Karaoke Forums

You're at a Karaoke bar on a weekend, earlier in the evening there was a
decent enough crowd. But now its only midnight and the place is almost EMPTY!!

So what gives? Why'd they all leave? What drove them out?

Well, to my mind there's one reason and one reason only when this happens on a regular basis: LOUSY KJ/DJ. Plain and simple. There is nothing that will kill a crowd, run them off and ruin the sales for the night quicker than a lousy KJ who is not paying attention to the mix, the music, the sound, is too busy flirting(either sex), playing favorites, is disorganized, is drunk, or just doesn't care.

They will KILL the bar's business.

What do you say is the reason?

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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

All of the above, Swingcat. Amazing that owners/managers don't seem to notice this. This particularly applies if the remainder of the staff and the conditions in the place are great - good bartenders and servers, good food, quick service. I've seen this happen over and over again. Why are these KJ/DJ's still working? Who the heck knows.

I was at a show the other night where the same guy sang 3 songs in a row in every rotation.....Always a solo on "his" turn and then 2 duets back to back with two of his "friends/shills" on their turns. I won't be going back to that place. Another guy at the same place had one of his friends put up a song for him to sing as a dedication but it had the friend's name on the slip and the KJ let him sing out of turn. KJ's like that are why people find new places to sing. You lose a couple singers every month or so and before you know it, all you have left are the people that you allow to take advantage of the rotation and everyone is somewhere else singing where the rotation is more fair. A lot of KJ's don't think that "their" singers notice the discrepencies in the rotations but WE DO.

Or it could have been that the KJ's girlfriend went berserk from hearing a lineup of "He Stopped Loving Her," "4 Walls," "Picture" and "My Heart Will Go On" and grabbed the new skull mic and blasted them with Green Day's "Know Your Enemy."

Maybe at midnight, they go they go walkin!

My singers stay until I kick them out. They are always trying to see if I They squeeze on more song in. They know I will play as long as I can, and the owner is pretty flexible. Last night I had to kick out the last 6 singers at 2AM on the button.

Felix the KJ

Kurt, I think Saturday night dynamics are different in that revelers are more prone to going to several bars than being at one all night. When I'm gigging or even just aa patron at a bar on Saturdays, I usually see an ebb and flow all night: crowd that arrives when things start, another "rush" around 10:30 pm and another about midnight.

It sounds like there was more ebb than flow though...you never know what else was going on at other nearby bars and clubs that night. Might have been a killer band, or a place with $2 drinks, or a new club getting buzz.

It's too easy to blame that night's entertainer for a lack of business, when it could be affected by a number of OUTSIDE influences beyond the ocntrol of the entertainer or their bar.

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

Dan--Im sure thats the case in most places--but i refernce the place that i used to dj at--and the same phenomenon is thrus fri sat....starts out with a decent crowd, by midnight empty and never fills back up for the last 2-2.5 hours and that allows for the normal ebb and flow you describe.

But what i describe is a good full room emptying out by 11:30 no later than midnihgt when it COULD have been full, pumpin, groovin til closing with the bar staff SHOOING them out at 2:30 am. This place has now qualified itself for the category of "GOOD KARAOKE GONE BAD"....
to the TUNE OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF LOST SALES FOR the owner who doesnt seem to be able to grasp the concept of the ESSSENTIAL NEED for a SKILLED KJ/DJ.

His concept of a KJ is a pretty waitress or bartenter who is MADE to DJ and more often than not hates karaoke to begin with(because the waitresses and bartenders make more money) and accordingly the attitude, behavior and the results(AFTERMATH) that are the result.

And he wonders why he's having to cut payroll, reduce DJ pay, start being closed on Sundays and Mondays(compleltly), reducing hours, etc etc etc.

In this case it is DIRECTLY attributable to lousy dj's running off the crowds on the busy evenings and the associated sales losses that go with it. IF the DJ/KJ were skilled and could keep the place jumping, the revenue would more than cover for the need to make drastic business changes and more than tide the place over during this recessionary period.

By contrast the salsa dance club downstairs has some of the hottest salsa DJ's in the city and is PACKED UNTIL CLOSING each night its open(Wed-Sat). The money it makes is what is keeping the entire place afloat. Without it the doors would have closed. Due to the skill and popularity of the DJ's.

Wait and bar staff remain same between the two clubs so neither add nor subtract from the situation.

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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

Damm, you shoulda called me, I could have made some noise until 2 am.

(was that at B.B's, the place you told me about?)

