Some thoughts on karaoke

However much I love singing and love karaoke, I'm absolutely abysmal when it comes to song selection. To put it in contrast, last night Rob N. managed to whip off two killer songs in a row: sussudio and i wanna new drug. Now, had I picked songs like that, all would have been fine. Instead, I start with For The Longest Time, billy joel. A good song, but not a rowser like those first two. But that just started off my landslide downwards. My next pick: Sade, No Ordinary Love. A fantastic song, but not I song I will ever attempt again. I was rescued at the end by Sarah B. who asked me to duet with her on the country cheese song by kid rock and sheryll crowe, Picture. I love cheesy music, so that was no problem, and it was nicely in my range, so that was great. I think my best karaoke flop over the years was a long while back over at club 608 in Somerville, which is now some out-of-place rock blues hangout I think. I went for Praying For Time by g. micheal. Like No Ordinary Love, a fantastic song, but not one I should be trying. I don't learn. I like a song so I try it, but I gotta get into using a different set of selection criteria. Anyhow, it was a fun night. BUT, that place Do-Re-Mi, however nice it is that they turn a relatively blind eye and let people sneak in booze (one time the manager came in though and asked my group "No Tequila". apparently other hard liquors were completely fine), they overcharge. And then, as I'm signing the credit card slip the guy says "this charge doesn't include tip". The charge was $385! Obviously, I should have politely nodded and said "Oh, it doesn't, interesting" and continued without tipping, but no, I threw in a tip. Idiot.

I like karaoke because I love music and singing and watching others sing, and at any time during a karaoke evening, if I feel like dancing, singing, or chatting, all are options.

I also like karaoke because, good or bad, it's fun to watch people. It's really a goldmine: people trying real hard to get it out right, people with no sense of rhythm, people who simply want to impress everyone else, people who try to sing Sade and wish in the middle of it that it was a Johnny Cash song, and on and on.

Speaking of Johnny Cash, all karaoke goers should thank him for giving a whole bunch of guys a set of songs to sing that will sounds fairly decent with no vocal skills at all. Most people don't sing too often, and so those low notes are much more available to guys than something from AC/DC for example.

Something's up with Allston and sneaking in booze to places: they let us do it at Grasshoper - vegan asian cuisine nearby to do-re-mi - too. They let us dump wine into the stainless steel tea pots on the table. Nobody in Cambridge does that. And that might be the only thing Allston has over Cambridge, come to think of it.