Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Hey hey, kids! Super Karaoke Fun Time Band has been snowed out for tonight. Yup, we canceled the show cuz of snow. But we'll be back next week. As will our new favorite karaoke singer, Dr. Dot. It's all happening now! Better come check her out, before she stops coming cuz our PA sucks. First good reason we've had to upgrade our sound system.
Last few weeks have been work! Here in Northern Jersey, Wednesdays have been lousy weather evenings. And while the turnout has been light, we've been doing OK with singers. Our days as a cover band seem to be slipping away, thankfully. And we're doing a Valentine's Day show on WFMU, so check back next week for details on how you can sing on the radio to your sweetie with a smokin' back-up band!
We've been working rehearsals into our schedule, as well as trying some new numbers cold during our first set to bulk up the song catalog. We're nearing 100 songs. We wanna double that over the next couple months. Nuthin against our current gig, but we're looking to add another weekly show and crack the private party market. We may have our first shot at that next month. More on that when it is confirmed.
Ya know, taint easy being a karaoke band. Lotsa issues we didn't even think of. Such as, trying to keep arrangements for 100 songs in your head. We tend to have about 40 songs that get called on a regular basis. Which means there are about 60 songs we don't play very often. So when we do play one, it's a crap shoot how well we'll nail it. I'm usually pleasantly surprised, but last week, Sammy blew up when we screwed the end of Sultans of Swing. Luckily, we were all a little buzzed, so it was easy to laugh it off. It happens so rarely that no one took it seriously. Kinda like when they crack up on
SNL.. All in good fun.
And while I'm doing link tags, lemme thank The Suburban Limbo and Tin Huey for the recent plugs! It's nice to have pals.
Welp, hope to see all the local SMonkey fans next Wednesday at The Cage in wonderful Hobroken. We're rehearsing Friday, so we'll have new songs. And my car is parked, I am home and warm. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Last few weeks have been work! Here in Northern Jersey, Wednesdays have been lousy weather evenings. And while the turnout has been light, we've been doing OK with singers. Our days as a cover band seem to be slipping away, thankfully. And we're doing a Valentine's Day show on WFMU, so check back next week for details on how you can sing on the radio to your sweetie with a smokin' back-up band!
We've been working rehearsals into our schedule, as well as trying some new numbers cold during our first set to bulk up the song catalog. We're nearing 100 songs. We wanna double that over the next couple months. Nuthin against our current gig, but we're looking to add another weekly show and crack the private party market. We may have our first shot at that next month. More on that when it is confirmed.
Ya know, taint easy being a karaoke band. Lotsa issues we didn't even think of. Such as, trying to keep arrangements for 100 songs in your head. We tend to have about 40 songs that get called on a regular basis. Which means there are about 60 songs we don't play very often. So when we do play one, it's a crap shoot how well we'll nail it. I'm usually pleasantly surprised, but last week, Sammy blew up when we screwed the end of Sultans of Swing. Luckily, we were all a little buzzed, so it was easy to laugh it off. It happens so rarely that no one took it seriously. Kinda like when they crack up on
SNL.. All in good fun.
And while I'm doing link tags, lemme thank The Suburban Limbo and Tin Huey for the recent plugs! It's nice to have pals.
Welp, hope to see all the local SMonkey fans next Wednesday at The Cage in wonderful Hobroken. We're rehearsing Friday, so we'll have new songs. And my car is parked, I am home and warm. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Happy New Year, all. Super Karaoke Fun Time Band regrouped this past Friday after a long break for the holidays. And we returned for yet another experiment. The owner of the club wanted us to start playing weekends in this year of 2004. I didn't think it was a very good idea. We're still building our audience and getting our act together. The band is excellent, but pulling off a live karaoke show is something else. Every week we discover new perils and pitfalls. This last show was no exception.
We arrived at the club at 8:30 for our show. That gave us an hour to set up and get a feel for the crowd. It was immediately clear that this crowd had no desire to be felt. Matter of fact, the bouncer at the door had no idea a band was playing and tried to explain that I must be at the wrong club. I assured him this must be the place.
A couple of stained, padded bras had been added to the lighting rig since last we'd played there. White and bulky. Nothing very sexy about that. But I figured they were probly put there by the owner anyway. However, we had far bigger issues to worry about. First and foremost, the weekend crowd was clearly not interested in karaoke. Bill, the DJ, gave me the rundown on what to expect from the crowd and we worked out our evenings schedule. 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off for the next four hours. The band preferred our longer sets, but I liked the shorter sets. 5 or 6 songs, then time off to figure out a game plan for the next set.
