Musical Traditions at Grimsley: Open Mic Night
Grimsley’s Modern Band stars in a night filled with Grimsley’s musical talent.
By Mila Pucilowski
February 26, 2025
Over the years, Grimsley High School has built up many valued and loved traditions. One of those is Open Mic Night.
Open Mic Night is a music department tradition. The event happens four times a year and is run by Grimsley's modern band and their teacher Marshall Johnson.
Marshall Johnson, called MJ by his students, has been teaching at Grimsley for 22 years. He started the Modern Band program at Grimsley in 2019.
“My personal philosophy is that you need to meet students where they are at musically, not try to jam everybody into a one size fits all kind of option.” MJ said.
Because of this, Modern Band classes offer opportunities to learn how to play instruments such as bass, guitar, keyboard and drums, and collaborate with other students on popular songs for Open Mic Night. The songs range from “Hey Jude” by the Beatles and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” to Taylor Swift's “Red” and “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter.
“I think I’ve just gotten even better as a musician,” said Junior Andrew Crowell, the keyboardist for the Modern Band. “I wasn’t sure how I would do when I first signed up for the class, but I’ve learned a lot about playing music, and I”ve discovered a lot of musicians and songs through preparing for open mic. I’ve added a lot of new music to my library.”
Over the five years of the Modern Band Program, “we've continued to add more and more talent to the program,” MJ said.
Open Mic is the perfect place for these students to showcase their talents, as well as gain the experience of setting up for shows and performing live for crowds.
“It feels good to know that there’s a lot of talented musicians at Grimsley, and it’s really fun to be able to perform music with other people my age,” Crowell said.​​​​​​​​​​
Performing "Jump" by Van Halen are Modern Band students Grey Davis, guitar; Noah Dupont, bass; Andrew Crowell, keyboard and Elijah Blow, drums at the February Open Mic.
Modern Band student Sophomore Nate Fitzgerald’s favorite part of Open Mic Night is “having moments where everyone comes together, actually makes a song and being able to show it off, and have people watch.”
Open Mic is also a great opportunity for people who aren't in a music class to showcase their talent. It's also a perfect place to hear different types of music.
The evening features anything from metal bands, rock, to instrumentalists playing saxophone in jazz songs.
Even if you're not interested in performing, Open Mic Night is still a perfect activity to hang out with friends and meet new people. The next Open Mic is April 3rd.
“I love Open Mic, it's always a fun experience to get dressed up with my friends and go listen to good music,” said Junior Genni Porter, who's been attending Open Mic for years.
Open Mic started in the early 2010’s before the modern band program even existed. The event was an expansion of the previous tradition called Coffee House, started in the mid 1990’s by Grimsley Madrigal singers to perform songs for each other.
But once MJ started Open Mic Night, the two merged together with a mix of singers and bands performing for the night.
Now it's more of a performance night for the modern band classes to showcase what they've been working on throughout the year. However, the concert is still open to performers outside of modern band.
Open Mic Night has evolved throughout the years and become the perfect place to watch emerging musical talent at Grimsley High School.