[removed at request of Red Bank Music Community](Recently, Alex Siniari and I traveled an hour and a half up to Red Bank, NJ for an open mic. It was quite the road trip! You can read the side-notes and ramblings from it in this post: Some rambling before the Red Bank Music Community post)

The Red Bank Music Community is a group located in Red Bank. NJ. This is one of my favorite open mics I’ve been to yet. You can see how dedicated these guys are on their MySpace page:

“The Red Bank Music Community is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a community of musicians, writers and enthusiasts centered in Red Bank, New Jersey. We are dedicated to non-traditional music education and we are a public charity that presents mostly free classes, workshops, concerts and more, in the interest of providing the opportunity for everyone to enjoy music and to express their artistic selves through music in a positive environment. We’re all about respect, unity and positivity, but above all else, making our local music scene a true community.”

One thing that stood out before I even got to the open mic was how well-maintained their MySpace page is.

It’s a digital representation of how much they care about what they’re doing. I went there to look up the address and found out right away that “For these next two weeks we’re still in our temporary location next door to our usual 105-A Main Street meeting room”. Making it easy to find out the details is an important, vital move in order to ensure your event is attended regularly.

Every first Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm, the Red Bank Music Community holds its open mic. This was the temporary location — with a grand piano, video camera, and audience style seating!

[removed at request of Red Bank Music Community]I don’t know exactly where to start praising the RBMC. Run by Mike Penny, the RBMC is just about everything you could want in a serious open mic night. The reason this open mic is once a month is because every other Tuesday is a songwriting workshop, free of charge. They help you work on your original music, and if you go the Tuesday after the open mic, you get to see you on video. They’re sending me a DVD in the mail. I can’t help but wish that there were other open mics like this one. You can’t beat dedicated sound guys that know how to record:

[removed at request of Red Bank Music Community]They aren’t selling anything. Again: no store. It’s really an open mic just for the purpose of being an open mic. I think this is what attracts the high level of talent that showed up. I was blown away by the performance level of everyone there. Each person gets 3 songs or 15 minutes, which is the sweet spot from what I’ve observed.

As my friends know, I’m a big fan of lists. In order to get my fix, I’ll summarize everything I said above:

  • Dedication to their MySpace makes it easy to find out updates and general information
  • Their temporary location is more impressive than some established places I’ve visited
  • Dedicated sound technicians who know music (because they perform)
  • Record the performances and give/mail them for free
  • They run a free songwriting improvement workshop
  • They aren’t selling anything and they go out of their way to help you out.

I’m out of nice things to say (and exhausted, quite frankly). Cliff notes: Don’t go if you’re expecting to chat with your friends throughout the whole thing. These guys are serious and it demands respect. If you aren’t that good, or you’re very new, feel free to go and get advice from these people: they’re very helpful. It ends around 10pm, which is good because it’s long enough where everyone gets a shot, and short enough that no one needs to leave too early.

The Red Bank Music Community will be reviewed again when they move to their original location in the future — part because the night was so enjoyable.