On a breezy Thursday spring evening I braved the drive across the San Mateo Bridge, winding down past roadside fruit stands to the coastal town of Half Moon Bay.
Cameron's Pub, Restaurant, and Inn is certainly a destination one drives to, snuggled right up next to the shoulder of the busy lanes of highway 1. Outside, the pub/inn crouches behind a bric-a-brac of miscellanea: metal and neon novelty signs, a 10-foot rearing statue of a lion, a British phone booth (labeled “cell phone booth”), a cable car (which doubles as a smoking room), a beefeater statue, and, most spectacularly, an actual double-decker London city bus I discovered open for exploration. The interior houses a shop of surprising randomness: hand-written price tags on holiday decorations from Christmas and last Halloween, mismatched shot glasses, and clothes on display wherever their hanger can find purchase.
Cameron's interior does not disappoint:
The main door opens into a high-ceilinged room with large wooden beams overhead, and just about every available surface area hosting some kind of knick-knack or sign. The pub is a cavernous place with multiple rooms, nooks, and crannies smashed together in what feels more like a series of happy accidents than a coherent floor plan.
The open mic is to your right, thru the archway, past the arcade games crowding the hallway in the back bar room (or, if you’re coming from the cable car smoking area, directly inside the double doors at that end of the building). It was 5:15pm and three men sat at a table in front of the stage, the tallest of them glancing from his phone to a paper sign-up list, which he was busily filling in with names.
“Any slots left?” I asked.
Ken Voorheis, the host and the man busy with the list, paused his pen to look over his glasses at me,
“You want to go second?”
Glancing down, I saw second was one of the only slots not filled in.
“I can do that.” One of the other men at the table leaned over to me,
“Some folks have been coming here a while, and have earned the ability to email Ken in advance for sign up.” He paused. Then, almost apologetically, continued, “They usually take the middle slots.”
Only later, when referencing a photo I took of the sign-up list to be sure I had the performers' names correct did I notice, written at the top, that Auri's Open Mic has some pretty specific (and frankly, sensible) sign-up rules. Here's my ordinal parsing of them:
- There are 12 guaranteed slots every evening
- On a normal night, each performer gets 3 songs or 15 minutes (whichever comes first)
- If there are more than 16 sign ups, each performer gets 2 songs or 10 minutes (whichever comes first)
- Advance sign up is available for slots 6-11 by texting the host
- All other slots are walk-in: first come, first served
- If you take one of the first five slots, you are required to stay
- Exception to the rules: none
In retrospect, I ended up breaking a rule: leaving before the evening was over to be home at a reasonable hour despite playing in one of the first five slots. Hopefully it won't be held against me if I get the chance to make it out here again.
Before the open mic began, I had a chance to explore the pub (a worthwhile endeavor, as the pictures at the bottom of this post will testify), and order a thoroughly serviceable chicken sandwich. I did take the opportunity to ask about the name of the event: it was explained to me that Auri's Open Mic was named for Auri Naggar, the host of Cameron's Pub, Restaurant, and Inn open mic from 1996 until the community lost him to cancer at just 58 years of age in 2011.
There is online buzz about the excellent sound at Auri's Open Mic, and I’m pleased to say it lives up to the hype: a pair of what look like 15” QSC speakers are hung on either side of the stage and fill the room with a warm, clear sound easily heard in the room with no hint of feedback. Much of that is due to the careful work of host Ken Voorheis at the sound board.
The man himself then took to the stage and, after settling his guitar in place, he leaned into the mic and said,
“We do this because people need to sing.”
There is an earnestness to the performers at Cameron's, as I was to discover.
Ken went on to talk a bit about the importance of open mics and, honestly, I couldn't have agreed more. It's one thing to participate in and support these events, but Ken (and the subsequent acts who spoke in a similar vein while onstage) made me reflect that the act of stating why you do what you do WHILE YOU'RE DOING IT has its own power.
His set was understated and enjoyable. It's not lightly that I encourage you to check out his excellent album, I Send You Joy, which is superbly mixed and has some truly excellent lead electric guitar work throughout.
David Thompson, first on the sign-up sheet, began his set echoing Ken’s sentiments about the value of open mics, “It gives us a chance to play our own songs and if we make some changes, gives us a chance to see if it’s good or it sucks.” David thanked Ken for his work to keep the acts sounding exceptional and then rolled into a set of bluesy originals.
When it came to my turn onstage I was surprised to look out into the audience and find all the faces turned toward the stage.
I might have had to check if my fly was open.
Not every open mic, especially those held in busy pubs, have audiences as attentive as the one at Cameron's Pub, Restaurant, and Inn.
My set began with an unreleased song written with Sameer Gupta many years ago, "10 Minute Anniversary," followed by one of my new ones, "Empty Circus," and then finished up with CaliCeltic's Whiskey Mustache.
Third on the list, Bill Wardwell began his set with Pete Seeger's "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," transitioning into a hearfelt thanks to proprietor Cameron Palmer explicitly for providing a space for “the oldest musical open mic in the state of California: thirty-one years by our reckoning.” He then launched into musical gratitude, in the form of “Cameron’s Restaurant” (his parody of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” ...gracefully a fraction the length of the original!).
Certainly if Auri's Open Mic started in 1996, and you don't count it being closed during the pandemic, it may be in its thirtieth year, which I think a few other open mics might claim as well. Maybe it's worth coming back to the oldest open mic discussion in another post.
At this point in the evening, the room had filled in. Three college-age women landed at my table and began chatting about their upcoming performance.
The seats at the bar had filled in, and folks wanting to chat had politely moved into the adjoining hallway. There was a regular tobacco-scented puff of cooler air as traffic to and from the cable car smoking room picked up.
Next up was Brad Elias: a tall, striking figure onstage, with his flowing hair and humorous banter. Brad had some excellent stories to share about his musical escapades and a set of really excellent, catchy original tunes.
Within the first couple of hours, the room certainly filled up. More than one person with a guitar cases dangling from their fingers wandered up to the front table after things has started to forlornly scan the sign-up list.
Auri's Open Mic is a real pleasure to play and a very fun venue to inhabit for a few hours on a Thursday night.
An early arrival is not a bad plan, either.
Seriously, the decor here is so eclectic and varied, you could easily spend a couple of hours just reading the novelty signs and perusing the imported Anglo groceries and sweets.
Well worth the drive, Auri's Open Mic at Cameron's Pub, Restaurant, and Inn in wind-swept Half Moon Bay has a vibrant community of eager participants of all ages, truly excellent sound, a fantastic, attentive audience...all of that, and an extensive dinner menu to boot.
This open mic would be perfect for anglophiles and folks who enjoy a drive out to the coast, are into classic folk tunes, and appreciate an attentive audience and good sound system.
Click on any photo in this post to see the full, uncropped version.
