Step up to the mic: Open mic nights serve as creative outlet for local musicians

A small crowd is gathered in the back room at Pitters in Cape Girardeau, with an open mic on stage.

As the teenage reggae band carries equipment off after their set, a scruffy ginger guy scoots past carrying a Mac desktop computer under one arm, disappearing offstage.

He reappears with a small table and begins hooking up a bramble of wires and boxes to the computer before ducking offstage once more to fetch a tobacco-sunburst Fender Jaguar.

The lights dim as he lays down a beat, tapping on one of the MIDI pad drum machines on the table. He shifts to the computer to layer on a synth progression, adding a touch here, a tap there, all the while becoming more and more engaged in the swelling groove.

Half DJ, half life music, he alternates between bass runs up the guitar and electronic flourishes on the pads until the smoky back room is filled with heady, ethereal dance-pop.

Listeners bob heads as Ables prowls across the stage, carefully adding lyrical guitar phrases. Totally instrumental, it's a captivating, obscure sound – a lush and satisfying treat from the open mic night grab-bag.

Wes Ables (a.k.a. Mr. Wables, a.k.a. Public Spreads the News) has been playing music since he taught himself Nirvana and Hole songs for an eighth-grade talent show, and says open mic nights are one of the best exercises for any aspiring musician.

"Open mic night is great because you can just show up with an instrument and play reggae or rock or whatever," he says.

Ables explains that his favorite bassist, Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius, credits his versatility and confidence to his youth spent jamming with whomever showed up at open mic nights.

Cape Girardeau musician Jake Puzan says the same.

"Something that I've seen at open mic nights is being able to, as a musician, watch other musicians," he says. "And if you're affected enough by it, it's going to influence you in your own playing."

During a recent open mic night at the Cup 'N' Cork in Cape Girardeau, he bounced between the cajon box drum and electric and acoustic guitars in a fluid lineup of performers.

The atmosphere was casual, as are most open mic nights, whether it's another coffee house like Parengo in Sikeston, Missouri; a restaurant environment like Port Cape, or a bar like Pitters. When Puzan didn't know the words to one song, he pulled up the lyrics on his phone, but nonetheless delivered an impassioned performance.

"I'd describe it as really organic," he says. "It can definitely be nerve-racking at first, but people shouldn't be afraid of playing something wrong or different. That's not what it's about. As the one doing it, it's about the raw emotion that it expresses."

About halfway through his set, Ables stops to sip his beer and take a breather. He talks with the crowd dryly, like they're in his living room.

"I'm feeling a lot of feelings right now, you guys," he says.

"I'm feeling you," his wife Colleen shouts from a table.

"If I ever make it, you guys are gonna remember this," he warns, smiling.

For the musically eclectic like Ables, the Internet has become a boundless sonic playground in which to discover music. But the virtue of open mic night is it offers a chance to share.

"Everything that's popular now, when it came out, it was weird or they thought it was devilish or whatever," he says. "One of my reasons for living is finding my new favorite song."

The Aphex Twin disciple is so enthusiastic about discovering new sounds that he even established his own startup indie label called Illuminated Paths. It was there, in his home studio, that he's recorded more than 20 of his own projects under the moniker Public Spreads The News and more than a dozen other artists, including Saint Pepsi, who has since signed to the same label as dream pop duo Beach House.

"He's from New Jersey, and I said hey, you wanna put out a tape? And he said yeah," Ables says. "So we actually put out his first cassette called 'Late Night Delight' and sold close to 500 of them."

Puzan says open mic nights are how he got back into performing in front of people, and they're a great way to meet musicians.

"My girlfriend was really dead set against singing, but that's how we got together," he explains. "She heard me singing and felt like doing it too. I mean, that's why you even start playing music."

At open mic nights there are no expectations, so disappointment is often absent, replaced with good-natured encouragement even when things don't go according to plan.

"I'm not out here to be Taylor Swift," Ables says. "Art is all about being yourself, pushing your boundaries, not cheesing out. It's all about the groove."

The gulf between bedroom guitar hero and public performer is significant, often underestimated by aspiring musicians. But Puzan says the best way to overcome it is by playing at open mic nights.

"If you're not going to do it for yourself, do it for the music," he says.

For listings of open mic nights in your area, check out www.semoevents.com.