Sorry I’ve been swallowed into the earth, guys! Vegas has been filled with much cavorting; apparently the antidote to over-prolific blogging is coming home at sunrise several days in a row.
NTKOG #80: The kind of scratchy-voiced tragic wannabe diva who sings not just absent-mindedly, not just for her own enjoyment, but intensely and often and totally on purpose. There are two types of singers: those who are better than they think and bombard you constantly; those who know they’re still awful and keep doing it anyway.
I am,: for your listening pleasure, neither. Showertime and iPod walks only, please.
I am not: the type to take things seriously when I know I’ll do badly at them.
The Scene: Q Karaoke Lounge in Vegas’s Chinatown, Tuesday night, sometime in the vortex after last call. High-school friend Aviatrix and I have hit a few great local bars, but are tipsy, not trashed. We head to Chinatown for the promise of pho, then drive by a karaoke lounge and agree to head in.
The second we get there, we realize something is wrong: this karaoke bar has … no bar. Turns out instead of sitting around, sipping a drink while laughing at other gravel-voiced schmucks, this is a private-room studio, in which you rent a room with a screen and are your own schmucky entertainment with no schadenfreude breaks.
See, the thing about karaoke bars, is we all love to sing in them, but since it’s an experience of mass transcendence of dignity, we can pretend it’s peer pressure luring us in; to rent a studio, you have to really want to, uh, sing. Aviatrix and I hung back at the counter like a young couple in a joke about a motel, shooting each other shamefully earnest glances.
Long story short, after the first few moments of “um, why are we singing to each other” awkwardness — and a bucket of Smirnoff Ice (so NTKOG) — we actually got in the spirit of the thing and the time whipped past. Turns out it is totally possible to set aside your dignity and aloofness in pursuit of song, no matter how terrible you are.
After an hour of belting, giggling, and, um, maaaybe some impromptu choreography that relied extensively on high-kicking, we went to the counter to pay our bill.
“Man, that was awesome!” I gushed to the woman at the counter. “That was so awesome! We were awesome! I just wish we had like a friggin’ DVD of it or something!”
“Oh, you want DVD?” lilted the counter girl. “We have DVD. We record the whole thing. Ten dollars.”
… So. If you happen to see TKOG high-kicking her way through Korean energy drink commercials any time soon, then, um, just know that it was totally worth it.
The Verdict: Oh yeah, guys. I was amazed by what unbelievable non-embarrassing fun this was. So much so, in fact, that less than 24 hours later, I went back with Sister and three other friends — outspokenly non-karaoke aficionados — and we ended up belting out the questionable classics for four hours. Four sober hours.
I always thought the rooms sounded lame beyond belief, but now I just can’t wait to get back to Boston and go to another one. (Anyone else? I’m sensing a Boston bloggah meet-up here…)
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m definitely the karaoke singer who thinks they’re better than they actually are. I’m not a fish for compliment girl, and last time i was there everyone said i did a good job… i hope they were serious? i normally do one easy song and then my best friend and i make everyone listen to us sing “ain’t no mountain” for the 100th time because we always go to the same bar.
my favorite things about karaoke are A. second hand karaoke, singing along off stage with your friends and B. dancing!
So awesome! I thought you said you weren’t going to do Karaoke when you ran your contest of suggestions, though? It was great to read about, though!
This is true — Justice also called me out on my hypocrisy here. The thing I did a bad job of explaining in the post: I love karaoke. I am the karaoke queen. But whenever I do it, it’s always like: “hey, I’m going to embarrass myself for fun and ha ha ha this is all just a big joke, right?!” I mean, I even dance when I do karaoke, is how much of a joke I play it off as. I’ve always avoided private karaoke rooms, though, because you have to acknowledge that you’re singing in earnest and you really want to sound good (even though you know you don’t). I’m pretty terrible at trying hard at things I’m bad at.
But I am apparently good at high kicks. HIGH KICK!
mmm kay i’m in. i actually squealed reading this.
It has been almost a decade since I have seen the light about singing. I am a HORRIBLE singer, horrible. But singing can be calming, to me as well as babies and it is an emotional release. At first I was just singing to keep my babies calm while shopping, then we were singing together at the park. Now we sing almost any where, or recite poetry.
I recently learned the joy of karaoke after a drunken office-karaoke night. I played AIR PIANO and got my picture doing so sent around the office! Did I care? No! Because as lame as my air piano was, the guy singing (Journey, natch) was even worse.
Karaoke – check your dignity at the door.
Wow, that sounds awesome and insanely fun. Better than dining hall karaoke for sure.
Dining hall karaoke? When did that ever happen?
Anyway, this is for you! award!
http://dibblyfresh1.blogspot.com/2009/12/award-time.html
Karaoke Fridays! How’d you miss that? Free T-shirts and everything.
We had dining hall karaoke once a month at my college! I totally forgot about that till now!
I’m a pretty terrible karaoke singer, but I have no shame, and usually end up getting pressured by my friends to kick things off. Thankfully I usually only struggle through one song before someone gets drunk (or brave) enough to take over. Thank goodness.
Alcohol makes karaoke so much better!
ooh i’m in boston! but only until the third week of january. and i only do karaoke after drinking. but that sounds fun! i’ll come!
In Japanese, karaoke means “empty orchestra”, which can be translated to various forms of “tone deaf” which means that when you participate in karaoke, it should suck… I’m just sayin’ is all. You aren’t supposed to sound good when you karaoke and that’s the beauty of it! So, what we can deduce from this is that the people who take karaoke serious and turn it into their own music video… they are royal duche bags. :) I’ve never sung karaoke myself because I am debillitatingly shy… it’s something I’m working on. Thank you for your blog, you are brilliantly funny. I just came across your blog through blog-surfing, or blog-stalking, whatever you want to call it and I think you are brilliant. Thanks for the blog!
Do Re Mi in Allston!
I support and encourage karoke friends, but don’t actually do it. Probably because I SUCK…..
How fun you got a dvd! My sister would be all over this as she LOVES to sing in public (she can carry a tune but will never be giving up her day job).