Open Mic @ Red Lion Pub

Author's Note: After several insulting reviews on Yelp about the Red Lion Pub's Open Mic Night, I'd like to share my own perspective on this weekly event. As a person who doesn't smoke or drink, I didn't find myself hanging out at bars very often until 2011 when I first visited Red Lion. I was captivated by the diverse crowd of people, the welcoming atmosphere and of course the local music...

A fiery treble clef painted by artist Jim Jackson hangs near the entrance and a yellow notepad sits on the bar, awaiting sign-ups for Open Mic. It's first come first serve, and regular artists like Joel Tefteller, RKind and Planetary Funk Machine are given seniority. If they perform here often, they get more stage time.
Singer Stu Sauce and keyboardist Patrick Moreno (members of Stu Sauce and the Syna-Stix) signed up as a duo after taking a few minutes to hug everyone they knew. As he leaned in to hug pub owner Rosemarie Ryan, Moreno declared, "You must stop me! I'm a serial hugger!" Indeed, handshakes are a rare sight here at the Red Lion. After a few drinks and before their bandmate, saxophonist Aaron Ledray arrived, Stu and Patrick were involved in an accidental comedy routine.
"We should change our name!"
 "Maybe. What about Stu chew?"
 "No, I don't think our music has that much bite to it."
 "Biting off a piece of the chew. More than you can Stu."
"Miss Behave."
 "Don't behave! Be hive!"
"you've caught an English major in a circle of puns!"
 "don't steal my punder!"
When it was their turn to perform, Aaron, Stu and Patrick improvised some slowed down, baby-makin' versions of some original songs. This resulted in multiple ladies in the audience encouraging them to release a remix album.

The 5 hour long Open Mic show included performances by John Williams (no, not the Star Wars composer), Circa, Bothering Dennis, and singer/songwriter Laine Breeden. You can see him perform on August 18th in the semi-finals of Rock the Mic (with Maximum Entertainment Group and Doll Face Music), taking place at the BB King's Blues Club from 3pm-6pm on August 18th. The finalists will be performing August 25th.
Guess who else showed up at the Open Mic? Ashley Dudukovich from Chasing Jonah. After a short hiatus Chasing Jonah is making a comeback and have launched a Kickstarter to raise money for a full length album and music video. They've already reached $3,800 of their $15,000 goal with 27 days to go. To donate and learn more please visit http://www.kickstarted.com/projects/chasingjonah/the-chasing-jonah-comeback