Karaoke Forums

Earlier this summer, a club owner from Los Angeles came to my town and started approaching different clubs about something his club in Los Angeles is doing. It is live karaoke. They have a live band playing the music and he said it is a huge hit and he's looking to expand that concept to other cities.

One club here finally agreed to give him a chance. This club has a live band there every Tues. The members of the band are good friends of mine. They told the guy about me and I was immediately contacted to assist with the project. After speaking to the guy from L.A. over the phone, I declined to have any involvement with the idea. The biggest reason was because the guy did not sound intelligent over the phone and couldn't answer any of my specific questions about the technical aspects of the production. I really felt like I was talking to an ignorant dummy.

Fast forward several months. Tonight was the debut of the first live karaoke show at that club. They charged $7 at the door to get in. The club filled up almost instantly. Long lines around the building to get in. Club reached capacity (about 225 ppl I think, I'll have to check on the exact number) and they had to start turning people away. It was packed to the rim all night long. The club made a killing! Extremely successful night.

So now I'm wondering who was the real ignorant dummy on the phone that day this past summer?

My karaoke gig was over at midnight tonight so when I was done packing up my gear, I drove over to the live karaoke show. Live karaoke was over at 12:30am so it was already over by the time I got there. However, the place was still packed with people while a dj played music. I spoke to the band. They were all amazed at the huge success they had tonight. The way they did it was, they had a guy play real karaoke tracks, display the lyrics on the screen and they (the band) just played whatever they could on top of the tracks to give it a live feeling. If they couldn't figure out the notes or chords, they just kinda laid low and just played whatever they could. They had a 42" big screen TV in front of the stage for the singers to read the lyrics.

I am really curious to see how well this concept does at that club in the future. I mean, it could have been packed tonight because everyone was so curious to see what it was gonna be like. Is the idea really good enough to attract people there in the long run? Will that place be packed like that every week?

We'll see.

There are 12-15 live band karaoke shows here in my touristy beach town. It's nothing new, has been around here for 7-8 years.

My show draws better than any of the live band karaoke shows around town. The biggest problem is that your average karaoke singer can't follow a live band. When the singer gets off tempo, the band's natural instict is to try to compensate for them instead of keeping on beat like a karaoke track would, and when the band tries to compensate rythmically for a singer that has a problem with the rythm in the first place, it all starts to break down. I'd say about 60-70% of performances in this format are absolute trainwrecks.

Trust me, there may have been a big draw for that live band karaoke in your town because it's a new thing, but once the novelty wears off, it's just another karaoke show, and often not a very entertaining one.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Depends on the setup. We have a local band called Rockaraoke, they are fully set up with stage, full band lighting systems, real sound engineers and true sound systems, etc. They have played parties nationally as well, but are home based here. When they play, they are packed everytime. Lots of very good singers/entertainers that are not professional singers. If it's done properly, it can be a blast - and they know how to do it right.
here are some of their videos
http://www.rockaraoke.com/Videos

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

There's a live band karaoke set up around me (one of the members posts here) and, honestly, it's the best local karaoke experience by far, in terms of participation and audience. As they only do it once a month, perhaps that keeps it feeling like an event, versus the regular weekly karaoke spots. I was actually sad to have missed it last month, and I definitely don't get that feeling if I miss one of my other regular karaoke nights.

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Co-host of The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly), a karaoke-themed podcast

Yep, same setup as last night. Stage, professional sound equipment, band lights, real sound engineers, big screen TV for lyrics... the only complaints I have been hearing today from people who attended was that there was no flow at all. Very boring between singers. No filler music. Just silence and took a long time between each singer. Also said there was a comedian there who wasn't funny trying to tell jokes to fill up the space.

I'll be keeping my eye on this thing to see how it goes in the future. I am really interested to see if the enthusiasm lasts or fades.

karaokefromhell.com

They've been doing it here in Portland for over 18 years and may well have been the very first live karaoke band. 5 piece band, with a catalog of over 500 songs to chose from. Singer fronts the band and sings off a song sheet. Band leader helps you along if you get lost in the song. They play two gigs weekly in Portland:

Monday nights at DANTES on SW Burnside Blvd downtown and Thursdays at the TIGER LOUNGE on NW Broadway across from the train station in downtown Portland.

