The desert has long had some great open-mic spots. There was the Pappy and Harriet’s open mic (RIP), and the open mic at The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert. Of course, there’s also the Best of Coachella Valley-winning open mic at Oscar’s in Palm Springs.
Now the newly remodeled AWE Bar in Yucca Valley is getting in on the open-mic game. It happens the second-to-the-last Sunday of each month, and is hosted by actor, musician and desert-dweller Teddy Quinn. Quinn is known for his childhood acting—appearing in Bonanza and General Hospital, and most notably as “Mike” in a commercial for Bayer children’s aspirin. He later went on to become a musician, helped co-found the famous Rancho de la Luna studios, and has hosted open mics at the Beatnik Lounge and Pappy and Harriet’s.
I talked to Quinn on the telephone the day after the first AWE Bar open mic in December.
“I had no idea what to expect when I was going there,” Quinn said. “It was crazy. On a busy night at Pappy and Harriet’s, it used to be 20 or 25 people; that was usually the maximum, and we’d stay late to make sure that everybody got onstage. Last night, there were, like, 30 people signing up. I had to cut back. Rather than three songs per act, I had to limit it to two songs. We got through most of the people, and by 11:30, we’d gotten 26 or 27 onstage. I used to start the show myself … but there was no way last night.
“I think it was really fun. I love the atmosphere there, and several of the people are some of the people who used to work at Pappy’s and different places around town who I’ve known over the years. It’s really homey and sweet.”
The tremendous response came as a shock to the apprehensive Quinn.
“Rachel Dean (AWE Bar’s talent buyer) reached out to me to ask if I wanted to do this,” Quinn said. “I thought about it for a minute, because it’s been a few years since I’ve done this, and I wasn’t 100% sure. She wanted to start out by doing it once a month, and I thought, ‘Well, that sounds fun.’ I think if it’s anything like last night, we’re going to have to keep it going.”
For some bands, open-mic nights are a big first step. Not only do open mics allow a band to perform live; they provide opportunities for networking and more.
“It’s really been super-satisfying to see that over the years,” Quinn said. “One band that performed last night used to play at the Beatnik open mic, like, 15 years ago, when they were really just little kids—and that’s Brent and Brandon Simpson, who are Daytime Moon. It’s like seeing the kids growing up, and they’re so great. They’re playing shows all over the place now.
“We had another band (Sweetbeast) that was doing their first live performance last night. It was two women and a guy, and it was really dreamy. It was rock ’n’ roll, but it was dreamy, and beautiful. It was really so amazing to see that happen. I know that they’re going to be doing a lot more stuff and shows and records and everything, because they’re just so good.”
The open mic night is also a great place for families to share their love of music with others.
“There was a father and daughter group called the Tomi Tom show; it was a father named Tom and his daughter named Tomi,” Quinn said. “She was playing ukulele, and he was playing guitar, and they sang. When people talk about blood harmony, it’s a real thing. There’s something about people in the same family harmonizing together; I used to wonder about that with the Bee Gees, the Everly Brothers or the Beach Boys. There’s something really magical that happens when kinfolk sing together, so that was just super beautiful and exciting.”
Quinn said open mic nights can be a great “welcome back” to people who have been out of the music scene for various reasons.
“The man who plays drums with me is a guy named Jeff Boaz, and he had an accident where he hurt his foot, and wasn’t able to play for some time,” said Quinn. “He’s back to playing the drums now, so it’s really exciting to see people returning after time away. Last night, another guy named Lucky Johansen, who is a blues musician, came out. He is one of those people who played music more in bands when they were younger, and then, you know, went to live their lives and kids and their careers and all that stuff.”
The open mics at Pappy’s were entertaining and varied; Quinn expects the same at AWE Bar.
“I never left Pappy and Harriet’s without thinking, ‘That was a great show,’” Quinn said. “It’s like the weirdest eclectic variety show. No promoter would ever think, ‘Oh, this band would go well with this singer,’ but it just happens by magic or something. It was like that last night, and I left at the end of the night just thinking it was another really good show. It seemed like people really enjoyed it, and people hung in there until the end, for the most part.”
Describing the desert music scene has always been tough for me. I was curious how Quinn would describe the scene from his unique perspective.
“It’s everything from Mario Lalli, heavy bottom and heavy rock, to super sweet,” Quinn said. “There was a woman who came in last night named Avi, from the Seattle area. She was driving by with her girlfriend and her mom, and she saw the name on the sign that said AWE Bar, and she thought out of the corner of her eyes that it said Ave. They stopped in, and she just happened to have her ukulele with her. She did a Nirvana song on ukulele, with just a beautiful voice. Then there was a guy whi just got up to do ancient tribal chanting with throat singing. The sound is all over the place. Then there’s my buddy Joe Garcia, who is kind of doing Leonard Cohen-esque sort of songwriting—really poetic imagery and that sort of thing. There are so many different things going on that it’s really funny. Linda Krantz from Pappy’s once described the Joshua Tree sound as a woosh. That’s the sound of the desert, but the sounds that people create here are pretty much whatever’s going on in the interior of their creative process. It seems like there’s room for everything, and that’s something that I really love.”
The next AWE Bar Open Mic will take place Sunday, Jan. 22, at AWE Bar, 56193 Twentynine Palms Highway, in Yucca Valley. Signups start at 6 p.m., and admission is free. For more information, visit www.awe-bar.com.
