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.

Cupcakes and Karaoke

I couldn't help but have a flashback.

I wrote about this before, when I had a birthday party and decided to pick up a microphone and sing while friends danced around me. But that party was 52 years ago.

A couple of days ago, I celebrated turning 60. It wasn't my actual birthday: that's this coming Wednesday. Like in 1973, because my birthday is on a weekday, we held the celebration the weekend before.

DW asked me what I wanted to do to mark the end of my sixth decade and I said that I wanted to be surrounded by family and friends, to be with the people who mattered so much to me. We talked about reserving space at a favourite brewery, as it would have the space to accommodate everyone, and I liked that idea.

Secretly, she had already contacted Conspiracy Theory Brewery, as I had been frequenting the place, as of late, but when she told me, I was reluctant. While I liked going to Conspiracy Theory for karaoke, it wasn't a favourite brewery, nor even in my top 10 for Ottawa. Sure, they had the space but it wasn't quite the spot I had in mind.

Luckily, she hadn't made any solid plans and had only had a brief conversation with Paul Card, the owner. As it turned out, Conspiracy Theory, itself, wouldn't be around for my birthday celebration, anyway.

We did look at actual breweries that I love, and one didn't seem to have any event planned for March 1, so we reached out. DW had me compose the e-mail message, since they knew me and had once done something really nice for my birthday, a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, when Melissa responded to me, she told me that they did, in fact, have a live show scheduled for March 1, and that it hadn't yet been added to their Web site. She said that the band was interactive with its audience and was a lot of fun, but I didn't really want to have a live band at my party, especially since I didn't know them, and so I thanked her but said I'd look elsewhere.

(I ordered some beer from them the next day.)

I had only been to Hummingbird Hall once, before we started discussing my party, and I already liked it. When we considered it as a party venue, I was practically sold.

Again, DW had me reach out to Dan, the manager of Hummingbird Hall, since we had already met, though only once, and he'd only remember me if he recognized Brown Knowser in my e-mail address and associate it with the person known as Brown Knowser at the previous karaoke night.

While I didn't want a live band at my party, I thought it might be fun to have karaoke. Lots of my friends like to sing and have done karaoke before. I'd be able to mingle with my friends between getting up on stage to sing, myself.

I put in the request, including lining up a KJ, and waited. Dan got back to me fairly quickly, gave me a quote for renting the room, with him running the bar, and for the KJ and the sound person.

And that was it. We were booked.

There were cupcakes. There were nibblies. There was singing. There was dancing. There was mingling and catching up with friends. Some family and friends came all the way from Toronto to help me celebrate. Kid 2 and my younger sister, who live in Toronto, made the trip to be here.

I'm so lucky. I was surrounded by love.

Photo credit: Marc Dufour

Photo credit: Marc Dufour

This was the first birthday party I had since my 50th, where we did gather for a live show, featuring my music idol, Midge Ure. It'll likely be the last one until my 70th birthday, should I make it that far.

But this party will go down as one of the best, far exceeding my eighth party (where some of my friends from 1973 were back to celebrate again).

This time, the mic was plugged in.

Photo credit: Mom

New Venue

I felt like a newbie. And, in truth, I was.

Kou's Taekwon-do is gone. And I'm not really surprised: Master Kou was about my age, if not a year or two older, and is probably enjoying a much-deserved retirement. And, apparently, no one was willing to take over the business—at least not in the Barrhaven Mall.

Walking down the familiar steps to the lower level of the mall, it was like stepping back in time. The Nepean School of Music was still open; no doubt, getting ready to close for the evening. The door to the reception area was open and friendly, young faces smiled as I passed by.

A turn to the left took me down the narrow corridor that would have taken me to the taekwon-do school, maybe 10 years ago, but instead of hearing the shouts of active black, blue, of yellow belts, without the smell of sweat and bare feet, I heard a song by Johnny Cash and a baritone voice.

It was the man who I had met at Conspiracy Theory, a couple of Fridays ago, whose name had escaped me after I first learned it that night.

It's Dave.

The other woman from that karaoke night—again, whose name I had forgotten shortly after first hearing it—was also in attendance. We re-introduced ourselves: her name is Danielle. They were sitting together with another woman, Julie, and I was invited to join them. A little later, another person, Rachel, sat with us.

Hummingbird Hall is cosy. Dimly lit, there's a full stage in one corner of the room with a drum kit, congas, and an electric keyboard. Lots of speakers flank the sides and two monitors point back at the stage. To one side of the stage, a full-sized piano had been rolled out of the way for this evening: to the other, more congas and some guitars leaned on a rack.

There are small tables with chairs that are wrapped in a black fabric. Several cushy sofas are scattered around the room. To the left side of the room, where you enter, a small bar offers drinks and snacks, including some good local craft beer.

I liked the place as soon as I entered.

It wasn't too busy when I arrived, with maybe 10 or 12 people spread across the room. I arrived about 10 minutes after the show was about to start but it was a bit delayed. Dave was apparently doing a sound check while the host of the night, Amy, was delayed by snow.

There's someone who handles a full-fledged sound board, who had helped Dave get the levels right. Amy showed up right behind me and got under way immediately.

