James Adkins and Patrick Costello were the winners of the Wednesday, Sept. 1, Open Mic Night. The group performed acoustic versions Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" and the Dave Matthews Band's "What Would You Say." [Click to enlarge]

[Click to enlarge]

Open Mic Night rocked the University of West Florida last Wednesday, with an audience of approximately 90 people and a table covered with a variety of snacks. Open Mic Night, an event organized by the Center Stage Committee, offered a variety of stimulating performances ranging from a Bluegrass-influenced band to a hip-hop dance performance.

“I enjoyed this Open Mic Night, but the whole event took way too long," said Jenna McCann, a sophomore. "Some of the bands played much longer than they should have,”

Although the event ended around 10:30 p.m., the majority of the crowd left by 9 p.m. Students seemed to regain interest around the eighth act by James Adkins and Patrick Costello, who played acoustic versions of “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind and, “What Would You Say” by the Dave Matthews Band.

The audience appeared to love Alonzo Lewis’s pop-locking dance performance with a mixture of break-dancing to Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You.” The audience went crazy over his dance moves. It was the most excited the crowd got the entire evening.

“I like to compete," said Lewis, a sophomore psychology major. "I wanted to show people the beauty of dancing, and dancing is a way for me to express my repressed emotions, whether positive or negative.”

Christine Gillar, a UWF student and judge at the even, said she enjoyed the performance by James Adkins and Patrick Costello.

“I judge every performance by how unique it is and how the crowd reacts to it," Gillar said. "We decide which performances we like the best, as a group. Personally, my favorite performance was by James Adkins and Patrick Costello."

Other acts that gained positive feed back and loud applause were Danny Borges’s “As of Lately,” played on the piano, and Travis Eddins’s songs “Letters” and “Crystals and Diamonds,” which he wrote himself and played on his acoustic guitar.

Among some of the other contestants were Keli Woods, who recited a collection of assorted poems, and Cluster Funk, a three-piece band featuring two bongo drums and an electric guitar.

The crowd also loved Two Tooth McGee, a Bluegrass band that sang a rendition of “Wagon Wheel” by Lou Reed. Two Tooth McGee, the opening act, were accompanied by a fiddle, bass guitar, banjo and an acoustic guitar.

Lauren Anderson and Stevie Neale reinvented the “Popular” song and skit from the Broadway play “Wicked” and added their own flavor and creativity.

Heidi Warriner, who sang "I'll Fly Away," an a capella song about the death of her close friend, left Open Mic Night with one of the event's two $25 prizes. Adkins and Costello won the other prize.

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