WILKES-BARRE — Melissa Caminneci came all the way from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to play her ukulele Tuesday at Senunas’ on North Main Street.
OK, that’s not entirely true.
Caminneci, 30, is spending time with family in the Back Mountain area, and decided to bring brother Vincent to the bar’s open mic night.
“I’ve been all over,” she said, noting she writes and plays her own tunes. Caminneci said she’s been in places such as New York City to perfect her craft, and Tuesday was her second open mic night. “Actually, I went to one last week in Iowa.”
Caminneci played three original songs during the evening: “Over the Sea,” which honors her late mother; “They’re Taking Everything Away”; and “Perineum.”
“(Perineum), that’s my favorite,” Vincent said.
Open mic begins at 8 p.m. every other Tuesday; the most recent event was Senunas’ second of the month. The next session will be June 20.
“It’s going to fill a gap,” host Aaron McCurdy said, noting the lack of open mic nights earlier in the week. “And (people) get to support local music.”
McCurdy, 28, kicked off the low-key evening with three covers, including Neil Diamond’s “Red, Red Wine.”
“It’s a nice and quiet evening,” McCurdy said. The bar wasn’t collecting a cover charge and the stage, which was in front of a window, wasn’t set up for a full band.
Bob Sokolski brought his sleight-of-hand tricks to the bar.
“This is my first open mic anywhere … music or magic,” said Sokolski, of Wilkes-Barre.
As owner of Magic Whirleybird Productions, Sokolski enjoys performing “small-scale” tricks. He called the audience, about dozen people, to crowd around as he did coin and card tricks.
People participating in Senunas’ open mic nights can expect to be there until the bar closes, said McCurdy.
“Sometimes, we ask people to come back up, try new things,” he said.
