I cannot believe how long it has taken me to find a great venue for singing (other than my own show, of course,
)....last night a friend and I drive about 25 miles south of where we live. The venue, Koi Japanese Restaurant, had been advertising contests on Craigslist, which was of no interest to either of us, but they just finished their contest and it was open karaoke night. We arrived there at about 10:30. We walked in, stood to survey the room - literally, the owner RUNS over, tells us he will find us a table and make room for us...Wow...THE OWNER...True to his word, finds a small table and two chairs, and seats us. Within one minute (1 MINUTE) the server is at our table taking our order. WOW... There is a wall-sized monitor at the front of the room, as well as two strategically located plasma screens anchored on the walls. The sound system is fabulous. The KJ works with a partner - literally, he is over the second after the server walks away - asks is if we've ever been there before...introduces himself...brings us a book, which was clean and very well organized...and slips. Waits while we give him a slip. I ask how long the rotation is - "Oh don't worry, we'll fit you in." This room is not terribly big but apparently everyone is so happy that they're all singing! While we were perusing the book, the ladies next to us strike up a conversation, introduce themselves, and welcome us.
Seriously - this was the friendliest place I have ever been to - the crowd clapped after we sang, and both of us are professional singers so it's not the usual to receive as much clapping as we did (I know, sort of perverse, people who are 'trying their best' will often get more applause, but we understand that.)
It was such a great feeling to go to a show where you they treat you like they care that you're there. The host literally begged us, when he saw we were getting ready to leave, to PLEASE come back...and soon. Told us which nights were busiest...when to arrive (show goes from 9 to 2 a.m. which is an hour or so later than most shows) to get the most songs into the rotation...and asks me to come back on Sunday as there is a jazz/blues guitarist (a friend of his) who does an entirely instrumental show, and he is looking for a vocalist...that was nice of him, I thought.
I know, it's odd that I'm going on and on about this, but this type of experience is SO RARE here (now I see why people compliment me so much for my shows, as I run them very similarly to this) but I had given up on ever finding a real, good old-fashioned, 'just like the good old days' show. I'll definitely go back there!