Smack Dab at the Open Mike Night at Neighbors in Laguna Hills, CA 01-13-2026.

From Left to Right:  Smack Dab is Kent Richards, bass and vocals; Marc Repaire, lead guitar and vocals; myself on drums (playing a right-handed kit that night); Allison Friedman, lead vocals and guitar and Lloyd Brown, lead vocals and guitar.  We can be reached at SmackDabGroup@gmail.com.  

So, on January 13, 2026, we had decided to do an open mike night, to get some exposure.  As luck would have it, one of the local establishments does an open mike night every Tuesday:

24401 Ridge Route Drive Suite B-105, Laguna Hills, California 92653

https://neighborsbarandgrille.com/

From Neighbors’ website:  “Tuesday Tacos & Tunes, Open Jam Session.  Bring your axe of choice and sign up to Jam with the Steven Johnson Jam Band every Tuesday Night.”  So off we went, Kent and I carpooling from San Clemente, like we usually do.  By the way, since we started playing together back in the fall of 2023, Kent and I have become good friends, and since we are contemporaries (and neighbors), our car pool conversations (always entertaining, at least for us, ha, ha, ha) range from the obscure to the mundane, often centering on the joys of having kids and grandkids, with a good dose of health-related talk thrown in.  Since we have the same model house, we also tend to ruminate on the prices charged by roofers and plumbers, and the expected lifespan of copper piping.  Gotta love Kent, he is such a good sport!  Anyway, we met up with the band at Neighbors, had some tacos and I had a Perrier sparkling water.  This was my first open mike night, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but apparently this is how it works:

Neighbors have a house band that works as some sort of juke box, and the Steven Johnson Jam Band were really good, playing all sorts of stuff.  Then you sign up (they had quite a bunch of singers that night), and the band will back you up, and you will do your two to three songs. 

We were a bit different, since we are a self-contained band, and we really didn’t need any other backing, but we got our slot, and we got on stage around 8 PM, and we did three songs.  This being an open jam night, for the first two songs, we were joined by a harmonica player, which of course added to the excitement, and we were also joined by a keyboard player.  For me, I got to use the house drummer’s drum kit, which was set up for a right-handed player, but I had spent an hour or so out in the practice cave with my double pedal, just practicing playing two and four with my right foot, and of course I didn’t have to schlep my own kit!  All in all, it was a great experience, and the usual crowd of musicians were super supportive, and as always, it was great fun playing with Smack Dab!  

Here is a little video of my playing the right-handed kit; I hope I didn't embarrass myself too much!