Packed nightly.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Isn't all karaoke LIVE?????

never seen pre-recorded karaoke....



Sorry, couldn't resist.

My first questions would be "Is it really profitable consistently long-term for the talent?" and "when it's slow some weeks or nights, do the musicians settle for the measly door charge?"

As i recall, bands were replaced by djs because they were much cheaper.

Djs were/ have been replaced by kjs week nights everywhere i've been.

Having a band with karaoke while djing and a host sounds awesome if done right.

If it's a hobby, and as a musician, you're just jammin with the boyz and couldn't care less about the money, and have a daytime job. It's hard to see good ROI if you do this professionally or rely on the pay....or....

Is the pay structure door charge plus owner paying a flat rate?

When it gets TOO busy consistently, don't people stop coming, or if they can't sing, do they get their $7 or whatever door charge refunded?

Don't get me wrong, i'm ALL FOR IT, just wondering how its sustainable long term and profitable for the musicians....

Well, I know a place that has Live Band Karaoke in Manhattan. It's been a regular staple at this place (Arlene's Grocery (no it is not a grocery store)) every Monday night. The one time that I went to check it out, there was no cover charge, so the band must be getting a flat rate.

About 7 or 8 years ago there was a local band up here in the mountains that did live karaoke.

I met them at what used to be our local "headliner" venue with a capacity of about 300.

They called themselves "Latex Limousine" and they had a song list of about 40 songs that they would play for you to sing to. The lyrics were printed on oversized "cue cards" and sitting on a music stand in front of the singer's mic. I did a few songs but the one I remember is "Here I Go Again" from Whitesnake. I loved the feeling of the drums and those power chords adapting to, and supporting my voice instead of the other-way-round (like karaoke).

They dressed in wild, glam-rocker style outfits with platform boots and wigs and they played cover tunes and some originals in between singers.

I had a conversation with the leader of the band and he basically told me that the band's agent had come up with the idea to increase booking and exposure for the musicians. I don't think it worked because we only saw them twice in our area and haven't seen or heard of them since.

Musically, they were okay. However; their sound guy said something to me that I have said a thousand times to singers over the years and that was: "You're too good of a singer to hold the mic that way. Don't cup it. Hold it level, in front of your mouth and let me make you sound awesome."

It was fun, but since I never had the opportunity to discuss the money arrangements, I have no idea if it would have been financially sustainable.

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Never the same show twice!

Yeah, this topic has been discussed a few times over the years and I guess it depends on where you are if it's a success or not. As I've said before, the best live band karaoke I've seen is in Orlando at citywalk. The place is called "Rising Star" and its pretty cool. It kinda looks like a miniature arena and there is also a cover charge of $7 at the door.

There isnt any karaoke tracks played with the band. It's all live music and the band is outstanding. The sound is incredible and the lighting, stage, etc. has the appearance and feel of a live concert.

There is an emcee that runs the show and backup singers that sing and dance throughout each performance. The band has over 1000 songs to choose from and it's pretty intense once your up onstage.

If any complaints I would suggest a different rotation method. There is a giant fishbowl that sits beside the stage where you put your song requests in. I noticed the emcee was grabbing like five at a time and picking the one he thought was best for the crowd. The wait to sing the few times I've been was at least an hour or so.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

Just thought I'd give an update on the show now that they have 3 weeks under their belt.

The 2nd week, they raised the price of admission from $7 to $10 -AND- raised the prices of the drinks. One girl told me she paid $8 for a shot. That's a lot of $$$ for a shot in this town. The 2nd week was not as packed as the 1st week, but still packed.

Tonight was the 3rd week. Unlike the previous 2 weeks, it started out slow. About an hour into it, it started picking up and the club got semi-packed. It did rain tonight though, so that could have affected the turnout.

So far, seems like it's losing steam, but since it did rain tonight, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and we'll just see what happens next week. I'll letcha know.

Word travels fast.... Raised admission price/cover charge AND increased price in drinks. That's almost a guarantee that it will lose even more steam.

