We Came, We Saw, We Sang Our Hearts Out

I arrived at Encore Karaoke to the sounds of Tom singing "Birdhouse In Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants, and I knew it was going to be a good night.

This post will be a mostly a visual tour through our evening of song singing. The photo above would be me during my rendition of Petula Clark's "Downtown." As I suspected it would be, that is my new favorite karaoke song. I'm just sad I sang it early in the evening. We began our singing marathon at 8 p.m., when there was hardly anyone in the place. So even though Encore did get crowded as the night went on, we still got to sing a lot.

I sang five songs: "Back on the Chain Gang," the aforementioned "Downtown," "Different Drum," "Stay (I Missed You)" and "Magic." Yes, I ended with Olivia Newton John. I didn't sing that one as well as the previous four, but who cares? It's karaoke, for cryin' out loud. You've got to bust out with some Olivia. Tom sang three songs, and I snapped this shot while he warbled through Radiohead's "Creep."

The cool things about Encore Karaoke is that they also have a pool table, giving you something else to do while you're waiting to sing. I beat Eric in one pool game (okay, so I didn't actually beat him; he scratched on the eight ball), and then Eric stepped in for me while I sang to best Chris in a game.

Speaking of Eric, I believe he sang four songs. Maybe five. He's super fun to go karaoke-ing (is that a word?) with because he a serious ham. If you can't tell from this photo. So whatever vocal talent he does or doesn't have, he knows how to sell it. He loves to sing, and his choices ran the gamut of genres.

Even Chris got up to sing, which is rare. Chris has really good pitch, but he doesn't think he can sing. So while he will come to a karaoke bar, he generally shuns the microphone. But he got up this time to sing "Rainbow Connection," and it was just so damn cute.

Most of the other people at Encore that night had more enthusiasm than talent, but there were a couple of really good singers. This one woman who sang "Get Here" by Oleta Adams sounded like she was better suited for "American Idol" than a karaoke lounge. She had a very good voice; far better than me and my friends.

At about 11:00, Sheela and her husband Ben joined us. Because of the late arrival, Sheela only got to sing two songs, and one of them was a song Tom had chosen but left before he could sing it. That song would be "Stand By Me," and this is Sheela stopping to smile as she stepped in for Tom. She also sang a totally cute Carpenters song, which got the whole place singing along with her.

The only "bad" part of the evening was the car wreck of a couple sitting near us. I call them a car wreck because we couldn't stop looking at them, even though we really didn't like what we saw. You see, the guy looked to be about 65, and his date/girlfriend/whatever looked about 40. And they made out, to put it mildly, the entire time they were there. They didn't even sing. They came in, sat down, lapped at each other for two hours and then left.

Ick.

It's bad enough to be in the proximity of such a display, but I'm sorry, the obvious difference in their ages made it much, much worse. That said, I've made out in public before; a few times in fact. Although I always have been kissing someone my own age. But nonetheless, I now wonder how embarrassed I should be about my behavior. Even in hindsight. May I say again: ick.

As Tom and Chris were leaving, I got them to stop so I could pose for a photo with the boys. Look at how happy we all are. I'd say a wonderful time was had by all behind the karaoke microphones.

I'm not sure there is any more pure fun than singing songs.