Good afternoon, ladies and gents! The Find Your Muse saga has continued in glorious fashion the past couple of weeks, with Gretel headlining the evening bills for their three-week residency as our feature act. Idiosyncratic as ever, the lively three-piece continued to wow our regulars with their erratic instrumentation, provocative melodies and stellar lyricism. We're sorry to see them go, and encourage the lot of you to pursue their music externally, whether it be merely through Myspace or deciding to locate their show at another venue (we recommend the latter).

With talented first-time performers from Sarah Gilbert to Actual Proof in addition to returning favorites such as Owen ­­­­Eddy, Case Federal, and Ben Henry, Muse regulars were treated to yet another chock-full series of salacious summer nights. Also, if you missed us last night, make sure to stop in next Monday, July 28^th, to ensure yourself the experience of Actual Proof; their crisp improvisation and hellacious solos are representative of some of the best jazz in the region. We're honored to have them return as our feature artist! Until then, cheers, enjoy your week, and save your pocket change!

-hannah & e-s

With an appropriately explosive conclusion to the Fourth of July Weekend, our two-year anniversary month kicked off with a bang! We had some great repeat performances, from regulars to second-timers, and the rain didn't stay the sager Charlotteans from witnessing a fantastic open mic. After a slew of fantastically varied performers, we were treated to the first of three featured performances from Gretel, an extraordinary trio based out of Boston, MA. First-time viewers of the band were awestruck by the powerful lead vocals of Reva Williams, a dynamic performer backed by the smooth serenades of Phil DuPertuis and Melissa Myers. Their eccentric array of instrumentation didn't hurt; Melissa alone serenaded us with a wild keyboard, a snazzy snare drum/wire brush combo, drumstick on plastic bucket, and the absurdly eerie accompaniment of violin bow on sawblade. As if that weren't more than enough, Gretel's superior songwriting skills and mesmerizing lyrics kept the Muse crowd parched for more. And there surely will be! Gretel is designated to rock our socks with more of the same next Monday, July 14^th, as well as the 21^st of this month, so make sure to get out here and partake of the musical marvels.

Hope to see you all out next week!

Cheers,

hannah & e-s

Afternoon, guys and dolls! Our follow-up to the weekend of Friday the 13^th was a smashingly laid-back evening due to the resounding aural provocations of our lovely featured performer, Kim Richardson, who swung through the Queener last night en route to Johnson City. Kim kicked off her set with a swell improvisatory ditty, "The Soundcheck Song," a fun segue way into thirty-odd minutes of lovely acoustic tunes. Kim's themes ranged from tales of womanly revenge to the comfortable familiarity of hearty, attractive folk. One of the highlights of the set was her mesmerizingly dark parody of "Hey There Delilah," where she sent the audience into cahoots about blackouts and missing organs. This amiable Memphis native is welcome to be our muse again.

Come out and visit with us next Monday to see Robby Hale of Charlotte's own Bloody Organs play solo! Rob will be doing an acoustic set of his personal material and we're excited to have him on the bill. In the meantime…get enough sleep on Sunday so you can maintain our cycle of the four-day weekend!

Cheers,

hannah & e-s

Hey Folks,

So we're taking the showdown back to the drawing board... there's some changes that need to be made, and we're working to get everything back up and running by August with a different night and slightly different rules. We'll keep you posted on what's going on...

cheers,

e-s

Hey Folks,

We’ve got the application up for the Crown Town Showdown registration.
If you’re interested in competing on April 7th, read the rules below and then follow the link to sign up!

Please Remember - The contestants will be chosen via a random lottery at the open mic on March 31st, not all applicants will be invited to participate. Please ensure that your contact information is correct, as you do not need to be present at the drawing to accept your spot.

Event Overview:

On the first Monday of each month, The Evening Muse and Creative Loafing present a songwriting and performance competition for local and national musical acts, in conjunction with the Monday Night Live! Open Mic (formerly the ’find your muse’ night). 15 performers of all styles will compete for a cash grand prize and one of three invitations to the Grand Showdown that takes place twice a year. A panel of judges will hear two songs apiece from each competitor and then select three finalists to perform an additional song. The judges will then select the overall winner who will close out the night with a final song and receives a $60 cash prize. Performers will be judged in five different areas: songwriting, vocal performance, instrumental performance, stage presence, and crowd response.

Performance slots are chosen via lottery at the last "Monday Night Live" open mic of each month (you do not need to be present to be selected), with five slots being first-reserved for out of town acts (outside of a 75 mile radius from Charlotte). Lottery requests for each showdown may be submitted throughout the preceding month in person at The Evening Muse and online at either www.eveningmuse.com/thecrowntownshowdown or www.myspace.com/findyourmuse . Artists interested in competing are encouraged to visit the regular Monday Night Live! Open mic and test the waters before submitting an application, as the experience can be very useful in gauging how you might do as a competitor.

Live recordings of your performance can be arranged with the sound engineer and made available at the end of the night for a cost of $10. Any additional questions can be directed to crowntownshowdown@gmail.com .

Whelp folks, I gotta tell ya... we've made it through our second weekly open mic and WOW, it's been absolutely great! While we were hoping for a good turnout, we've been absolutely ecstatic at the amount of interest this event is generating as well as the talent that it's bringing out! And the best thing is, I feel we're just at the beginning... with your support we're well on our way to turning this into a Charlotte institution and I can't thank you enough! Thanks to everyone who's made it out thusfar, performers and spectators, and while I'm working at better integrating the weeks events into this page, I'd like to give a special shout out to the following folk who performed last night:

Big thanks to Grey Revell, Rachel Conti, Daniel Lambert, Michael McDonald, Natalie Royal, Ben Henry, Seth Peagler, Jacqueline McIntosh, David Huberman, Don and Anthony, Jack Sielaff, Matthew James, and Erika Blatnik!

Much of their music is listed in our 'top' 24 myspace friends, and I urge you to check out their stuff and see when they're playing around town... there are some fantatistic musicians in that bunch just waiting for you to discover them!