If you're a working musician in need of a gig, owning your own venue is definitely a perk.

Mike Raymer is the co-owner of Vic West's Spiral Cafe. He has been slinging coffee for a couple of hours before bandmate Rob Egan's arrival. The two take a seat at the back of the room, fluorescent green T-shirts splashed with their group's name, Children of Celebrities, hanging behind them.

"We play here a lot," laughs Raymer. "I'm the man who buys his own gigs."

Raymer waves to the diners passing through as he chats, and points out his wife, who's serving behind the bar. With all the friends and family, there's the sense Raymer gets a real community vibe from this place.

But it's the music scene connections he makes here that he's marvelling about this morning.

"It's a great scene here," Raymer says. "I meet a lot of people in the music business here at the cafe. It's great."

Photos of folkies hang on the mustard walls.

"It's just a little kind of small music community in Victoria, and you meet each other," says Raymer.

"It's all connected. You could have a tree."

The band has certainly used a few of these connections for their own projects -- notably Tolan McNeil, who after being referred to them by Carolyn Mark, produced their first record, Middle Age Wasteland. The disc gave the grey-haired five-piece some play on roots radio across the country and was named Monday Magazine's Favourite Local CD in 2005.

The band even picked up a permanent member, fiddle player Mike Regimbal, after a cafe jam.

Regimbal produced the group's second album, We're Not Bitter, which is set to drop this Saturday at their release party show.

It's the community at large that the band's hoping to reach next, not that they aren't out there already, often in the most literal sense. Summer market stages, downtown street corners: all marked weekend territory for the band. The sidewalk outside Eddie Bauer is a favourite haunt.

"They've never kicked us out," say Egan and Raymer in unison.

And busking, they say, is a prime way to grab those new audiences.

"No microphones, gear. You got to let it all hang out, and that's what you get," says Raymer.

Adds Egan: "There's no artifice."

And without the glare of a spotlight, they can see the effect of their bluegrass-tinged folk rock unfurling around them.

"You're connecting with people on the ground level and it's not like you're a performer, you're another part of the market," says Raymer of some of their outdoor gigs.

"What I like about it," explains Egan, "we're there performing, but from our point of view, we're watching a performance unfold in front of us. All that action, all the people walking by. Some people stop, some don't. You see the people in the booths, and you notice that even if they're not watching you, they're tapping their toes."

Naturally, though, they wouldn't turn up their noses at a venue of an indoor variety.

"I just love performing," says Raymer. "I'd play the opening of a car door if it'd get me some attention."

- Leah Collins, Times Colonist