I have a lot of love for this place in seemingly the middle of nowhere. I remember passing this place a MILLION times sneaking out at night taking the backroads snaking past the cops avoiding them since I was underage and past curfew with nothing but a permit to drive not even a license. I never went in because it looked kinda rough. It used to be a biker bar as far back as I can recall. Now the new owner has made this the most happenin' spot south of the projects on the borders of Daly City, Brisbane, and San Francisco.
This place is host to a myriad of different events. You name it. They've done it! From food eating competitions and comedy to open mic nights and of course karaoke. I think the only thing they HAVEN'T done is Jello Wrestling, and I think I'm going to propose it some time to the event coordinator. He's a cool attentive cat with dreads named Dennis. The owner is the beautiful young Filipina gal whom I initially thought was just one of the many beautiful bartenders here I'm used to the female owners of spots bein' older and a little more road weary. I was definitely surprised upon our introduction. Their kitchen serves awesome food from lumpia and chicken adobo to HUGE tiger prawns and the usual American fare.
It's a very mixed crowd. It's the most diverse crowd of karaokers I've ever seen anywhere. You can come down to the Historic 7 Mile House any Wednesday night of the week and see Glenny Kravitz doin' his thang. His lively bunch of regulars always keep the place poppin' 'til closing time. Sweep the floors with his broom air guitar on your way on and off the stage. If you feel like doin the creep around San Bruno mountain home to the Peninsula past Geneva and Bayshore Boulevard, stop in for a bit sports on every tv screen, the great food, their awesome staff, and of course Glenny's show from 8 o'clock 'til they kick us the HELL out!
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Sapphire: Taste of Burma CLOSED
Gary Palmer is at it again with his second new karaoke venue in less than a week. This time he's in San Francisco not San Bruno at a little spot on Sacramento between Battery and Sansome Streets. For a laptop KJ, this man packs a LOT of gear! To avoid another sound mishap like that which occurred at Hooters two nights prior, he packed his own very powerful speakers. I felt bad for the patrons sitting a table away in front of it, but they didn't seem to mind. They actually seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. They just had a common problem most do with the songlist, song overload and indecision.
This is more than just your average sports bar and restaurant in the heart of the Financial District of San Francisco. It actually has the trappings of a club. It's got a lot of open space perfect for dancing if one were so inclined and moved to do so by a crooner. It's got a great regular crowd with a very laid back chill vibe. I attribute this to their blue walls. I'm biased. You know me. I LOVE blue. You know I will DEFINITELY be back. It will be a regular Tuesday venue for Gary hopefully. *crossing fingers, arms, legs, toes, and eyes*
It's not a pub like that of your all wood Harrington's Bar and Royal Exchange down the street. Oh no, tucked away swallowed up between these tall commerce buildings is a modern hip little venue with great lasers and lights. Their sound system is great too! They've got two large house flat screen tv's dedicated to karaoke unless the Giants happen to be playing. Then it's only one monitor and the KJ's own. My only complaint as usual about some places is that they close too early. They're only open until 10 o'clock. That makes sense on a Tuesday night in that area of the City. Once all the worker bees have gone home, it's not very lucrative to keep a place open very late.
Aside from its sophisticated décor and karaoke, they have portions of healthy food offerings at reasonable prices and great happy hour drink specials. It makes you feel pacific and calm. It's hard enough to find a place to open early enough to serve breakfast in hard economic times like these where people are hesitant to spend. I had never sampled Burmese food before, and let me tell you. What I sampled, I liked very much. Enough about the food though. We're here to talk karaoke. You can read about my opinion of the food on yelp if you like.