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

Yes I know thats OH SO TRUE and youd have to be oout on the dance floor too-cause I know you cant resist to SHAKE YO BOOTAY!!!

no at the place in downtown PDX that i used to hve my KJ gig and still do fill ins on special events of short notice no-shows.

NO not at BB's. BB's actually held their crowd---older crowd base doing mostly CW and standards--mostly locals and the place closes i think at midnihgt anyway.

But find me out something agbout the places in Mulino and Mollala---see about one of those.

How far would Estacada be from u?

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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

I say only that you MAY be right. I'm not speaking of myself, but of one of my mentors. In my opinion, this man is the penultimate host. The VENUE can do the deed as well. I noticed that my mentor (and friend)'s club was emptying early. What I did was google the venue. What came up was comments about bad service, bill padding, surly attitudes from employees, orders taken, yet delivered incorrectly, etc... The only POSITIVE was my friend. The place was destroying itself with bad service, bad business practices, and bad press.

Sometimes there is just nothing a good Karaoke host can do.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Unfortunately at this place there is some of that u refer to.

Ive done several searches on local bar guides, internet etc and there is some UGLY stuff there.

So that is a COMPONENT(not that huge i think tho)---if anything it would be word of mouth--which goes back to word getting around about lousy KJ's.

Just like word getting around about the HOT SALSA DJ's downstairs-luckily the owner doenst screw aournd with the DJ's downstairs--as opposed to putting unsuitable waitresse/bartenders as the KJ's upstairs.

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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

You would think if they were that bad, they would eventually not get anyone showing up in the first place. But this having an employee do the karaoke is something we have enocuntered in our area also, even at the casinos. At one place the hostess was nice but didn't know sound. They got in a real KJ and he packed the place before being stolen away. So they went back to employee and he was evidently insulting anyone who wasn't a good singer or picked a slow song he didn't like so now karaoke is booted to a week night and a DJ was brought in.

We experience some empyting on Sats as it gets to be past the older people's bedtimes or, as Dan mentions, people were there all Friday night and Sat they are going to hop around a bit. We will get an early crowd, then a lull, then a later crowd when the casino across the street quits their weekly raffle. If we have at least 2 cute young females out on the dance floor we can keep our crowd all night but if we don't, they go looking elsewhere. There was also a bit of a loss on the Friday show which is usually jammed because it was a new bartendress and she was expecting people to PAY for their drinks. So as Joe said, sometimes you can't do anything.

That is odd Swing. Usually midnight is the happening time. I've seen even a bad KJ keep a crowd til close just because people want to sing. Something is obviously wrong with the setup.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Ok, ok, I'll head into Molalla in the next day or three. I'm only about 20 minutes from there. I haven't done karaoke there in years (like, 15) but I don't think we're going to find too much to offer. You know Molalla- karaoke song, barfight, next karaoke song, next barfight, etc... but I do have some friends in the area, so I'll see what I can get figured out for you.



About 15 minutes up the mountain. Probably better karaoke there, because the other side of Estacada is actual "town". Definately better fishing there, they have Promontory and Faraday Lake. So, there's your options, you wanna sing... or you wanna catch some trout?

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

It's happening more and more these days, and it could be for the same reason, I'd always come home "half-drunk" as far back, as I can remember......
I run outta of money......

well estacada has a place i checked on the north side of town. dropped some mags there one day and spoke with the bartender/kj lady. seemed like a decent enough room--not over-huge like SW nor tiny like Dennys. average sized. so that could be a possibliity.

As to fishing---i go out there frequently to North Fork.

ahhh but that all depends on waht KIND of trout YOU were wanting to bag!!!!

And i expect youll be wanting to go "FLY" Fishing????

Perhaps you will be "TROLLING"???

But either way you can EXPECT to tie into a "BIG ONE"!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Myself.............i go out there for regular old stocker RAINBOW's!! Powerbait or rooster tail lures usually do the trick. Early morning or late afternoons. Renting a boat for trolling can work too>

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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

Swingcat, an experienced woman never has to rent a boat to troll.....

Haha, so true Karen:)

Yes, Kurt, I would be bringing my flyrod, you know that... running up and down the bank looking for the "perfect casting spot". If using my openfaced, I'd be tying on a 3/8" blue & silver kastmaster- and watching you cry while I caught all the fish, hahaha.

Trolling? Trolling boats are for the faint of heart & the lazy old men... I don't like to drift to fish. Nope, nope, I like to have a bit of action, not catch a nap while my line trails behind the boat.

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