Tucked away in a small strip mall on Ridgewood Avenue, the Mooney’s Bay Bistro seems an unlikely place to showcase up-and-coming Carleton musicians.
Yet in its own way, the small, cozy bar and restaurant offers students and alumni a valuable lesson in public performance.
“Doing stuff like this and doing busking is really neat, because you’re part of the atmosphere,” said Finn M.K., who played piano and sang at the bistro on Nov. 15.
“You’re not trying to stand out, so much as you’re trying to blend. And that’s something which is tricky for a lot of musicians, especially who are solo musicians . . . they’re used to playing for an audience.”
M.K., a second-year music student, played a series of three 45-minute sets. The dining area near the piano usually had less than ten people in it at a time, though a few listeners huddled close to M.K. at the piano.
When the audience focuses mainly on drinking and dining, M.K. said, a performer has to adjust accordingly.
“It’s very relaxed. I mean, I’m not waiting for applause after I do pieces,” M.K. said. “I’m joining them all. It’s sort of a continuous stream, until I ate dinner.”
The performance is part of a series, which organizer and Carleton alum Laura Greenberg said is “an opportunity to give music students more chance to perform and work.”
With acts scheduled to play every Thursday, the bistro offers musicians a real-world perspective they may not get from a university setting.
“This is the sort of job that a lot of musicians will get after getting a bachelor of music,” she said. “It’s one way to make money and to play shows.”
The low-key atmosphere also gives musicians more freedom to play what they want, M.K. added. The three sets allow him to improvise more, throw in cover songs, and switch keys, he said.
“Because everything is relaxed, it’s sort of supposed to blend,” he said.
“With the band, we’ll say, ‘we’ve got this high energy [song], and now we’ll go into this low-energy one.’ Well, here it’s all pretty low-energy, so you have to choose more carefully in the subtleties for that.”
This change in pace appeals to M.K., who said he is trying to stay diverse with his playing. After starting piano lessons as a four-year-old, he moved more into composing his own music around the age of ten.
Now, M.K. takes courses in classical piano, writes his own music, and fronts the band Out of Control, he said.
While M.K. has played almost all of his life, he said the experience at the bistro could especially benefit new performers.
“Playing background music is a very neat experience,” M.K. said.
“It takes a lot of the pressure off of performing, so I would even recommend that to people who are starting to perform, because you don’t have everyone watching you. You can just sort of do whatever you want.”
