Where to Sing Next

I'm someone who went from singing at karaoke nights a couple of times a year to once every one or two months, from heading out once a month to being a weekly regular at a karaoke venue. This year, the only time I wasn't at my local karaoke spot was when I was out of town, and that didn't happen often.

Some of the Hummingbird regulars.

Over the summer months, my preferred karaoke venue, Hummingbird Hall, made a decision to shut down karaoke night until September. When they made that announcement, the regulars of karaoke night, including me, put up a stink, and that evening, they made the decision to stay open but to reduce karaoke night to once every other week.

Fair compromise.

Admittedly, not every karaoke night was busy. People were on vacations or at their cottage. But there was always a handful of regulars and a few occasional visitors. Hummingbird even saw a few newbies to the venue.

Three weeks ago, I attended the Thursday karaoke night and there was a good turnout. We had most of the regular crowd, a few people who would come once a month or so, and a few people who made their first appearance.

Everything seemed to be good.

However, while I was on vacation in the Laurentians, I received news that Hummingbird was suddenly cancelling karaoke night indefinitely. No explanations as to why: karaoke night was simply over.

I was crushed. I had found a cozy, well-setup venue that was less than 10 minutes from my house. I had made lots of friends and felt like I was in a place where I belonged. And then it was all gone.

Now, there are other karaoke venues in Ottawa. For years, I had gone to O'Brien's, on Heron Road. I've been to the occasional karaoke night at Stray Dog, one of my favourite breweries. I've been to St. Louis Bar and Grill, though I didn't care for it. And I've been to George's, in Munster Hamlet, which is about 15 minutes further away than Hummingbird: it's a good venue but there's a lot of country music for my liking.

There's nowhere that I feel I can make my new home for karaoke. I feel sort of homeless.

I've made several friends at Hummingbird and we have each other's contact information. I was told that some of them would be meeting at Mort's, in Bells Corners, for karaoke this past Tuesday. Mort's is a pizza restaurant that offers karaoke every Tuesday.

I was going to meet up but I was exhausted from my vacation, so I didn't go.

Tonight, there's karaoke at George's, and I'll likely go. I'll let my karaoke friends know, in case they feel like meeting me there. But I feel that we're all pseudo-refugees, without a central home for us to sing together.

Maybe, I'll go back to occasional singing, but it's become a hobby that I really enjoy. So, until I find a new regular venue for karaoke, I'll continue wondering where I'm going to sing next.