Karaoke Forums

I always liked this adage "If you like the food and service, tell everybody - If you don't like the food and service, tell us".

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I like that one a lot!!

"God I hate that song"

People love me cause I toss the songs that suck or don't fit the crowd.

Here's others that will kill it for us and we won't go back:

They play 8 to 10 songs and then 2 karaoke songs and then back to 8 to 10 songs all while there is a line of slips of people waiting to sing.

Skipping someone twice in the same rotation. This is esp noticable when there are only 4 or 5 people singing.

And the only reason we still go to one place on Saturday night is cause he's run the equipment before and will stop his own songs while the KJ sits at the bar. (He doesn't do more than that cause than it would mean that he would be running it and he's already said that he would not do that if the current one is still supposed to get paid for it but the owner of the bar does not want to fire a friend)

We have even left resturants after sitting for about 10 mins or more without even a "I'll be right there" from an otherwise not that busy place.

I used to be a regular at a local venue that has had a long running karaoke show. A few years ago the owner and the KJ that they had at the time developed a "personality conflict" and the owner wanted to get rid of the KJ. However, the 2 times that he "fired" his KJ, he didn't have a replacement lined up and his business on Friday and Saturday nights tanked, so he was forced both time to bring him back. However, myself and the rest of the karaoke regulars there noticed that, after the 2nd firing and re-hiring, there was a definite hostility towards karaoke, the KJ, and the regulars by the staff that worked at this place. We would sit at our "regular" table and watch other people come in after us and receive immediate service, then when we would finally get service it would be very slow. I should mention that we were not a bunch of "water drinkers" but we would come in and order dinner and drinks each and every time. The owner also told the KJ that he was to play a DJ song after every 4 karaoke songs, no matter how busy it got. Finally the owner did find someone to replace the old KJ and after he did there was improvement, but that changed last year when he replaced the KJ yet again.

The show there is now awful, and we have all found other venues to spend our money at.

The bottom line is...the staff at any venue will have an attitude that many times reflects how the owner feels.

I usually nurse a beer so the slow service isn't a bad thing for me. But as long as the poor service isn't from the KJ I'll bear through it.

Followup to my original rant:

Went back to the place last night because truly it is the only place around that comes anywhere near being a great place to sing. We arrived, host (friend) comes to greet us. I say jokingly, 'Should I just ASK if they're going to serve us tonight and, if not, we'll just drink water?' He kind of cringed so obviously our complaints had not gone unheard.

Presto! We have our own server last night - literally. The place wasn't busy enough to warrant two on the floor but one server did nothing but wait on us - every few minutes asked if everything was okay (not to an annoying level but making it obvious that we were majorly on her radar). Made all the difference in the world to our evening. Unfortunately, having been there twice now, I don't see this place flourishing like it should based on the host/equipment, etc. -- just not enough traffic. Hope the damage done isn't permanent.

I kinda had the opposite experience, and it was so strange I thought I'd share. The previous KJ at "my venue" was upset that they changed one of his nights to one of those "sing with the band" things (which only lasted 3 weeks and he was told it might not last long and would get his night back if it didn't.) He gave 2 days notice that he was quitting and then told his regulars various stories about retiring, being fired, not being paid enough, etc. Some customers were pretty hostile towards me for several months when I was given his old nights!

Now the venue has a DJ on Sunday (I was asked to do karaoke but I didn't want to work there 4-5 nights a week; I'd get burnt out!) I noticed customers giving him a hard time, so I have tried to make him feel welcome and encourage customers to go see him and give him a chance.

I guess regular bar patrons want what they want and changing things can create unexpected friction.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