Gotta Start Somewhere Sarah Jaffe

No matter how successful entertainers become, they’ll inevitably always remember the first gig—whether it was disastrous, wonderful, or absurdly strange. Gotta Start Somewhere embraces these nostalgic moments by asking established entertainers to retell the first time they ever graced a stage. In this edition, Denton-based singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe (who plays Schubas with Centro-Matic Sunday, July 3) recalls a nightmarish open mic scenario.

Sarah Jaffe: My first gig was at this place called Club Dada in Dallas. I had just turned, maybe, 17 at the time? I was still in high school, and I brought my parents, because I wasn’t able to get in without them. And it was an open mic night, and the entire time I was playing, there was a band setting up behind me. So it was just me and maybe about nine or 10 people in the crowd, my parents included, and an entire band setting up onstage—drums and everything—and me doing my best to just keep playing through it. I remember being really excited, but also feeling pretty awkward. I never acknowledged the fact that they were setting up behind me, and I trooped through it. But I remember it very well.

AVC: What songs did you play?

SJ: I played a lot of the songs that are on Suburban Nature, actually. Those were written when I was 17, some of them. There was a song called “Summer Begs” and a song called “Vulnerable” that I had just written. Maybe it was the first time I performed them, actually, or around the same time.

AVC: Do you know who the band was that was setting up behind you?

SJ: Oh, no, I have no idea. Just whatever band that was playing at open mic night. We were all kind of hitting that bottom at open mic night together.

AVC: What was your parents’ reaction to the performance?

SJ: It wasn’t so bad. They were just proud that I stuck through it, and I just played like no one was behind me. And they continue to come to every show that they can—they’re incredibly supportive.

AVC: Was that an open mic night that you ended up playing more than once?

SJ: No, I believe actually after that show there was a woman that came up to me—I still talk to her every once in awhile, her name is Cindy Chaffin. She wrote for this blog, and she ended up introducing me to a good friend of mine now and a fabulous musician, Doug Burr. And Doug asked me to play a few shows with him and kind of took me under his wing. It definitely ended up being a really great thing. But I met a few folks that I still talk to now at that awkward open mic night.

AVC: So it was a good, formative experience?

SJ: I think so. I mean, the fact that I remember it and remember meeting people for the first time that I still talk to says a lot to me. It was very funny, looking back, it was a very funny moment. But it was an important one as well.

AVC: How did the songs that you played that night that eventually ended up on Suburban Nature change between that first performance and their eventual recording?

SJ: Well, the old demos that were recorded immediately when I wrote the songs, same chord, same format. Even still, they stayed true to that format on the record, but I think the way that we play them live now, I think tone-wise and energy-wise has changed a tremendous amount, just because my voice has changed a little bit as I’ve gotten older. The songs have gone through the ringer over time—not in a negative way, just through growth and different experiences. But they’re all the same words, word for word, same chords. They may have slowed down in tempo or sped up in tempo, but they’re still true to what the originals were.

AVC: Can you remember anything about the first gig you played in Denton?

SJ: My first gig I played in Denton was before I moved to Denton. I played at a festival—I can’t remember if it was NX35 [now the 35 Conferette] at like its very early stages. It was about five years ago, and I played at the Campus Theater on the square. I opened for [Lower Dens frontwoman] Jana Hunter. She’s great, I was a fan.

AVC: The open mic night format and the band setting up behind you aside, how did those two experiences differ?

SJ: Being at all of those open mic nights—just the phrase alone, those two words together, it’s a bit vulnerable. Just getting up there and you have a certain amount of time to prove yourself. That’s definitely not the way I went out, with that mindset.

AVC: Though, in a festival setting, I’m sure there’s that feeling from the crowd that you need to sort of prove yourself as well.

SJ: There’s that lingering feeling at every show, but for me, for my own personal thing. I think that’s just a “me” thing and my perspective. I don’t think that’s the way it has to be by any means.

AVC: Was that your first festival gig as well?

SJ: I think it was. I’m not positive on that, but it may have been. I don’t even think they were calling it NX35 yet. It was in its very early stages.

AVC: Did you get a feeling when you were playing that gig that you could eventually move to Denton? Did you have a very “homey” feel when you were playing that night?

SJ: I did. I had already been talking to my best friend who was trying to talk me into moving there. I loved coming there; I used to go there for ’80s night when it was the thing to do. At Hailey’s, every Thursday, they would have this huge thing called “’80s night,” and there would be hundreds of people there. It’s nothing much, but I love Denton and my best friends are there. I really, really enjoyed my time there every time I visited. It was pretty shortly after that I moved—I knew immediately when I did that it was the right thing. I still feel that way about Denton. It’s been an incredibly pivotal place for me. I get excited when I come back on tours; I get really excited driving back into Denton.

AVC: And you’ve been able to make that drive back into Denton a lot lately, seeing as you’ve been on the road so often.

SJ: Yeah, I have. It’s a good thing, you know. I feel like I’m able to go the place I need to go and still come back to the place that’s humble and small. I like that small-town feeling, living close to my family. It’s a win-win for me.