By Erin Linn McMullan

With their heated and enclosed patio overlooking Tin Wis Beach and the percussive refrain of the Pacific Ocean, Tofino Browns Socialhouse is a perfect fit for Open Mic nights every Monday with #socialhour extended all day. As spectacular sunset fades to night and beachfires flicker to life, everchanging blue-and-green stage lights beckon you from the beach. Those sea-coloured lights make you feel like a rockstar when you take your turn for the first time or the hundredth, trying out new material or jamming with fellow musicians who’ve made their way to this musical oasis near the end of Hwy 4. It’s a place to find community with people who speak in shorthand about their passion: sharing music. It’s a night open to possibility.

“It’s this language that you learn from playing with people that becomes this unspoken way of communicating beyond words,” says host and musician Geoff Johnson.

Geoff, who has been running some form of open mic night in Tofino for 15 years, points out that Browns instantly recognized it as a community builder. GM Karthik Kanchumarthy reached out to him to continue hosting after L’il Ronnie’s closed, a transition Geoff emphasizes was made with Ronnie’s blessing.

It’s an open invitation for musicians and audience alike. “The idea that a person just down the road in this little village you just happen to visit by the sea can just walk in and plug in a guitar and do something beautiful or amazing or brave without all that polish and without all that conscious manipulation of it, I think is pretty special.”

For Geoff, who once considered quitting music after hearing Prince play in concert, this comes from the heart.

Reflecting on its original incarnation in 2010 at what was then Jack’s Waterfront Pub (now Shelter), Geoff says open mic nights quickly became a phenomenon and an early platform for musicians now gigging in town and on tour. Early regulars included Kieren Campbell, recording artist Alle Bernardi, and members of Illvis Freshly, who’ve now been playing together 11 years.

Its debut at Browns included friends like Ali Dubetz aka Cameron Coast who came to support the first night at the new venue. While rain bounced melodically off the roof, everyone inside was comfortable and warm.

Geoff usually brings a variety of instruments to lend (a Riversong acoustic and an electric guitar, a keyboard, ukelele, and tambourine) and his binder of songs. “So, if someone asks, ‘Hey, can we do Valerie by Amy Winehouse?’ …. Yes, we can.”

Over the years, Geoff has made lifelong friends through that shared love of music and learned to embrace the unexpected. “You get serious professional musicians who are on vacation that just happen to be here. All of a sudden, you’ve got some well-known Italian mandolin player that just gets up there and shreds. And you’re like, what’s going on here?”

He recalls the night a man walked in wearing a t-shirt bearing the Dingwall guitar logo, asking to borrow a bass and play solo. To Geoff’s surprise, he proceeded to play Bach piano concertos Eddie Van Halen-style on a bass guitar. This, he discovered, was the ultimate touring musician, Felipe Gomez, the “Bass Invader”, who travels the world on a bicycle: across Canada, the Arctic, and even Siberia.

“So, some of the characters you’ll meet are out of this world, in part, because it is Tofino.”

One of Geoff’s favourite stories is of that magic moment when a young woman sang for the very first time at a microphone. Afterwards, Anastasia invited him to lunch at Tuff Beans to pick his brain about the industry and as she listened, drew diagrams of a microphone and how it worked.

“It’s like a parental instinct fulfilled for me to create this environment where people can feel comfortable sharing an intimate personal thing, like their voice,” says Geoff, adding, “She kept coming that summer and then, as people do, at the end of the summer disappeared.”

Flashforward five or six years: Anastasia’s band Nasti Weather and the False Predictions was playing the Clayoquot Sound Theatre in Tofino. She reached out to Geoff: one of her bandmates couldn’t make it. Could she hire him to play bass for her gig?

Geoff, who has played guitar professionally a quarter-century, dreams of a full circle legacy. “I love the idea of just putting a stage out there for people that 25 years from now will be going, ‘I’ve been doing this for 25 years.’”