I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 15, 2025] Open Mike Eagle

I saw Open Mike Eagle headline at Milkboy at the end of 2023–I was really happy to have finally seen him live.  He played a lot of songs from my favorite album of his and I really enjoyed his style and the way he interacted with the crowd.

I actually found out about this show because Open Mike popped up on my concert radar.  I was psyched to see him again.  And when I saw he was opening for clipping, I grabbed a ticket as fast as I could.  I assumed it would sell out and it did but not as quickly as I would have thought.

After OME’s set, Daveed Diggs said he drove all the way from Chicago and basically came out on stage with no prep work.  If that’s true then this set was even more impressive than I originally thought.

OME started with a song from Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, the album that introduced him to me (I am surprised to see he’s put out 5 albums since then!).  He didn’t play Brick Body Complex last time, and I was all there for it.

There was a guy in front of me who knew all the words to everything (except the new songs) and he was thrilled to be up so close to Mike.

He rapped four more songs that he had done last time.  And I was delighted to hear them again. I like I’ll Fight You and I really like Very Much Money.  Microfiche is from a great EP.

Mike introduced Relatable by trying to say that he was relatable but some things in the song make it seem like he is not relatable.  And he’s sorry for the confusion.

Then he said he was going tp play some tracks from his new album (came out in July).  I wasn’t aware of the new record so these were all new to me and sometimes, and this was one of those times, hearing songs live is the best way to get introduced to them.

All of the new songs had Mike’s art rap style–kind of slow, but with great lyrics and a fantastic delivery.

I really enjoyed ok but I’m the phone screen–a hella relatable song about his phone getting run over.  And wide leg michael jordan generation x jeans was super catchy (although he did admit it was weird he had a commercial in his record).

After one more new song, he returned to Brick Body for the wonderful How Could Anybody Feel at Home.

I was really hoping he’d go for longer, but that was it.  I think he said that he would be by the merch table, but he wasn’t there after clipping.

Even though it was an opening slot, the set felt great.  And even though it was half new songs, it was still hugely satisfying to see him again. I hope he comes back around again.