Your intrepid reporter attempted to qualify at one of the the semi finals for the “Karaoke Entertainer of the Year Contest“, put on by Star Media last night. The venue was WPLJ’s in Walnut Creek, on Wednesday night, September 30th. The KJ duties were admirably performed by Nan of “Bring Your Own Voice Karaoke“. This particular semifinal was for the R&B/Soul category. This category includes jazz, rap, hip hop, etc.

Considering there were 16 venues and three singers qualified from each venue to advance to the semifinals, there could potentially have been as many as 54 singers at WPLJ’s last night! In fact, only 14 contestants showed up, of which only 13 stayed around long enough to perform. Out of those 13, eight were selected to advance to the finals with two alternates, meaning 10 out of the 13 advanced to the finals in one way or another. Doing a little math, and noting that my name was not announced among the list of those advancing, it seems I was in the bottom three.

The lesson from this is either that I am way, way worse than I thought I was, or that the talent performing at last night’s venue really was that good. To find out for sure, you’d probably have to ask others who were present, but I really do believe that I didn’t stink that badly, and that the rest of the talent really was that good.

And so, while disappointed, I don’t really feel bad, because even being included in a group that talented (and trust me, no one there sucked) was a fairly large honor.

Due to having placed in the top three in a couple of other categories, I have an opportunity to try again, but the reality of it is that even though I’m a fairly decent singer, I’m not sure that I’d have any better chance at any other venue, or in any other genre.

If you’re interested in checking out one of the semi finals, you can find the venue locations for your part of the greater bay area on the contest website. You might want to poke your head in to see what it’s like to hear a bunch of really good singers all in a row, uninterrupted by the usual atonal, arrhythmic, drunk.

There’s a new show on the block, with a great place to sing.  It resembles Dallimonti’s;  however, it’s not an Italian food place, but they do serve the best steak and prime rib in town.  A little restaurant and bar nestled in a strip mall, within the city limits of Oakley, CA.  “Mike’s Beef and Brew” is a well patroned establishment whose owner has a passion for serving the best cuts of beef, at very reasonable prices.  Yes, the meals and the beer are very reasonable in comparison to places within Central Contra Costa County.  I enjoy a good beer when I sing, and the drink prices have a bearing on my decision of where I go.  A bottle of Bud goes for $3.25 versus $4.00 at other places.  I will drive a little further for a reasonable beer.

Your karaoke host is Joe Dillon, a.k.a. “Karaoke Joe.”  He will always find your song request from a laptop that sports the most current of songs.  The acoustics is good, and the lineup moves.  The short time that I was there I sang a song every 35 minutes.  For some of us Karaoke “junkies” it is an excellent turnover of singers.  However, as this venue catches on I cannot say that it will always maintain that frequency.  His show runs every Saturday nights, from 9pm to 1am.   

 So next Saturday I am going to grab some of my other beer drinking, hard singing, funlovin’ Karaoke buddies and were heading out to farm town USA.  Directions: Go East on Highway 4, and as you approach the Antioch on Hwy 4, you turn off at the  Hwy 4/Oakley exit, and go east bound on Main St.  It’s located in the Raley’s shopping center at the NE corner of Main St. and Carol lane. I hope to see y’all out there.  YEE HAW!!!!

Dropped in to Vinnie’s last night, and ran into a couple of Karaoke buddies from around town; Dave E. and Cowboy Mike. Of course we gabbed about all things Karaoke. It seems that the Loaded Hog no longer has a Karaoke night – that’s a shame, but moving forward…

I met Kalama, the KJ at Vinnie’s; as is usual with KJ’s, he’s a nice guy and we had a good chat. He puts on a good show with a raised stage, a good sound system, and theatrical lighting. The singers were generally better than average and the audience was appreciative. Singers really get the feeling that someone’s listening, which is much better than some places I’ve been where the singer sees nothing but the backs of people’s heads as the crowd ignores them.

Coming up on March 28th, he’s got a “Karaoke Cruise” with a company called “Celebrations On The Bay”. It sounds like a good time!

Cowboy Mike has sent me a new list of Karaoke Venues in the area, and I’ll be updating the “Venues” page to reflect the new information later today.

Dave E. talked about the Karaoke show at Marie Callenders – He says it’s a good show, and if you get there early (about 7pm) you can get a couple of songs in before it gets crowded. I’ll be dropping by on Saturday to check it out, and I’ll let you know what I think.

I went back to WPLJ’s on Thursday night after my visit to Masse’s. The crowd was about triple the size of my last visit, and just like that evening, a rollicking good time was had by all. It seems that about every other song is country, and on at least one occasion, Murtagh and several others joined up in what Murtagh described as “The Hot & Sexy”, but was actually the “Electric Slide”, while Cowboy Mike belted out “A Little Less Talk (And A Lot More Action)”.

More than once I caught Teresa singing and dancing along behind the bar, having way too much fun, and being way too cute. Okay, you’re right – there’s no such thing as ‘too much fun’ or ‘too cute’…

One thing I noticed that was pretty cool was that the monitors that display the Karaoke lyrics have a scrolling bar along the bottom displaying the singing order; you always know just how long until your turn. That means never missing your spot because you headed to the powder room at the wrong moment or stepped out for a smoke.

A gentleman named Justin with an Irish accent (turns out it’s not exactly genuine) sang a song by the Drunken Lullaby’s called Floggin’ Molly: I don’t know, and didn’t ask! But it was a lot of fun and well-received by all.