Yeah, the place in Orlando I was talking about has raised their admission to 14 bucks and the drinks and food are astronomical. It's a tourist trap area so people will definitely spend money and there will always be new clientele

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

I'm kinda disheartened to see that happen.

I'm part of a live music karaoke group & (obviously) want to see the "genre" thrive.

I'm fairly turned off by the fact that they play along to tracks; that's not entirely "live". When it really comes down to it, it only takes 50 songs or so to fill a 3 hour show. That shouldn't be an obstacle for any serious musician or group, you would just have a limited selection. I kind of think that what you've described could turn a lot of people away from what can be a tremendous amount of fun.

I've never understood raising the price on something that is doing well to begin with. I've always figured that what I don't spend at the door, I'll spend at the bar, so they'll get it anyway. But then again, I'm not in the business of running a venue.

Topical plug: Check out central Pennsylvania's kBand. Always 100% live. Over 1300 songs. Lyrics delivered on-screen.

I totally agree. IMO, it's not live at all. The reason they have the tracks is because this band does not like to rehearse and they don't want to learn any new songs that will not be a part of their show. They are just up there posing and many times not playing at all because they don't know the songs. So if a track comes on that they don't know, they just turn their volumes down and "air guitar" it.

I agree with you. If the band was willing to take this venture seriously, it could thrive and be very popular for the long term. Right now, they are just looking at it as a Tues night paycheck to make the most amount of money they can for the least amount of effort as possible.

Yeah, I can definitely see a tourist trap area getting away with that for sure. However, I do not live in a tourist town by any means. This is a country town with regular people who go to work day in and day out and have to seriously decide where they are going to spend their money each week.

I know this town and the people in this town. They can quickly turn on you if they feel they are being ripped off or not getting their money's worth.

Oh yeah. Something else I forgot to mention. It's advertised on their facebook flyers that the show starts at 9:30pm, however this band is notorious for starting around 10:30pm. Karaoke is over at 12:30am and then the dj takes over for the rest of the night. So they have been doing the karaoke from 10:30pm to 12:30am (2 hour show). The dj only has around 200 karaoke tracks and I also found out last night that they cap the singers list when they reach 10 ppl.

Interesting, huh?

Thought I'd revisit this thread and give you guys an update on this. So far, I had only given information up to 3 weeks.

On the 4th week, they lowered the price of admission back to $7 and lowered the drink prices back to normal. Very good crowd. They continued to have good crowds for the next few weeks, then out of nowhere, they announced they were changing venues.

What was really weird was they were moving to a completely dead venue that has been struggling for a few years to get anybody in the doors. They also changed the day from Tues to Fri. Their 1st Fri in the new place was packed like crazy! They hit another home run! No one could believe it. Not even the owner of the new place. I found out later the reason they changed venues was because the organizers wanted a bigger piece of the pie, but the club owner wasn't budging at all. However at the new place, they were able to get exactly what they wanted because the owner there was basically desperate and was just happy that someone was making use of his facility.

They then got another band together with a new host and new dj and tried to do it at another venue. They wanted 2 live karaoke shows. One on Fri at one venue and another one on Thurs at a different venue. The new Thurs night venture bombed miserably and was cancelled after one week. They tried it again at a different venue 2 more times and those also bombed miserably and were cancelled after 1 week. So their only hope was the original show they put together on Fri.

That show stayed busy and made money for about 2 months.

Then slowly but surely, people just stopped going. It got to the point where it wasn't making enough money to support itself and was eventually shut down for good about 2 weeks ago.

I was talking with the band leader of that show tonight. He congratulated me on being successful with my karaoke shows every week for almost 5 years straight now. He said he doesn't understand how I am able to do that after what he just experienced. I told him it's because, "I'm in it for the long run and I take it very seriously. I study this stuff and go out of my way to make my shows as fair as possible and as enjoyable as possible. Plus, I actually enjoy what I do. It comes across to people."

So that's it you guys. They came, they had a huge amount of short lived success and now they're gone.

Not surprising that it has come to an end. It's pretty much a "fad". Unless the band members are willing to learn new music and practice, it becomes stale. That's the one thing I will say about the spot in Orlando. They always posted their new songs on their website.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified