karaoke

So tonight, I went to an event held by Alice 97.3, a local Radio station here in the bay area. It was their morning show's annual karaoke party. The party was held at Ruby Skye, a popular club in the City. When you show up for the party, if you so choose, you can sign up in a "lottery" to sing karaoke. If' your name gets picked, you get up on stage and sing and dance your heart out. The show is staged ala "The Gong Show." Everyone gets a minute to perform. If you're good, or the karaoke operator isn't paying attention, you can get way more than that. If you last your entire minute without getting gonged (yes they have a gong), your performance gets rated on a scale of one through ten by the three judges. There's a $1000 first prize for the act that gets the highest combined score. So, needless to say, there were lots of gongs and some great acts.

The stand-out act was actually a duet that called themselves "Vanilla Thunder." Picture a pasty white male, say late 30's, head shaved bald, wearing large sunglasses, tight jeans and a pink half-shirt dancing frantically with a cute, waify, freckled redhead and belting out the tune Love Shack by the B-52's. The guy actually did a great impersonation of Fred Schneider's singing but the girl was just off tune. The thing that actually sold that act was the poppiness of the song and the guy's off-beat dancing. As No-Name, one of the morning show DJ's/co-emcee, said, that was the first time we'd seen "the chicken dance" combined with "the running man." I only wish I had brought my camera.

The two top acts of the night were Lucas and the winner ?Tiffany? (actually, I forgot her name, I'll have to check the website on Monday to re-clarify). Lucas did a soulful rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." It was IMHO better than ?Tiffany's? overly diva'ed version of Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman." I preferred Lucas' performance over ?Tiffany's?. I've never been a big fan of the big flourishes and the elongated high notes, but, she did them well and sang the song well. I've just more of a fan of the soulful and simple singing that Lucas did. My 2 cents.

Anyway it was mad fun and I screamed my head off cheering at the performances or yelling for the gong. Next year, I think I'll actually sign up....