Last night I went to two live band karaoke nights. One at Rock & Rose hosted by Brandon Bain with Crash Course Karaoke. As promised, since Alan Bigelow, musical director for the band became my 600th fan, and since they learned Heart’s “What About Love” for me (and requested that I come out to do it), I had to show up last night.
So after coming from the gym, I went over to check out the scene. There was an intimate crowd of some of the regulars, some new faces, and the raucous of a live band venue. After all the logistics, I went up on stage.
Now, for those who don’t know, I’m generally not dressed like the way I do in half these photographs. The beauty in how God made me is I don’t look like what I sound like, and visual perception is always what throws people off when people see me. When I walk up to a mic, even when warned, it takes me opening my mouth for people to realize what the heck is going on and by that time, it’s too late: I have them. Last night was no exception.
When Crash Course started playing the first couple notes of “What About Love” some of the audience in their 30’s – 40’s who recognized the material looked up. It wasn’t until I was into the third line of the first verse:
The love I’m sending, ain’t making it through to your heart.
did I get everyone’s attention. Of course, this is the belt verse, and I think I even got the attention of people walking down the street outside. Once that line hit though, I noticed one of the guys in the audience who was watching awestruck go up to Brandon and give him a pound while looking and me and Brandon looking at me too. My brain is thinking:
Did Brandon put money on me or something?
The song turned out great and it was a lot of fun to perform. The band did a great job and the crowd was really receptive to it. Afterward, I went up to Brandon and I asked him what that pound with that guy was all about. He said “That’s what you make people do, Janifer when they hear you sing”. What?!? *SMH*
Janet, who is an aspiring singer and a regular live band karaoker asked me if I’d be willing to go to another live band spot that night at O’Flanagan’s. I agreed, so she, I, and another one of her friends met up with a second friend and headed to the second spot for live band karaoke with the Human Karaoke Experience hosted by Dancing Joe. The place was packed, partially for the Yankees vs. Tigers ALCS title, however there were plenty there for the karaoke.
Since I was running on fumes that night, I started falling asleep, despite the fact that it was noisy, so my friend Janet, was kind enough to give me her spot on the spot. Within the list, I saw that they had the Allman Brother’s song “Whipping Post” and it was enough to make me want to do it. I’ve never done it live band before, but I suspected with the live crowd, it was certainly going to be a worthwhile experience.
Now, this past week, heck, let me be honest, this past month has felt like an entire lifetime, and when I saw “Whipping Post” I knew it was going to be the perfect song to help me vent out everything I had gone through. When Janet asked me what I was going to sing, I just warned her “they’re not going to see what’s coming”.
After the Yankees lost to the Tigers and the band took their 15 minute break, and a few more singers went up, it was about 11:45PM and I was called up to take the stage. Someone who had seen me at another live band event ran up to me and gave me a hug and warned the band “OMG, I saw you at {____} event! She’s really good!” and ran off.
To wake myself up, I let the musicians play the intro and started dancing to it to get myself into it. Once the intro was done, I started in and built up into the roar by fourth line.
He took all the money…
Yeah, I altered the line because “She took all my money” makes little sense when you’re a straight woman, and I sure as heck wasn’t going to say it was my money he took!
By the chorus hit, there was a thick standing crowd of spectators around me who were slack jawed and rowdy. They had no idea what hit them. For those who don’t know the song, there are pretty long instrumental intermissions between versus. I just started to groove and air guitar. I lost myself in it. As I said, pretty long ass week. This is my alcohol. Just before the last verse, I took off my glasses, and the crowd seemed to know what was going to happen and the raucous from them got louder. I put them away behind me and just ripped through the final chorus, hair flying, ending the song on my knees.
By the time I got up, I was back to being me again, and at some point I think I might have needed security. A whole lot of people were coming up to me from all over the place. One described it as me being “possessed”. I think of it as me being “unleashed” it more like it. I’m glad everyone enjoyed themselves. I was so exhausted though, that afterward I left. I did stop by the fan page and thank the bands for letting me share their stage. Hopefully some of their regulars that were that night will check out my stuff, like all of you have.
Thank you for all the support, and I’m looking forward to taking what you already know and experienced for yourselves and bringing it to the rest of the world.