Mutiny on the Radio: Karaoke Klubhouse
It's been several years since I've been in a studio. It was very nice to be on the air again.
http://podcasts.pcrcollective.org/KaraokeClubhouse/KaraokeClubhouse-20110824.mp3
Anytime you feel like being on the radio singin' your favorite obscure song, come by to 21st and Florida and sing EVERY Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm with Pamtastic & intern Jessica. Have some coffee or hot chocolate and baked goods in their adjoining cafe. Bring your own booze!
http://podcasts.pcrcollective.org/KaraokeClubhouse/KaraokeClubhouse-20110824.mp3
Anytime you feel like being on the radio singin' your favorite obscure song, come by to 21st and Florida and sing EVERY Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm with Pamtastic & intern Jessica. Have some coffee or hot chocolate and baked goods in their adjoining cafe. Bring your own booze!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Rough Start: Hooters - San Bruno, CA CLOSED
Sunday was the first time any Hooters has ever hosted karaoke in any of the 50 states in the Union, and the speakers couldn't handle the greatness. It's tough as a KJ chartering new territory to anticipate any problems that might occur at a new venue. Due to lack of familiarity with how compatible his equipment with the sound system at Hooters would be, Gary Palmer had a late start.
I anticipated as much. Being a veteran, you must know NEVER be on time for karaoke. It's not one of those time sensitive jobs like driving a train or a bus. Some people, I felt, took it a little too seriously. Honestly, it's a short window of time to sing 8 - 11pm. They came on time or early. Me? I'm always late. That is unless I'm stressed, then I MUST SING NOW. You will see me early only then! Still, I'm very understanding. Things happen. He had technical difficulties. It takes at least a few times to get familiar with the house speakers, PA's, and monitors.
The venue also closes early. It's not like places in San Francisco where they cut off the list at last call 1:30am sometimes later. The suburbs have different zoning and codes for entertainment not to mention demographic of people who don't usually party into the late hours. This new location has a lot of potential. I heard a lot of complaints about the food, the service, the fact that Gary didn't take CD's. It's a new day and age. This era of KJ MUST have a laptop. For portability's sake, it's a must. Not every location has a huge stage to set up on or a dance floor large enough for your library of CD's and the rest of your rig.
You can request a song that isn't in the book from the KJ to download off the internet if it isn't on his hard drive already. Always ask a KJ if they have a song that's not on their printed song list on their hard drive. Printing costs are hefty! It would not be cost effective for a Karaoke Jockey to reprint his books EVERY time he downloaded a new song. On average a song can run anywhere between $2.99 to $5. Tip and see where that gets you. If you really REALLY MUST sing it NOW, where there's a will, there's a way. Believe me KJ's are easy. Money talks.
I felt the older patrons who were used to other restaurants and bars with older more seasoned staff and service were expecting a bit too much from this young Hooters crowd. They're young girls not veteran waitresses. We did sit ourselves down without being sat down by the hostess. Things aren't going to go seamlessly when you're not using your own gear which you are completely comfortable and familiar with. Good news is the youngsters who were at Hooters were TOTALLY into it. They're going to be the regulars at this new location anyway. It's not really for your older more serious crowd for sure. Let the kids have somewhere to play.
There are plenty of karaoke places for everyone to enjoy that are a better fit for personality, palate, and price. I foresee this being a VERY popular spot, and a new generation of karaoke addicts cropping up. Exccccellent!
I anticipated as much. Being a veteran, you must know NEVER be on time for karaoke. It's not one of those time sensitive jobs like driving a train or a bus. Some people, I felt, took it a little too seriously. Honestly, it's a short window of time to sing 8 - 11pm. They came on time or early. Me? I'm always late. That is unless I'm stressed, then I MUST SING NOW. You will see me early only then! Still, I'm very understanding. Things happen. He had technical difficulties. It takes at least a few times to get familiar with the house speakers, PA's, and monitors.
The venue also closes early. It's not like places in San Francisco where they cut off the list at last call 1:30am sometimes later. The suburbs have different zoning and codes for entertainment not to mention demographic of people who don't usually party into the late hours. This new location has a lot of potential. I heard a lot of complaints about the food, the service, the fact that Gary didn't take CD's. It's a new day and age. This era of KJ MUST have a laptop. For portability's sake, it's a must. Not every location has a huge stage to set up on or a dance floor large enough for your library of CD's and the rest of your rig.