And working out game plans turned out to be the challenge for the night, as it was immediately clear that we would basically be a cover band for the evening. Over our three sets (more about the missing set in a bit), we only had three different karaoke takers and two of em were FOBs. (Friends of the Band) We did make a new friend, Mike, who stumbled through Sweet Home Alabama and decided we were the shit. He bought us drinks and talked Southern Boogie with us most of the night. He also talked us into going off list and trying Freebird for the first time. As always, Sammy knew it cold and the rest of us were able to follow along competently.
In the middle of our third set, we were told the police had stopped by to ask us to turn down. Fair enough, except the DJ was playing CDs louder than we were playing. The first clue sumthin was up. Then, 20 minutes in to the third set, we were told to take our break early. Caught me by surprise, but OK. After 30 minutes, we expected to return for our final set, but Bill didn't announce our return. I asked him what was up and he said the owner wanted to wait for the crowd to build. Didn't make any sense to me. One would think that having a live band playing would be more likely to bring in folks from the street. But what do I care? I don't own the place.
Well, after our 30 minute break turned into 75 minutes, we got the picture and packed it up. Talking with the owner the next day, he told me our songs were more geared to an older crowd and maybe we should put the weekend shows on hold. Fine with me. Though I don't think a karaoke set of Puddle of Mudd, Audio Slave, Pigs In a Blanket or Big Toe Suckers woulda gone over any better. And to add insult to injury, the DJ ended up playing at least 4 or 5 songs that we had in our karaoke list.
So, to sum up, in the future, everyone should just listen to me when I open my big mouth.
And I never did find a parking spot when I finally got home at 3 AM. Matter of fact, I'm still driving around.
We arrived at the club at 8:30 for our show. That gave us an hour to set up and get a feel for the crowd. It was immediately clear that this crowd had no desire to be felt. Matter of fact, the bouncer at the door had no idea a band was playing and tried to explain that I must be at the wrong club. I assured him this must be the place.
A couple of stained, padded bras had been added to the lighting rig since last we'd played there. White and bulky. Nothing very sexy about that. But I figured they were probly put there by the owner anyway. However, we had far bigger issues to worry about. First and foremost, the weekend crowd was clearly not interested in karaoke. Bill, the DJ, gave me the rundown on what to expect from the crowd and we worked out our evenings schedule. 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off for the next four hours. The band preferred our longer sets, but I liked the shorter sets. 5 or 6 songs, then time off to figure out a game plan for the next set.
And working out game plans turned out to be the challenge for the night, as it was immediately clear that we would basically be a cover band for the evening. Over our three sets (more about the missing set in a bit), we only had three different karaoke takers and two of em were FOBs. (Friends of the Band) We did make a new friend, Mike, who stumbled through Sweet Home Alabama and decided we were the shit. He bought us drinks and talked Southern Boogie with us most of the night. He also talked us into going off list and trying Freebird for the first time. As always, Sammy knew it cold and the rest of us were able to follow along competently.
In the middle of our third set, we were told the police had stopped by to ask us to turn down. Fair enough, except the DJ was playing CDs louder than we were playing. The first clue sumthin was up. Then, 20 minutes in to the third set, we were told to take our break early. Caught me by surprise, but OK. After 30 minutes, we expected to return for our final set, but Bill didn't announce our return. I asked him what was up and he said the owner wanted to wait for the crowd to build. Didn't make any sense to me. One would think that having a live band playing would be more likely to bring in folks from the street. But what do I care? I don't own the place.
Well, after our 30 minute break turned into 75 minutes, we got the picture and packed it up. Talking with the owner the next day, he told me our songs were more geared to an older crowd and maybe we should put the weekend shows on hold. Fine with me. Though I don't think a karaoke set of Puddle of Mudd, Audio Slave, Pigs In a Blanket or Big Toe Suckers woulda gone over any better. And to add insult to injury, the DJ ended up playing at least 4 or 5 songs that we had in our karaoke list.
So, to sum up, in the future, everyone should just listen to me when I open my big mouth.
And I never did find a parking spot when I finally got home at 3 AM. Matter of fact, I'm still driving around.
