Krunk karaoke (part I of II): Before.

So, I've been a flaky blogger and haven't blogged about the best things happening in my life, since they take so damn long to blog about.

For example, I went to krunk karaoke the other month with my one (white) friend from Mississippi who I got hooked on karaoke - he had been there before with some (white) students from his class who invited him out to drink after their final exam, though it was my first time. When we got there, the waitress was like, "Nice to see you guys back."

Anyhow, it was packed but there was only a smattering of white people in the bar, and the hostess was this (black) lady with dyed red hair and black tight pants and this red leather jacket ("Lady Red"), and she was the most bad-ass karaoke hostess I've ever seen - she opened up with hip-hop or something and nailed the song, but she was also seemed really nice.

The hard part about the karaoke place is that the audience is all black, and the songs are mostly black, so you have to sing something that fits the mood. Only, even not all songs sung by black people work, since it's mostly from the 70s on with an emphasis on R&B and Hip-Hop. The best I could hope for was Donna Summers's "MacArthur Park" -- early disco is usually as late as I go with black music -- while my friend did John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom", since he prefers blues.

Anyhow, my friend did well with his song, and a lot of (black) women cheered when he got to the part about throwing you on the floor and wanting it right now. When my song kicked up and the chords rang out, two (black) women at the bar clapped their hands up in the air a few times and started whooping, and they whooped louder as I broke into the first words, authoritatively -

Spring was never waiting for us girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance

- and then when the chorus breaks out like majestic sunshine after a storm, people kind of started bopping.

Only, the bass was really turned up and the treble really turned down, so when the second verse came around, I had a hard time picking up the melody again and so I stopped singing, and Lady Red noticed it right away, and jiggled with the balance to bring out the melodic accompaniment so I could start singing again, and I did, but I already lost momentum, so the song didn't turn out well, both because of that, and because they cut out the entire slow middle part.

Other than that, the night was very slow, and a little odd since the bar was packed, but almost no one sang, so we chugged our beers and left.

And, as we left, Lady Red was like, "Hey guys, nice seeing you again! I hope you had a good time!"