August 25, 2010 Jake Hallman

jake@connectstatesboro.com

    It’s a Tuesday night, at things are starting out slow for karaoke at Kbob Kelly’s. That’s to be expected. Classes just started, and everyone’s still figuring out their weekly schedules.
    In the meantime, there still are plenty of people who want to sing. Kristian the bartender and Randy the regular’s version of Ludacris’ “Roll Out” (Kristian lights things up with her rapid-fire rapping flow).
    Jess and Araina follow up with a Sugarland tune. Steven and Amanda give Matchbox 20 a try — Amanda insists she can’t carry a tune, but her name’s on the monitor, and after Steven shoves a mic into her hand, she’s singing like a pro.
     And the night keeps rolling on. The magic of karaoke is that it makes anyone a rock star, if only for a few minutes.
    Ashlee Mitchell was a karaoke DJ in a past life, working her way through graduate school. She had fun with the job, and said she got to see a lot of talented people who normally wouldn’t sing.
    “It’s nice to see peoples’ inhibitions come down, not necessarily because they’re drinking, but because they’re at home on a stage.”
    In fact, karaoke helped Mitchell get married. She and her husband, Chris, met at a karaoke night, and he likes to tell the story that he was immediately hooked after seeing her sing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”
    Mitchell’s seen her share of interesting karaoke characters, like the Neil Diamond fan, who’d come to almost every show she ran.
    “He wasn’t a drinker, but he loved Neil Diamond,” she said. In fact, that’s all he sang. And he had costume changes between songs.
    “He would have different polyester outfits for every song he sang — and different shades,” she said.
    Other than quick trips to the restroom for a wardrobe switch, what’s the sign of a serious karaoke fan? They’ll come with their own CDs, Mitchell said.
    And there’s always a top dog. “Every karaoke bar, no matter where you go, will have a ‘King and Queen Karaoke,’ and they’re the ringers,” she said.
    The DJ knows them. In fact, they’re the DJ’s go-to singers when things are going to hell. They’ll have their songs on disc just in case something goes wrong. They get there early, and they’re the first on the sign-up list. They’re also the people who set the bar for singing quality.
    “They’re typically decent singers,” Mitchell said. “You can’t be king or queen if you can’t sing.”
    But not everyone’s good. “Typically, they’re of a middle-aged variety,” Mitchell said with a laugh. There was the one regular who showed up every week to sing Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know.”
    “As tone-impaired as one could possibly be,” she said.
    Karaoke regulars tend to have their favorite songs, comfortable favorites they can slip into like a pair of old shoes. And God help an unfamiliar person if they sing a song that “belongs” to one of the regulars.
    “They’ll sit back and critique,” Mitchell said. “Like it’s their song.”
    But when regulars get comfortable with their specific songs, that’s when it can get fun. They’ll huddle together and dare each other to try new songs, Mitchell said. One of her regulars was the kind of woman who never, never, would try a song like The Divinyl’s “I Touch Myself…” until she was dared to.
    “In the middle of one of the instrumental breaks, she turns to me and goes ‘oh no, my best friend’s mom just walked in,' ” Mitchell said. “She finished the song, and won the bet, but it was painful to watch the rest of the song because she was so embarrassed.”
    Karaoke can bring people together, she explained, because patrons are a mix of regulars and people who are just passing through and looking for something to do.
    Karaoke’s the great uniter. Many of Mitchell’s patrons wouldn’t have talked to each other day-to-day, but got together and had a good time singing other people’s songs. “It brings strangers together,” she said.
    Karaoke singers tend to be a little older, working class, and less rowdy than the standard bar crowd, Mitchell said. “They don’t want to go to a bar just to go to a bar,” she said. “That becomes their friend network.”
    There’s also a trick to crowd control as a DJ, and it’s all in the rotation. “You have to make sure your regulars get up, and they’re satisfied, and that the people who are new don’t feel like only the regulars are singing,” she said.
    Stage control can be a challenge for a karaoke DJ, particularly when alcohol’s involved. “One friend goes up, and then all the other friends feel like they need to be up there to,” Mitchell said. “Most karaoke stages are small, and they don’t lend themselves to 12 people coming up to sing ‘Family Tradition.’”
    If a stage is managed well, and everyone feels like they’re being treated fairly, then there won’t be any problems, Mitchell said. Everybody wants their 10 minutes of glory.
    “If it wasn’t karaoke night, they’d be home watching football,” she said.
    Nowadays, Mitchell sings in a band with her husband. She still occasionally tries karaoke, but it’s different now that she’s used to having a live band behind her — “Respect” just doesn’t have the same kick.
    “There’s just something special about playing with live musicians,” she said. “But there are some things that you can’t sing with a band, unless that’s the genre your band plays.”
    Now for the history. Karaoke is a Japanese invention – loosely from “kara” for empty, and “okesutora” for “orchestra.” Sing-alongs are nothing new, but in the late 1960s, Filipino musicians coming to Japan decided to save a ton of money on bands by singing along to recorded music on tapes.
    It didn’t take long before the country took the idea and ran with it. The first karaoke machines appeared in the 1970s (there’s a dispute as to who actually invented them), and it was off to the races.
    That “music minus one” idea of karaoke has been turned on its head in one version. The Iron Horse, a club in Birmingham, Alabama, has had tremendous success with their “Rockstar Karaoke” nights on Sundays.
    The idea behind “Rockstar Karaoke” is simple — it’s karaoke with a live band. Would-be stars can choose a song, come up and sing with real, live musicians (including legendary Nashville studio drummer Tony Mason) behind them.
    Carrie Loomis rocks at karaoke. So much so that she beat out all the other contestants — including guys with guitars — in last summer’s Statesboro Idol competition at Mill Creek Park by singing a karaoke version of Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man.”
    The karaoke experience helped give Loomis valuable performing expertise before her “Statesboro Idol” turn. “Even though you’re performing in front of a bunch of usually drunk people, it still helps with the whole stage presence thing because you can go nuts, and not care because everybody’s drunk. When you finally do get on stage for a competition, it makes it a lot easier — not necessarily to picture everybody in the audience trashed, but to give you practice. You can go up there with confidence.”
    Loomis got into karaoke because she’s been singing her whole life. Her first experience was at a friend’s elementary school birthday party. It almost went well — “I was really, really sick, so it sounded like crap. But I had so much fun, I’ve been doing it ever since. Every time I get a chance, I do.”
    Loomis said she sometimes feels a little pressure getting up to sing karaoke, especially if she’s trying it out at a new place, or if it’s her first song of the night. “It’s always nerve-wracking the first time, but after that it’s smooth sailing, and I’m usually one of the first to sign up,” she said.
    As a seasoned karaoke performer, Loomis has a few tips. First, if you’re new or not confident, go for a sing-along. Also, “don’t sing something you can’t. If you have a lower range, don’t sing Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera, because you aren’t going to hit the notes, and everybody’s going to know that you’re trying but aren’t very good.”
    Also, have fun. “If you do suck at something, really suck it up,” she said. For example, Loomis said she can’t sing Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” but she’ll definitely ham it up while singing the song with friends at karaoke.
    And if you’re good at a particular song? “Sing it every time,” Loomis said. “It makes everybody comfortable.”    

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