says that he believes in cultivating his own artistic abilities and those of others. By volunteering his time to organize open mic nights, he devotes his life to the advancement of the arts.

Steigert's devotion to the arts has been motivated by his religious faith, as well. "I also got into [organizing open mics] for my religious beliefs. I believe that the universe is made up of one tone or frequency of music, and I think the open mic facilitates that relationship," Steigert said. "I also organize them because I believe we should all exercise our first amendment rights."

Steigert originally organized Epic Cafˇ's open mics as a forum for UA poets. "There's a confluence of talented people in Tucson and a lot of poets that come out of the university," Steigert said. "We wanted to tap into that."

Epic's open mics play host to all sorts of acts, including poetry, music and comedy.

"We have a lot of poets from the downtown area come in," Steigert said. "We're very tolerant about our acts."

"I didn't want to do just a poetry night and I don't want to do just a music night. I wanted a collective," said Epic Cafˇ owner M. TwoFeathers. "It's pretty much oriented for people to do whatever they want to do."

"Open mic night is not only for artists; people also come just to listen to the music," TwoFeathers said.

"It's an alternative place to a bar. It can also be your pre-going-out destination," he said. "It always brings people we haven't met before."

So next time you head to the bar, consider starting the night off easy, maybe with an espresso shot and some tunes. The more daring might even consider bringing their own guitars along to one of the many open mic nights Tucson has to offer.


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