As the clock nears 10 p.m., the already-compact audience has dwindled down to fewer than 20 people. The 12th performer of the night, Chapman Grace, makes her way onto the stage carrying a sleek white electric guitar, her dangling gold earrings shining in the blue-purple light. This isn’t her first open mic. She plugs in her guitar and addresses the sparse crowd with the same comfortable familiarity of the many musicians that performed before her. When she starts to play, the room’s stellar acoustics cradle the hazy, enchanting sound so dreamily you feel like you are inside of her guitar. Her hands leap across the fretboard, producing sounds I didn’t even know were possible — sounds as cathartic as stepping into a warm ocean. For such a beautiful performance, the size of the audience feels disgracefully small.
The Ark hosts these Open Stages relatively frequently, with four more currently planned through November. They’re free for students to attend, only a 10-minute walk from Central Campus and bursting at the seams with talent. Of the 12 performers I saw, each and every one of them played their instruments with a captivating level of skill. The two hours of music that make up each Open Stage are fueled by the musicians’ love of the craft, nothing more. They aren’t getting paid — in fact, virtually everyone who works there is a volunteer, from the emcees to the people behind the concession stand. These nights are powered by passion, and you can tell just from listening.
At the beginning of each show, every performer writes their name on a ticket, which is then drawn from a hat by the host. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, this host was Steve Johgart, a retiree who spends his free time volunteering at The Ark’s Open Stages. Only the first six performers are chosen at 7:55 p.m — the second half of the roster is picked out of the hat at 8:30 p.m.. This happens so that the artists who don’t get chosen to start off the night don’t leave right away, staying for at least the first half hour. Artists also receive an automatic slot on the list if they bring five non-performing friends to fill some seats. Even so, the intimate listening room usually ends up fairly sparse.
Despite the meager audience, musicians keep coming back. Everyone listens carefully to each other’s sets and claps enthusiastically as the artists find their way back to their seats. For Johgart, community and the experience itself are the true values of these events.
“There are people that come who don’t care about performing for money or at clubs. They just like to come out and play a couple of songs,” said Johgart. “Artists love to come play here because it’s a welcoming audience, a welcoming crowd. It’s just a great atmosphere.”
Even with all of the empty seats, Johgart’s words ring true. The feeling in the listening room is a vibrant one, and the artists excitedly talk to one another about their music. The Ark, established as a nonprofit since 1965, is one of the top listening rooms in the country, hosting over 300 shows annually. Big names such as Nanci Griffith and The Milk Carton Kids have played there. It’s exciting to share a stage with so much history and fame, but that’s not the only thing that makes people keep coming back.
“It gives new people a chance to experience being up on stage for the first time,” Joghart said, “…being up on stage at The Ark is a thrill for a lot of people. … It gives people who aren’t big names and don’t have a lot of opportunities to play other places a chance, but there’s a lot of reasons … giving people a chance to practice new songs, giving people a chance to play and get people to come out to their gigs, or to come up on Band Camp or YouTube or somewhere, just promoting, get their careers going.”
Many of the artists are beginners, hoping to get their music out there and secure a few new listeners. And they aren’t reaching too far. The Open Stage does have success stories, like Misty Lyn or Michelle Held. It’s about giving these smaller artists a chance to practice, to get their feet off the ground — but, most of all, it’s about the music.
“It basically gives people a start, in whatever way they need a start, and that can be from different points in their early careers, or non-careers” Joghart said. “There are people, as I said, people who come out and they just want to play a couple of songs. They just like doing it.”
Daily Arts Writer Audrey Hollenbaugh can be reached at aehollen@umich.edu.
