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Last night was a blast. I went out to do Karaoke at this place that seemed like it was going to be a dive bar in Dundalk. When we drove in the parking lot, it was in a strip mall. This did not raise our expectations. When we got inside it ended up being a pretty cool place. Definitely seemed like a lot of regulars. I totally felt like we were out of place at first when we got in. It ended up though that everybody there was pretty nice and cool, and we totally brought a vibe with us to the place that made the whole night a really fun time. The Karaoke DJ ended up talking to us a lot cause he was excited to have some new different people in doing different types of music. Its probably the most fun I’ve had out in a long long time. It was a great ending to a week that has been sort of trying on me. I’d kinda felt like I was in a funk and bummed out all week, and this just completely turned it around.

So ok who went with mike to Karaoke you ask? Well the list of culprits in this whole foray into cheesy singing was my friends Heather, Jamie and Noah. We had some other suspects on the list but a few ended up dropping out for whatever reasons. I wish I could remember all the songs all of us did, but because of the fact that we all were able to do about 4 or 5 songs in various combinations of everybody sometimes doing songs together, I can really only remember what I was involved in last night. Plus me drinking Gin and Tonics all night probably helped my forgetfulness a little as well. It was a great crowd also. Was just enough people to be have a really good time with a bunch of people you don’t know, but not too many that it was just too hard to get up to sing. The place did get pretty busy, so I figure there were just a lot of lurkers/watchers there to laugh at bad singing. Ha I showed them, I actually sang well!

I started off my Karaoke night with my best rendition of Back in the USSR by the Beatles. It was kinda funny when I went up there to do this, at least I found it funny. Every song that I’d heard in the place before I came up to do this had been some form of kinda slow country/southern music. So here’s me suburban white kid, singing the Beatles, and a song about the USSR no less. I could really care less about the context, I just love the song its just a really awesome tune, and a blast to sing. Well either way I couldn’t tell if the people in the bar were too much into it, but hey I think ended up getting a pretty good round of applause after I was finished so I took that as a good sign.

Next, Noah and I, got ourselves in the best Dan Akroyd, John Belushi mindsets and did the Blues Brothers – Gimme some Lovin’. That was a blast, and we tried to do the whole blues brothers dance which I think ended up just making us look funny. Whatever it was cool.

Third, Hell – Squirrel Nut Zippers. I did this song as my first ever Karaoke song when i was out visiting Heidi in L.A. So I figured it had to make an encore with Karaoke last night, especially because with the crowd at the place, the request list was pretty easy to get on. (in LA you had to be really on your game to get a 2nd song, like putting both in at the same time). I don’t think the crowd knew what to think of this song. I’m betting they thought i was crazy. Especially this old Cowboy looking guy who was sitting at a table that was 4 feet from the mic stand I was using.

Then, through some trickery on my part Heather and I did Sweet Home Alabama – Lynard Skynard. She originally mentioned this song saying I should sing it, I said I have no idea of the words but I kinda know the tune so I bet I could just read the teleprompter and do a pretty good rendition, but SHE had to come up and sing it with me. So at first she was kinda reluctant, saying she didn’t know the song well either, but eventually I cracked her and we did it. I think we sounded pretty damn good honestly.

As for the rest of the songs I was in on, we did All the Small things – Blink 182, with all 4 of us, then did Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen, with myself, Noah, and Jamie. That was a test! of my skills I have to say for some parts. Then lastly, somehow, I got wrangled into doing the Grease-Megamix with all 4 of us. We were the second to last, and I think the Karaoke DJ did this on purpose cause he kept on talking to us most of the night, saying he really liked the stuff we were doing and that we were a pretty fun crowd. We kinda mixed up the regulars stuff that he usually gets all the time. So that made me feel good.

In the end all i can say is damn it was a blast.