You can request a song that isn't in the book from the KJ to download off the internet if it isn't on his hard drive already. Always ask a KJ if they have a song that's not on their printed song list on their hard drive. Printing costs are hefty! It would not be cost effective for a Karaoke Jockey to reprint his books EVERY time he downloaded a new song. On average a song can run anywhere between $2.99 to $5. Tip and see where that gets you. If you really REALLY MUST sing it NOW, where there's a will, there's a way. Believe me KJ's are easy. Money talks.
I felt the older patrons who were used to other restaurants and bars with older more seasoned staff and service were expecting a bit too much from this young Hooters crowd. They're young girls not veteran waitresses. We did sit ourselves down without being sat down by the hostess. Things aren't going to go seamlessly when you're not using your own gear which you are completely comfortable and familiar with. Good news is the youngsters who were at Hooters were TOTALLY into it. They're going to be the regulars at this new location anyway. It's not really for your older more serious crowd for sure. Let the kids have somewhere to play.
There are plenty of karaoke places for everyone to enjoy that are a better fit for personality, palate, and price. I foresee this being a VERY popular spot, and a new generation of karaoke addicts cropping up. Exccccellent!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Karaoke A Team Van - SOLD :(
Karaoke to go
2010/08/08 A recent Friday at 8:11 p.m.: Inside a van he scored from a Craigslister a few months ago, Glen Calub, a.k.a. Glenny Kravitz, the Karaoke Shark, provides air guitar backup for karaoke scene regular Ash Townsend as he screams Alice in Chains lyrics. Tonight the party is parked at the corner of Indiana and Tulare streets - far from neighbors who might be offended by amplified karaoke versions of "Mama Said Knock You Out" or "Who'll Stop the Rain?" He uses a power inverter connected to car battery to run the PA and lyric-bouncing video screen. A handful of attendees hungry for the microphone brave the frigid fog of a San Francisco summer night with a level of enthusiasm that is, thankfully, not rated by the quality of the notes being sung. After more than a decade of hosting karaoke nights at clubs around the city, Kravitz decided it was time to expand the party beyond the confines of barroom walls. His followers seem to agree. "I just tell them where I'm at and they follow me," he says.
Old Articles: Punk Rock n Schlock Karaoke - CLOSED Annie's Social Club
This Isn't Your Ordinary Karaoke
Jody Handley of San Francisco sings "Wham Rap" at Punk Rock 'n' Schlock Karaoke night at Annie's Social Club. Chronicle photo by Chris StewartCredit: Chris Stewart
Even punks and goths take advantage of the acoustics in their showers and belt out a ditty (perhaps a medley if they've got the time). And if alternative tunes weren't so darned hard to come by at traditional karaoke bars, more of these folks might be willing to drop the cooler-than-thou act and bask in the karaoke spotlight. So a few enterprising karaoke jockeys, or "KJs," have loaded up their songbooks with music that the city's black-clad, pierced and tattooed set can slur along to after a few too many and still respect themselves the next morning.
PUNK ROCK 'N' SCHLOCK KARAOKE
Eileen and Jody share hosting duties at this thrice-weekly karaoke party in the back room of Annie's Social Club. Rock out to live bands up front. Then stumble back to the karaoke parlor and have a hopefully in-key go at tunes that run the punk, new wave and alt-rock gamut. We're talking everything from X-Ray Specs to Nirvana to Green Day, all handpicked by Annie, the owner, herself. Should you opt for schlock, Eileen and Jody also have plenty of ABBA, Air Supply, show tunes and so-bad-they're-good Top 40 material on hand.
Best KJ - 2010 Glenny Kravitz Loggins-Messina
Best KJ - 2010
Glenny Kravitz Loggins-Messina
Karaoke jockey Glenny Kravitz Loggins-Messina loves you. Or maybe he's making fun of you. Either way, chances are good he's standing beside you, playing his signature fake guitar, not-real keyboards, or obviously plastic saxophone while you either humiliate or distinguish yourself in song. From where we sit, his job looks like our version of hell. Journey song after Journey song after Journey song, he cues it up, calls your name, and rocks out next to you, often soulfully harmonizing with even the most off-key performers. He's like a nurse on the front lines; a saint among the lepers. But he seems to like or even love it, a staggering four nights out of every single week. "Wed: 7 Mile House. Thurs: Pissed-Off Pete's. Sunday: 500 Club Happy Hour. Tuesday: Amnesia," he wrote to us when we asked. How? Why? He does weddings, birthdays, and other parties on top of his regular schedule. He is the wind beneath your wings.
