California Lutheran University’s Musician’s Club President Juan Gonzalez and Vice President Brendan Baker hosted an “Open Mic Night” at Jack’s Corner by Starbucks on Oct. 19 with a large audience and a variety of student musicians in the line up.

The Musicians Club held no auditions in order to perform. Instead, flyers posted around campus promoting the event held a QR code for all students to sign up.

As it was an open mic, students who didn’t sign up and wanted to perform were also given the opportunity to as it aligned with the clubs goal.

“Our goal as Musicians’ Club is to foster a community of musicians at California Lutheran University of various skill levels and backgrounds,” Gonzalez said in an email interview. “Part of that includes giving people the opportunity to perform music recreationally when potentially they never have before.”

The Musician’s Club was able to make accommodations for artists without instruments but most members brought their own instruments according to Gonzalez.

“[M]usicians had to communicate with me and our officers regarding what equipment they would have and what they would need from us, reserving certain equipment like our speakers from Media Services,” Gonzalez said. 

The “Open Mic Night” had a line up of club members and non-club members performing covers and original songs. Performances included a band performance, various duets, solo performances, and a guitar jam session. 

According to senior Lola Chen, an independent artist who performed her original songs, said in an email interview that she had done open mic nights outside of the university before the pandemic but was “super excited” to perform for her Cal Lutheran peers.

During her time in front of the audience, she would take a moment to self promote her songs called “Overthinking,” “Dirty clothes,” and “Mystery Boy.”

Chen said she felt “amazing” and she had a fun time performing. 

“I’ve never gotten a chance to perform like that actually before and it was super fun and I’m excited to do it again next month,” Chen said.

Other musicians included students Rafia Fairooz playing her guitar while performing “Heather” by Conan Gray and “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood, and Xavier Reynoso singing Aladdin’s Broadway song “Proud Of Your Boy.”

Singer Kevin Aillo and his bandmates Dylan Herrera, TJ Thompson, James Eades, and Michael Cassara performed covers of Harry Styles’ “Only Angel,” Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” and Justin Bieber’s “Holy” and “Baby.” 

Gonzalez said the club’s “event was an overwhelming success” and that he was, “pleasantly surprised with the amount of people who came out and watched and all of our performers.”

With the success of their open mic event, the Musician’s Club will be hosting another Open Mic Night in November and co-hosting a music festival called “Callupallooza” with Music Production Club on Nov. 19, at Memorial Field. Auditions will be open to any student musician and artist and held on either Nov. 5 or 6 according to Gonzalez. 

“The outcome of this event is to attract more people who are either interested in music or are already musicians in their own right to participate in Musicians’ Club events and meetings because I personally believe they will have a lot of fun as I know I have,” Gonzalez said.