Karaoke!!

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I recently visited a young family member ---OK, it was my daughter, right?  Anyway--- it turns out that she's into Karaoke.  It so happened that, midweek, she was joined by a friend of hers, who was touring with an off-Broadway production of the musical Legally Blonde.  So all of us: the two girls, my lady friend and myself, were all dragged along to this particular Karaoke bar.

I was warned before we left my daughter's house that it was not just any Karaoke bar, it was a lesbian bar.  I wasn't sure whether it was OK for us non-lesbian types to horn in on the action there, but the kid seemed to know what she was doing, so we went.

When we got there, a little after 8:00, a young lady was belting out Oh darling! by the Beatles.  Let's face it; that was hard for Paul McCartney to sing, in the first place; this poor girl was trying her best, but the song was getting the best of her.  We got ourselves a quiet table (there were only about ten tables, altogether, with a large space in the middle, with the microphone; I suppose there was dancing on certain nights of the week) and sat down.  There was an enormous binder on the table, which I discovered contained a huge list of songs.

Soon after we had sat down, junior filled out a tiny paper form with the first song she wanted to sing, hurried around to the woman who was conducting the Karaoke program, Ann, and handed it in, and hurried back, and the two girls began earnestly studying the list.

The young lady finished Oh darling!, and Ann announced the next singer, someone named John.  The first song I remember is also from John, a whole round later, when he sang Billy Joel's Moving Out.  In the middle of the song, I was informed that John was, in fact, a woman.  Man, did she ever do a great job with Moving Out.  I could never have known he was a she.

I'm embarrassed to--- oh, wait, it was Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers!  I had almost forgotten the song Junior opened with.  Oh man, she totally rocked that room, but let's face it: it's a great song!  Generally, there was balance between songs that particular people wanted to sing, and songs they knew the audience would enjoy.  One of the best was California Dreaming (Mamas & Papas), sung by a tall, studious-looking girl who was sitting at the bar ---in the next room--- with a gang of friends.  With that song, of course, it was more fun to sing backup than the lead, and we had a great old time singing along!  Gotta remember that one, in case I ever do it again.  Must get someone else to sing it, and sing backup!

Just as I was getting into the groove of the thing, and had suggested to Junior to sing Love Shack (by the B52s), this young lady went up to sing it, joined by a young fellow to sing the rap portion.  Of course, we all sang along with the gal.  She sang some 5 or 6 songs throughout the evening, and was a fun person to watch and to listen to.  We were seated where we could see the words on the monitor ---as my readers must know, Karaoke is a music-minus-one system, combined with a display that shows the words; you sing along to the music, following the bouncing ball, or some equivalent of it--- and I learned the words to some songs for the very first time.  Just the titles to some of the songs she sang were hilarious, and she did a fabulous job with every song.  (Most of the young ladies present I would not have identified as lesbians; not that it matters whether I could have.  The singers interacted with each other in a perfectly relaxed manner, though there were several distinct groups that mostly hung out among themselves, only rarely interacting with the others, except to cheer enthusiastically, or make a --usually positive-- remark about a performance.

Junior and her friend sang Alone by Heart, which was totally awesome.  Her friend had a wonderful high soprano, and together they were better than almost anyone who could have sung that song, in my humble opinion, but you realize I have only been to just one of these things, so I was easily impressed.  They also sang Shoop (Salt 'n' Pepa), with considerably less success.

Then a young fellow went up to sing a fabulous torch song, which sounded familiar.  He couldn't reach some of the notes, and he urged the audience to help him out with gestures, and they responded beautifully.  I just remembered the song: it was Unbreak my Heart by Toni Braxton.  What a talent Toni Braxton was!  A decade ago when we had TV, we watched lots of the Top Ten - type TV shows (Solid Gold, etc), and MTV, and of course Toni Braxton was huge; I haven't been paying attention to the pop music scene enough to know what happened to the gorgeous woman.

When it began to sink in that Ann's success was measured more in terms of how much alcohol was sold at the bar than in how many people got up to sing, I asked for an Irish Coffee, since the following day was St Patrick's Day.  It was brought out shortly after midnight, with green sprinkles on, after much complaint that it would take more than an hour to brew the coffee.  I wasn't about to be railroaded into drinking beer, because it messes me up, so I waited.  Ann herself came by to visit with Junior while someone else was singing (I forgot to say that Ann also sang, about 4 numbers throughout the evening, and was easily the most professional singer in the room), and kept urging the rest of us to sing.  Finally, just when she had been back for the third time, I found Can't buy me love (Beatles), and succumbed to temptation.

It was the first time I had ever sung into a microphone, and it was terrible.  I mean, I have sung into a little microphone in order to record a song for YouTube, etc.  But never to a live audience.  Oh, wait ... I have sung into a mike, back when I was, like, 19 or 20 ... I had managed to forget that little factoid ... it was Last night I had the Strangest Dream, after the Simon & Garfunkel performance on Wednesday Morning, 3 AM.

We left soon afterwards.  The girls insisted that my rendering of Can't buy me Love was adorable, but I got the impression that it was marginal.  (I was accustomed to singing it in A, but I suspect that the Karaoke version might have been in a lower key.)

I'm definitely hooked.  At some locations, I'm told, the rivalry between performers is a little oppressive, but Junior seems not to mind.  At busier places, however, it is a long wait between chances at the microphone, so the smaller venues are better for those who want to sing often throughout the evening.  Everyone cheers everyone ---except for me; only our table cheered, quite understandably--- and people are appreciative of everyone's attempts to sing.  A big meal before going in would be conducive to staying sober despite all the imbibing that goes on ... and of course, some of the performers need a drink or two to wet their whistles.

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