A Karaoke Jockey Explains Why You Must Pay Extra To Sing Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'
A Karaoke Jockey Explains Why You Must Pay Extra To Sing Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'
Comments (7) 
Categories: Q&A
 |
So one day you decided to charge people more to sing "Don't Stop Believing," right?
Yes, that is exactly correct.
Why the hell did you do that?
If you go to karaoke bars, "Don't Stop Believing" is the No. 1 most-requested song. When I first started going to karaoke, I was caught up in the wave as well: "Oh, 'Don't stop Believing,' cool! Everyone has a good time! Yay!" But as I have been doing this for as long as I have, I hear it every night. When I was starting my business, I actually didn't put the song in my songbook. I purposely left it out, thinking people might not see it and then not think about it, but that didn't work.
So one night somebody signed up to sing it. And then I had two other people that were unrelated to each other come up and request the song through the course of the four-hour show. And I just snapped. I'm not going to delete it, because that's just going to be a disaster. So I said, "Alright, I'm going to make some money from this." So the policy is, $5 to sing, that $5 goes into a fund that I use to purchase new songs for the book. And if you look at the sheet that I have in my book, it straight says, I have 11,000-plus other songs to sing for free. You can find one. [Laughs.] I just had to do it.
The thing is, it's not as much of a deterrent as I hoped it would be. It has definitely whittled down the requests. I do have people that say "Hey, I want to sing it," and I say, "I'm sorry, I'm charging $5." And I always am very polite about that, just to let them understand I'm not targeting them or isolating them, but they will say "Oh," and wander off. I had some people the other night leave because they were mad.
 |
It would seem like there's an implied frustration or anger at people who want to sing it. Is that the case?
The people that I have come to my shows, a lot of them are regulars. Most people were applauding the decision -- they thought it was awesome, because they all hate it, too. Karoke regulars cannot stand that song. There are still some people that are diehard true DSB fans. Most of the people at my shows were like "Yes, good, you did something, just delete it." But I still have people -- one guy comes into my shows, and ... it doesn't stop him. I have people who are my regulars saying alright, you need to charge $5 per person, because sometimes [there's] a group of 10 people. Or they're saying you need to raise the rate because it's not stopping people. They are not stopping believing.
Can you explain the amazing allure of this particular song?
I have been trying to figure out the philosophical ramifications of it for years. I still haven't really come across it. It's a song in a major key. And It's a very soaring song. And the whole point of it -- "Don't Stop Believing" -- I guess it could apply to karaoke itself, the idea that I may be an amateur singer, or I may not be able to carry a tune, but that's not going to stop me, I'm going to keep going. But the funny thing about it is the song is impossible to sing! It's out of everyone's range. You actually have to be either [Journey singer] Steve Perry or the guy that they found to fill in. It's so hard to sing, it's so out of everyone's range -- doesn't stop 'em. Because they're not going to stop believing. I can't figure it out.
A sidenote: when the Giants obviously won, I did waive the fee. That would have been suicide on my part, had I been, "No, I don't care." Because I'm not a sports fan. I was happy, the city was happy, I got caught in the mood, but yeah, when people were like, "Oh, we need to sing it for the Giants," I was like, "okay."
How many times did you hear it for the Giants?
During that whole week. But then it kind of went back to normal. People have gone back to the "Okay, he's charging, I don't want to sing it." I had a friend call me up who was at one of the games and he said, "Guess what? Steve Perry is here. They're going to do 'Don't Stop Believing.'" And he's like, "This is your personal hell, isn't it?"
I don't hate the song, and I definitely don't hate Journey. I like Journey a lot; I like a lot of their songs. But that song, I just -- I can't do it anymore. It just drove me to the point of insanity.
----
What songs would you pay extra to sing at karaoke? Tell us on Twitter, or leave a video of yourself singing them on our Facebook page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)