Karaoke Forums

Karaoke is obviously very popular and gives people a chance to sing live. There are lots of bands appearing now letting you do karaoke with a live band.
Do you think this will be as popular?

Live band Karaoke shows up from time to time..

Las Vegas has tried that for a while..

Only problem I see is many singers need the screen, and not all bands provide it..

Your mileage may vary..

An another problem I've seen with Live Band Karaoke is the song selection. Even the better bands only offer around 150 different songs. Gets boring fast to hear the same popular songs being sung over and over again.

Yes, there is one venue here that offers live band karaoke weekly, but the song list is fairly short. List I looked at had a little over 120 songs.

I have done it three -- well really two -- times.

One of them, Karaoke From Hell in Portland, does it twice a week, has an extensive song list of 480+ songs, and provides lyrics sheets (if you tip). I have sung with them twice and it was a blast. Swingcat tipped me off to them. I have a $5.00 gift certificate they gave me after I sang, i guess because my song went over well.

Another in Cocoa Beach, does it once a week and is much more casual about it. They have a list of 200 songs, but they know a lot more and will fake most anything. My wife couldn't find what she wanted to sing, but they ginned up a couple of Blondie songs for her and did quite well at it. They don't have lyric sheets. They are funny as hell though, and a pleasure to deal with.

The third, in Miami, claimed to do every song. But what they would do is put up a karaoke track then bang their drums and strum their guitars along. It was terrible.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

i found a band in a ritzy place in vegas but after their doin it 6mo they have to find a new home to do the rockoake thing. i believe they did about 100 songs but they had it by genre 80s and rock and more current hits. every other week they changed it out. but like it has been said the average karaoke singer is gonna want more.... than 100 or 200 songs and/pr variety

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:angel:

I consider it a novelty, at best. If you've never done it, do it! It's fun the first few times but gets old rather quickly to the seasoned karaoke vet.

The song list is always limited and the drinks are usually watered down. Gimme an old watering hole with a good host and some karaoke. I'm fine with that:)

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I know of a few places that do Live Band Karaoke in NYC. One place is in the Lower East Side called Arlene's Grocery. They have had it there for more years that I can remember (or was ever aware of) on Monday nights. I went there once (to see my Nephew sing). The list consisted of about 20 songs, and nothing that I really sing (or feel my voice is suited for). I have known of a few other places in NY that do this too (although not on any regular basis). There's also a few Piano Bars in NYC where you can go to sing. The Pianist provides you with a copy of the sheet music to sing from while he accompanies you on the Piano.

We have a couple of bands - Rockaraoke being one that does this. It's a niche as most band karaoke don't know more than a few hundred songs at best.

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Never have done live karaoke to this date......but I've done plenty when I was dead drunk......

Around here there was the Fun Time Karaoke Band.

They did a heck of a job with the songs they knew, and it was a blast!

The down side was that they knew about 100 songs, and unfortunately they seem to have disappeared from the area.

I see the main problem as the selection. With only 100 or so songs, there's a good chance ( I actually saw it happen twice) that more than one singer will want to sing the same song on the same night. If done too close together and too often, you lose the crowd. If done too far apart singer number 2 goes away unhappy with the wait....

I've often said that at any given time most karaoke shows mostly use songs from a group of around 300, with a few others occasionally thrown in- despite carrying thousands of tracks.

If the band could learn that many, and I believe Mckyj57 said he knew of one that learned more, then the problem should be pretty much solved..

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" Disc based and loving it..."

They used to have it at The House of Blues in Vegas.

The band was fantastic. They did 3 - 15 songs set in the night. If I remember they had about 300 songs on their list.

I had a great time.

Yah, great fun if you're a guy singer. Most of these bands are guy bands, not chick bands...and in my experience co-fronting a band, it takes the threat of death to get guy bands to learn chick songs. So the few that I have seen, the selection for chick songs was pathetic. Also, I guess if you've fronted or co-fronted, going to do karaoke with a band just isn't the cat's meow. Though, yes, your mileage may vary.

Where I'm from, we just call it a jam session!
The great part is that other people get to play drums, guitar, bass, etc and it's not just for the singers!

Jam nights are different. Like you said they can include any instrument.
Live band karaoke set ups are just what it says, music playing without the singing. It's only for singers - only difference is it's a band instead of a disc.

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As Mcky referred to above in Portland we have the band KARAOKE FROM HELL. They are the Grand Daddies of Live Karaoke Bands. Possibly the originators of the concept. Been doing it here for over 18years. They may in fact have been the original Live Karaoke Band. Presently at DANTE'S on Monday nights and Tiger Bar on Thursday nights. They have over 400+ songs---you can go on thier website and view the songlist. As to people getting up and singing with the them the mix is about 50-50 M/F in fact some nights there are more F singing than M. So as to Karen's remarks, she clearly has not visited a Karaoke From Hell show here in PDX. As to where or why she bases her remarks on the concept on she does not specifially mention. But her overall opinion of the idea clearly is not positive. But to the people who get up and sing with KFH(myself included), it's FUN, FUN, FUN and a whole different bag and feel than just singing off a TV with no musicians around you.

As to Diafel's remarks describing it as a Jam Session, it is NOTHING LIKE A JAM SESSION! KFH is a full 5-piece band with professional musicians who all play with other bands when not doing a KFH show. Singers sing off a song sheet unless the already know the words by heart. The bandleader will help them stay on timing if they get lost during the song. As to jam sessions.....those are for actual musicians to come and sit in and play with other musicians and see what they come up with. And yes I DO KNOW the difference as I have Jam Sessions at my house with BLUES MUSICIANS friends of mine with different people sitting in on bass, guitars and piano, and even my next door neighbor on trumpet.

Here's the real deal: http://karaokefromhell.com/

We also have a second Karaoke band....KARAOKE KINGS but they are much newer and I havent been to one of thier shows yet....but here is thier website:
http://www.karaokekingspdx.com/

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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

Here is the band from around here I was talking about.
http://www.rockaraoke.com/

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they ever have weekend shows?

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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

They used to have club shows, not sure when though. I never actually saw them.

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As to where the whole idea may have sprung from...I think CUE is on the right track with Piano Bars being the original sing along with a live musician/"Band" using a song sheet. Full band then would be the next logical extension of it.

Ive even hosted and run a Live Piano Bar event a couple times as where I KJ we also have a real baby GRAND PIANO at our bar....so Pianist would play the music, I would put the words up on the TV's using karaoke discs instead of song sheets(just shut the sound system part off--have only the video part going....and instant piano bar!

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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