Monday Night Open Mic at Carpe Diem
Leeds has no shortage of local talent. Monday night’s open mic event proves the point exactly with a variety of acts – rappers to poets.
The evening started around 8.30pm and first act up were Felix and Hue, a singer and guitarist. The duo were performing covers and one I particularly enjoyed was their acoustic version of a Pendulum’s song. Felix had a really strong, powerful voice and it was just a shame they finished their set with the overplayed ‘Hallelujah’. They could have done with something a bit different, especially after doing the drum ‘n’ bass cover. However, they still did great job of it.
There were three other acoustic sets during the night, most of them doing covers, but one guy, Ricky Fleming, did a few of his own. See below for a video of one of his songs.
A highlight of the night was Martin, ‘The Godfather’ who got on stage and performed his poems. You don’t see spoken word and poetry so often at open mics anymore, it’s normally all music and singer songwriters. Not that there is anything wrong with that but hearing poetry is a refreshing change. One of Martin’s poems was entitled ‘Bullies and Thieves’ influenced by personal experiences and national events, he told us.
One poem, I’d say was my favourite, was about the X-factor and all the churned out music that Simon Cowell is responsible for producing these days. Martin’s poems are frank and are delivered with no holds barred. His deliverance was upfront and enthusiastic – the whole of Carpe was listening to his every word.
Another act I really enjoyed was Freddie who used a looping machine to loop beat boxing, clicks, oohs, aahs and then his sung harmonies on top to provide a backing track for his main melody. I love watching someone build songs from nothing, each layer giving it a further depth. Occasionally the looped samples were slightly too loud and the melody line Freddie was singing got lost in all the sound. Although, with each song this became less of an issue and his short set got better and better.
Lyrically Justified put on ten acts that evening finishing way past 11pm. The other act I feel deserves a mention is MC Lady Iqra who commanded the room with her hip-hop and grime and got a great response from the audience. She was the only solo women performing that night but was by far one of the best acts there.
Lyrically Justified’s ‘Open Mic Open Mind Open Stage’ is on every Monday so if you sing, play, dance, recite etc… get in touch with Ms Sykes on 07816 251288 or just turn up on the night. The evening also gets recorded and posted on LyricallyJustifiedTV’s channel on YouTube.
Check out Ricky Fleming playing his own song ‘Back In The Past’: