Last night was The Mic Magazine’s last Acoustic Rooms before the Easter break, and it’s been a great term filled to the brim with amazing guest performances as well as the consistent local talent that takes to the microphone at Rescue Rooms every Monday night.
Guest host this week Jonny Olley introduced the night and promised another busy evening with acts already booking up slots all the way until closing. Kicking things off was Tom who asked everybody to sing along to the three cover songs he performed which included ‘Blame It on Me’ by George Ezra and ‘Photograph’ by Ed Sheeran.
Next up was Shu who performed a short piece of spoken word that he had prepared earlier that week and he managed to convey a lot of emotion with his rhymes along with added bits of humour to pick the crowd up from his quite heavy subject matter.
Moving on was another Tom who performed three of his original songs alongside playing guitar. Tom has a powerful voice and put a lot of feeling behind his music which became very dramatic at times and was well received by the crowd at Acoustic Rooms.
Performing for their first time at Acoustic Rooms was Porsche who was also celebrating her 22nd birthday that evening. Porsche performed three covers including one by Father John Misty and another by Stevie Wonder. Although her performance wasn’t perfect, perhaps with extra practice and more confidence it could be improved to reveal more of her talent.
It was then time in the evening for the guest artist Joshua Zero. His voice immediately engulfed the crowd with similar sounds to the Submarine soundtrack written and performed by Alex Turner. He was accompanied by Ashleigh on keyboard which gave the whole performance extra depth and highlighted the talent of the band. Between songs, Joshua told the audience that this was his first time performing at Acoustic Rooms and he was having a great time, and that he would be in Sheffield on Saturday too. They ended with their latest song ‘Barbed Wire Eyelashes’ which is “about fucking” he told the audience. The lyrics were cleverly written to keep drawing the audience into the story he had created and by the end, the crowd were amazed by the performance.
Moving back to the local artist for the classic open mic night section was singer/songwriter Myles Smith who makes up half of the band Bear. Myles performed a few of his own songs as well as one of Bear’s better known ‘Broken Love’. His voice refused to be ignored by the crowd and although he admitted that he had been drinking a lot, it did not affect the quality of his performance. Myles is playing in Cornwall towards the end of the month, so while it’s not exactly around the corner, if you’re in the area be sure to head down to see him perform with Bear.
Regular performers Fizz and Aya who did a couple of covers as a duet which featured ‘Valerie’ by Amy Winehouse. The pair have talented voices between them that compliment each other well, but it would be good to see them both perform without reading the lyrics off their phones so they can really focus on the performance and interacting with the audience more.
Following on from Fizz and Aya was another regular at Acoustic Rooms- Olly Hensby. Olly has a soulful voice that throws back to earlier Justin Timberlake music. He played ‘Show me Love’ his original song which members of the audience were singing along to, as well as a cover of John Mayer and another cover of George Bedson ‘I Feel Like Making Love’. His performance energised the crowd and it was great to see Olly return and be able to perform a longer set for everybody.
Fizz and Aya then came back to the microphone to perform another couple of covers between them and ended with Jorja Smith’s ‘Blue Lights’, before it was time for the last act of the night.
Guest host Jonny Olley thanked the venue for a successful night and for all the talented artists that played and went on to perform a few songs himself which started with is song ‘Heavy Stuff’. Jonny controlled the room with his voice which engulfed the audience and demanded it be listen too. His powerful lyrics and strong guitar playing was a brilliant end to the night and if that wasn’t enough, for the final song Jonny was joined by Olly Hensby to perform their track ‘Liquid Love’ which utilises catchy rhythms and truly highlights the pair’s talent.
After Easter, The Mic will be returning to Acoustic Rooms but in a slightly different manner. Look out for our new ‘Acoustic Rooms Monthly’ where we give you the low down on all the guest artists of that month along with particular highlights from throughout the performances. If you are interested in seeing the amazing artists and local talent yourself, then head down to Rescue Rooms bar from 8-late every Monday to see for yourself just how great the Nottingham acoustic music scene is.
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