I dropped by Masse’s the other night, because I had heard something about “Live Band Karaoke” from Daniel, the doorman at Farrington’s. There was a three-piece band playing something. It was very loud, but quite good. In my somewhat addled mind, in which Karaoke is equated with a KJ standing by a rack of equipment and monitors to read lyrics, even though I was there investigating “Live Band Karaoke” it didn’t occur to me that Karaoke might be happening; I thought that if I hung around and drank a beer, the Karaoke might start soon.

The band went on a break, and they fired up the jukebox. There are a bunch of pool tables in the place (the name Masse’s should have clued me in), only a few of which were being used, it being a Thursday. The bar sports about a dozen stools, three or four of which were empty, but the tables (tall, with bar stools) in the bar area were all full of a fairly eclectic mix of people, ranging from 20-somethings up to and including a surprising number of the over 40 set. I perched myself on one of the empty stools, and quickly discovered why these stools at the right end of the bar were empty – you can’t see the band from here!

When the band resumed playing, I realized that the singers were being called up from the audience. The singers were generally pretty good; the band simply backed up the good ones, and quite admirably assisted the [ahem!] struggling voices. One lady, got up and hit “Master Of Puppets” by Metallica totally out of the park. This girl rocked the band, the stage, and the house. A truly memorable performance by a Ms. Carolyn Williams, a nanny/teacher by day and self-described Karaoke Star by night. Who’d a thunk it?

All in all, the live band Karaoke is a lot of fun, and one of these Thursdays I’m going to have to try my hand at it. The band, “The Inflatables” has a fairly extensive song list, and a book with lyrics on a stand by the microphone. Try it sometime; I think you’ll like it!

Last night (Thursday), we wandered down to Pleasant Hill to check out Farrington’s. Your humble author was a semi-regular there on Karaoke nights many years ago, when the show was run by Havin’ A Blast. Near as one can tell, they haven’t had a presence in a couple of years now, and it was back in the early 90’s when I used to hang out there. Ahh, the good ol’ days!

Anyhoo, I went in and noticed right away that the music was coming from a jukebox, and was definitely not karaoke, so I sat at the bar and ordered a drink (after a five minute wait spent watching some kind of sports thing sans sound on one of about eleventy screens behind the bar), and got up to wander around.

The place is still largely as remembered, with a couple of notable exceptions. There used to be a rather large chunk of airplane stuck in the wall and hanging over the bar; it’s gone now, but other than that, the seating, ceiling, and ambiance are all pretty much unchanged. The pool tables (about four or five of them) are right there as always, as is the dartboard. There was a medium-sized crowd around the dart board, apparently a tournament of some sort? In the back, there is some sort of construction going on – the gentleman at the door, Daniel, said that this was the cause of the lack of Karaoke this night. He wasn’t sure if this was a one-time thing, temporary during construction, or permanent. That’s yet to be determined; we’ll keep our eye on the situation and alter the listing as necessary.

Daniel opined that for good karaoke on Thursday nights, one had only to run up the road to WPLJ’s, where he said there’s always a rompin’ good show.

Taking his advice, I did indeed run up the road to the Creek and into WPLJ’s, a place I had never before entered. I’d heard of it, and having frequented the car wash next door, had even seen it a few times. What I had heard led me to believe that it was a twenty-something meat market with a dress code, both of which kept me out back then.

I got there at about 10:30pm, and the first thing I noticed was that there were maybe a dozen or so people in the whole place. Behind the microphone at the moment was an 80’s rocker looking dude with long black hair screaming out what seemed at first hearing to be “I Can’t Drive 55″ by Sammy Hagar, but on further examination proved to be a re-writing of that song entitled “I Can’t Do 65″, with lyrics that showed his concern over not being able to tell if she was “Dead or Alive”… Enough said? Anyway, the cool thing about that, other than the inside joke, which I won’t repeat here (you’re welcome!), is that he sang it with the same intensity and sound as the original by Sammy Hagar.

Teresa at the bar serves up a mean Budweiser with a friendly smile, and your reporter was treated like an old friend by the patrons. Teresa is rightly proud of the custom home-made snacks (chex mix; but she did pour it into bowls ;->) she serves.

KJ services were ably provided by Nan of BYOV Karaoke, assisted by her self-described “groupies”, Tiffanie and Lacy. Nan and one or the other of her groupies did a couple of nice duet numbers, which having failed to write down I can’t remember. Murtagh laid down some rap, and there were a couple of cowboys kickin’ with a little country. All in all, a friendly, fun, experience: good people and good music. What more could you ask for?

Wednesday we (the editorial, not the royal) dropped by The Captain’s Chest. Most of the usual suspects were there, and a good time was had by all. There are always some really good singers in that place, and none of those whose efforts could best be described with the phrase “make it stop!”. DooWop Bob put on a fine show as always; he keeps order, keeps it moving, and keeps Sinatra swingin’.

Ran into a couple of folks who don’t usually make the ‘Chest’ a regular stop; Joseph (“The Mighty Ten Ninety”) was in fine voice, Rhonda (“The Chanteuse On The Loose”) was keepin’ the beat, and Vicki belted ‘em out of the park. Yours Truly had a fine time getting hoarse on “Unchain My Heart” with truly inspiring backup from Brian on the harmonica.

All in all, this is just a fun place to hang out.