Local songwriter Eric Tappert performs at Lightnin’ Salvage Enterprises’ open mic night on the first Wednesday of every month. While he’s played at other venues, Tappert keeps coming back for Lightnin’ Salvage.
“Well, here they pay you in a slice of pizza,” he said. “I figure a slice a month might be enough.”
The building is as diverse as the audiences and performers it draws. Tappert, 56, played his guitar on a stage outlined by shrunken heads and blanketed by a canopy of model airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Lightnin’ Salvage, located at 1800 NE 23rd Ave, serves as the “gift shop, bar and live music venue” for Satchel’s Pizza, a longtime staple restaurant of Gainesville.
The distinct smell of tomato sauce and the swirling colors of the decor mingle with the music of the monthly open mic night, a tradition outdating the building itself, as well as every other open mic night in the city. An open mic night is an event where anyone is able to perform during their designated time.
Neil Lofgren introduced the idea in 1998 after noticing Wednesday’s were “dead.” He proposed an open mic night as a way to draw audiences, and the Open Mic has been happening since. After moving to Texas in 2017, he passed his role as host onto 41-year-old Shawn Manley. When Manley took the position, he established his own tradition: the sign-up list. As performers enter Lightnin’ Salvage, often carrying their instrument cases, they add their names to Manley’s list — a dry-erase board with red and blue lego bricks adhered to its border.
While the list has 12 spaces for names available, Manley said some nights feature up to 20 performers, who all have to go on between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. While the shows always start at 6 p.m., the list is often full before this time.
“I have trouble turning people away,” he said. “I have to fit that all into three hours, so I’ll get creative.”
As Manley sat at the Lightnin' Salvage bar Feb. 5, a place where customers can order Satchel’s Pizza while listening to the night’s performances, Appalachian folk duo Jim Marks and Howie Band started their set, their mandolin and guitar recreating music originally written for the fiddle.
Manley has been hosting open mics at other establishments since 2011, but has now settled at Lightnin’ Salvage.
“There is definitely something that is very special about this venue,” he said. “The creativity and the artistry of this place, and the originality.”
The open mic began as Songwriter’s Night, where musicians were invited to perform their original songs. Many artists who perform at the open mic now perform a combination of both originals and covers, like Doug Clifford, who performs comedy songs and runs Gainesville’s WGOT radio station.
Clifford performed a parody of Frank Sinatra’s “It Was A Very Good Year,” rewording it to “It Was A Terrible Year.” For Clifford, the writing process is all about trial and error.
“I kind of write the rough draft and then keep refining from there,” he said. “As I said, there's a Mark Twain quote I read up there [on stage] that says, ‘There's the almost right word, and there's the right word.’”
While the Lightnin’ Salvage building used to serve as Satchel’s Pizza’s “Junk Museum,” a 2016 fire destroyed much of the merchandise collected over several years. Danny Lore, who has been the manager of the venue for 19 years, felt the “total loss” of the fire was the history and art that Lightnin’ Salvage contained.
Lightnin’ Salvage honors its past with artifacts of an older Gainesville, like the neon sign for Burrito Brothers, which closed in 2018.
The sign now overlooks the small playground outside of Lightnin’ Salvage, where parents watch their kids as they eat and listen to music. Children run in and out of Lightnin’ Salvage during the performance, refilling their sodas and browsing the gift shop.
KD Eno, 47, who brought her son to the open mic, performed two of her original songs and a cover during her set. She’s been coming to Lightnin’ Salvage for a year and discussed the sense of community while a band played a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”
“Well, the pizza’s really good,” she said. “You meet people that live and breathe music, too.”
Contact Juliana DeFilippo at jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @JulianaDeF58101
Juliana DeFilippo is a freshman journalism major and General Assignment reporter for The Avenue. In her free time, she loves to read and work on crossword puzzles.
