[Editor's note: as of 7/23/10, and per the event's organizer, Nate Lewis, the Open Mike at The Blackwater Cafe is on hold until further notice. - T.B.]

Nate Lewis's Open Mike Night at the Blackwater Café in Stockton is everything an open mike should be: it's free (as in free speech), cheap (as in cheap beer) and has the hazy, bohemian feel that somebody in this place is working on their next creative piece, and making some headway. Or buying weed. It's just something in the air.

The stage itself is not a large one; it does double-duty as an expansive window ledge that borders the sidewalk at the front of the place. The sound system is equally minimal, and equally, fully adequate for the purposes it serves. A mike, a mixer and some speakers: mission accomplished.

This is not to damn by faint praise: you can be seen, you can be heard, and short of your next gymnastics routine, you'll have all the time and space you need to give the crowd what you've got. What the stage lacks in geography, the gallery makes up for in accommodation. The crowd has plenty of the long room to fill in, with tables and booths to occupy.