A Bigger Crowd

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When Hummingbird Hall ended their karaoke nights, our regular patrons became lost and seemed to scatter. There are several other karaoke venues in Ottawa but Hummingbird was the only one with a cozy atmosphere that I really enjoyed attending week after week.

It was also conveniently close to home.

The crowd who welcomed me to their table at Conspiracy Theory, at the beginning of this year, were regulars to Hummingbird Hall, and I looked forward to catching up each week and cheering them on as they approached the microphone. And there are some of those folks who I haven't seen since August.

In September, one of Ottawa's craft breweries started a monthly karaoke night, and several folks from the Hummingbird crowd attended, though not as many as I was used to seeing. The karaoke at Overflow Brewing was hosted by KJ Velvet Wells, aka The Velvet Duke (he really has a velvet voice).

There were some hiccups at the first event, with the WiFi connection a bit spotty, such that the KaraFun list wouldn't update, making songs repeat or the order of performers would repeat. Sometimes, the lyrics for a song would freeze on screen, and if you didn't know the words to a song by heart, you could get lost.

On one song that I was singing, the tempo suddenly changed and I became so frustrated that I just walked off the stage mid-song.

Despite the technical glitches, all was not lost. There was a good presence by those who came to sing and those who simply came to support singers that my Hummingbird friends and I decided to give Velvet another chance, and we returned for the next karaoke night, in October.

Velvet had ironed out the WiFi issues and had uninterrupted connectivity all night. There was one minor glitch, where the QR code for the venue didn't appear on the screens that showed the lyrics, so participants couldn't join the KaraFun app to choose a song and add it to the lineup. But this wasn't a big deal, as we could simply request a song directly with Velvet, and he'd add you to the list. When you finished your song and left the stage, you let Velvet know the next song you wanted to sing.

The October karaoke night was great except for one thing: almost nobody showed up.

James, singing some Tom Petty.

From my Hummingbird friends, only James and I attended. For more than half of the night, there were only six singers, plus Velvet, who got up on stage. It was great if you wanted to sing a lot of songs or practice songs that you hadn't sung before, but there wasn't much of an audience to cheer you on.

Late in the evening, a women's baseball team arrived and took up an entire table, and we encouraged them to sign up for songs, but in the end they sang only one song as a full ensemble. It was good but it essentially added one extra song to a round.

Overflow is a great venue for live events. It has a full stage, which elevates you for everyone to see. They have a great sound system, including monitors so that you can hear yourself while you sing, and there's someone in the mixing room to make sure the sound volumes are appropriate for the audience.

They serve decent food and they have great beverages—including, of course, their own beer.

The next Overflow karaoke night is Wednesday, November 19, and I'm hoping more people show up. I felt that the brewery didn't do a particularly great job of promoting this event, so I'm adding my voice to it.

The event starts at 8:00 and runs until 11. For the past two events, there was an online sign-up sheet, but I didn't sign up in advance for the October event and there really was no need (I think Velvet wanted an idea of how many people were interested but he has a list for you to sign up when you show up).

Whether you want to try singing or you just want to be entertained, it's a great night and we could really use a bigger crowd to ensure the success of the event so that it continues. There are some really talented amateur singers in Ottawa.

Me, I'm just okay.

I'll post a reminder a couple of days before the event but I wanted to get Ottawa-area folks to give it some thought and mark the date on their calendars. Come on out and enjoy yourselves.

Oh, and come say hi to me.

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