A large-screen that shows the lyrics also displayed a QR code for KaraFun. Because I've used this system before and had created an account (Brown Knowser, of course), I came straight up. You use the app to select your song and you are immediately added to the queue. A ticker-tape banner at the top of the screen shows the next three singers, so you have plenty of advanced warning of when it's your turn.

You can also check the app on your phone to see where you are in the queue, if you're not on the board yet.

I said that I felt like a newbie, and that's because everyone in the place seemed to know one another. I felt like I was a guest at a singing club, and that I was checking it out for possible membership, if the members would accept me.

Because this was a mostly new crowd for me (apart from Dave and Danielle), I started with a song that I know very well: Cat Stevens' "Where Do The Children Play?" People were receptive and Amy, at her KJ microphone, was extremely complimentary.

Another person from Conspiracy Theory's karaoke night, Annie, showed up soon after, followed by James, the person who had invited me to their table originally. Within an hour of the start of the evening, there were about 20 singers in the room.

I went up a second time with a song that I haven't sung in at least a year because it hits the upper range of my voice and I'm always worried that my voice will falter. But I sung "High and Dry," by Radiohead, anyway, and managed to pull it off in what was, I think, my best rendition. I headed straight to the bar to get a second pint, and the bartender raved about how I brought back memories of his youth.

With my second beer, I decided that I'd stay until my cup was empty, so I put in another song that I'm familiar with: "Driver 8," by R.E.M. (Conspiracy Theory didn't have it when I requested it, the previous week, but I knew it was on the KaraFun app).

I noticed that with this song, I couldn't hear myself through the monitors, so when I was finished, I let Amy know. She immediately started a song for herself and did a sound check, bringing the music down a little and finding the best place to stand with the microphone.

"I don't usually get up to sing," she told me afterward, "but I didn't have time to do the sound check, myself."

"You have a gorgeous voice. You should sing," I said.

"Thanks. You're very good, too."

Dave sang a heartfelt version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and it inspired me for my next song. I added "The Rainbow Connection" to the queue. But when I reached the end of my second beer, I saw that I was ninth in the list to go up. I rose to put my jacket on.

"Leaving so soon?" asked Dave.

"Afraid so," I said.

"Hey, are you coming out to Conspiracy Theory tomorrow?" asked James.

"I think so."

"Did you want a lift?" James and I discovered that we only live a block away from one another. He said he planned to be there around 7, when the karaoke night starts.

"Thanks, but I probably won't show until about 8." He usually stays until closing, and I wanted to also be able to leave when I wanted.

As I headed for the door, Amy got my attention. "Thanks for coming out. I hope to see you again."

"Count on it. You're less than 10 minutes from home and I love the venue."

Indeed, it's the nicest venue for karaoke that I've ever seen. Who would have thought that a former taekwon-do space could have transformed into such an intimate spot for one of my favourite pastimes?

I just might even become a regular.

Happy Tuesday!

Trying Not to Sound Obsessed

Okay, it seems like I've talked about karaoke a lot this month, when, in reality, I've only written two posts before this one.

This is my third post, this month, about this hobby.

Last Friday, when I met some people at Conspiracy Theory's karaoke night, one of the guys told me that there's a weekly karaoke event in a mall that's close to my house. He said that it's held every Wednesday in a basement area in the Barrhaven Mall.

As he described the venue, he said that you go down the set of stairs where the mall transitions from a single-level strip mall to a two-story office building. I knew the place well: both kids had attended the Nepean School of Music and had also taken classes at Kou's Taekwon-do.

But the basement in the Barrhaven Mall was pretty tight, the last time I was down there, waiting for Kid 2 to emerge from a drum lesson. Where would they hold a karaoke night?

When Wednesday came, I thought I'd do a bit of research. I typed karaoke barrhaven into a Google search and found Hummingbird Hall. Looking at the posted photos, it seemed like a large enough space, but where exactly was it?

Because the venue had the name Hummingbird, the name of the studio that is affiliated with the Nepean School of Music, I guessed that the owners had expanded a space to offer public entertainment. Had they cleared out some of the music classrooms and made space? Had they closed out the recording studio?

I remembered having asked James, who first told me about this venue, if it was anywhere near the taekwon-do school, and he said he hadn't seen Kou's. So again, I turned to Google.

Kou's Taekwon-do is listed on Facebook and on Instagram, but because I closed out all of my Meta accounts last weekend, I had no access to those sites. But I did find another Web page that mentioned Kou's, yet it was no longer in the Barrhaven Mall.

Did Hummingbird Hall take over the space that was once Kou's?

I remembered being able to smell the sweat from that exercise space before you even passed by the reception area of the music school. I hope they were able to air that space out.

More research gave me additional information about the karaoke night at Hummingbird Hall, and either James was mistaken or the venue has changed their karaoke night. A poster that I found stated that karaoke is on Thursdays.

Glad I checked ahead, rather than just showed up.

Hummingbird Hall also offers live music, so perhaps I'll have to keep an eye out for who will be playing there. Are they a direct competitor to Greenfields Pub, which also has a stage and offers live music, and is directly above Hummingbird Hall, on the ground level and at the north end of Barrhaven Mall?

If they have as good a craft beer selection as Greenfields, they just might.

I'm going to scope out the venue this evening. If the karaoke is good, it might replace Conspiracy Theory as my practice spot. Or maybe, I'll go to both, depending on the music selection.

And hopefully, at Hummingbird Hall, I won't be invited to join a table.