Karaoke Forums

Hi all, it's been a long time since I visited here. I just had to share this experience I had with a venue that has a karaoke locally. I haven't been out a while or posted since I had a shoulder surgery so I thought it would be fun to go out for a change and sing with my Meetup group that sings regularly.

First the venue was terrible to start with. They had three people working in front, two bartenders and the owner. There were no more than 20 people in the place. Apparently that is being swamped for these people as they are very very slow in service. For example, I ordered a drink, water and food at the same time. I got my drink, he forgot the water. He said he will bring it out right away. Then they brought out the food, which same 20 minutes later for an appetizer, then he still forgot the water. He didn't bring out the water until I finished the meal, almost 45 minutes after asking for it. At the end of the night, I had to stand next to bar for 15 minutes for them to give me my tab so I can pay. On top of this, they charged us automatic tip of 20% because we had 10 people! Typically that only applies to dinner, not to drinks and appetizers. When we complained about the service, he blamed us for not making a reservation. Reservation for a bar? Really?

On the KJ. People in my group likes this KJ because he advertises that he has 50,000 songs, obvious pirate. First, his gear mostly Vocopro and he has small mixer, two mics, one 10" powered speaker. He placed the speaker on the floor right behind the singer, so the feedbacks were the norm, I counted at least 15 times where there was a feedback. Typically when I do get a feedback, I bring down the singer volume. This guy wouldn't do a thing until the singer moved the mic. Which mean some feedbacks lasted for more than 10 secs. Then I realized that I couldn't hear the mid and high. Why? Because had the fricking speaker bag still on the speaker! He actually just unzipped his speaker bag and connected the cables and had the face the back of the singer. I only realized this because I went up close to see what brand of speaker he was using that was so bottom heavy.

I was so fed up, I left. Next day in our discussion for the group online, we complained about the venue and the set up. He actually came on and took it personally and said the criticisms "hurts him and his family". A direct quote. I don't know what to make of this guy.

Well, I do have a favor to ask the group. If anyone has a good article or two to post about the karaoke piracy by KJs, I would appreciate it. I am not about to do any debate here, just wanted to inform the group about this issue so they know about it.

Thanks all.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

Since you do not want this to become a debate of sorts, I'll just say this one thing in response to what that KJ posted in your Meet-Up Forum... He should have specified what exactly "hurt him and his Family," and maybe even add on a point by point response to each item you and your Meet-Up group posted about.

I have nothing against using VocoPro stuff. I've been to some fine karaoke shows where the kj used VocoPro mics and they sounded just fine to me. I was really surprised to hear that he only had 1 ten inch speaker and it was sitting on the floor. That is crazy to me.

You should invite him here so he can learn like I did how to run a successful show.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

To each his own, every time I've seen VP, (being kind here) it wasn't all that.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Oh, I've seen way worse than that.

But about venues:

My biggest problem I have is absent owners that also manage the bar. The bartender (just one) works 3-4 other shifts per week and makes very little money in tips. Karaoke night for her is her money maker. She refuses to ask for an additional bartender because she doesn't want to share her tips. There is no table service once there is more than like 20 people in there. So, not only are tables filthy and littered with empties, people are waiting 5-10 minutes at the bar for a drink. And, she shuts down the food & keno. People complain to me and I let the owners know, but the bartender assures her she is handling it.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Well, a negative review would the ego, and if people took it to heart, the family finances. Can't think of much else.

The thing is that the KJ is the only one responsible for that. If he runs a show as described he should expect some criticism.

A point by point response might be intersting to hear. My guess is that if he runs an extremely minimalist set-up such as described, he either can't afford, or doesn't want to spend the money to upgrade.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Don't know your location, but you have almost exactly described a place I know just over the NY state line from NJ. I mean almost spot on....

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

1. Report him to SC and Chartbuster.

A venue like that is not interested in paying for quality professional entertainment. I would have never paid the 20% tip that was included. For what?? (@$%&#!) service??

In this case, telling the owners that he's probably illegal wouldn't do much good as apparently they don't care.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Do you have the contact info for the SC and CB? I go out once in a while and I personally know 5-6 venues here are using Internet bought 50,000+ song and they are definitely undercutting all the legit ones. I quit doing bars because of it and only do private parties.

If you send where I can report them, would appreciate it.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

They both have a report a pirate link on their main pages.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Typically that 15% or 20% rule appplies to dining at some Restaurant Food Chain (for example, Dallas BBQ's), and it includes your whole meal.... drinks and appetizers and desserts included. It varies as to the number of your party. Some places say 6, some say 8, some say 10 or more. The one thing that gets to me, is when they do it backwards by computing TIP on the whole total AFTER Tax and not BEFORE Tax.

Now, for future reference, even if it is written on their menu or on some sign posted up in the Restaurant, if you feel that serveice was not worth a 15% or 20% TIP, then the Restaurant can not make you pay it. I have done this (on an extremely very rare occasion), where I have called for a Manager, and told him/her that service was horrendous, and I will not pay the TIP that was added to the bill. I haven't had any arguement from them after stating that. I am prepared for a verbal fight if I ever have that kind of experience again (where they include TIP in the bill), and I'm ready to tell the Manager to call the Police if they push the issue. Now, I have had some lousy service in a few Restaurants over the years, and what I have done was to TIP the Host for seating me, and made it clear that Waiter service was lousy, and this was for the Host doing his/her job in seating me/us.

I don't know about where you are but around here, the 15%-20% tip for larger than x amount of people only works on full dinner. We were there mostly for cocktail and karaoke. Only a couple of us actually ordered appetizers. They charged us 20% for everyone's bill, incidentally were individual bills not a group bill, then have the audacity to tell us that the service was slow because we didn't make reservation for the cocktails so they couldn't bring in more workers to speed up the process. Really? You need 4 people to serve 20 people who were at the venue? To me, that's inefficient work. I know plenty of servers who can serve 10-15 people at a time and never miss an order and be very efficient. They were just SLOW.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I'm confused now... Was this a Bar or a Restaurant that you went to? Where I come from (NY), Bars don't add on TIP (any percentage) to your final Bill/Tab, and they don't require you to make a Reservation in advance. On the other hand, a Restaurant might require Reservations to be made.

As for the actual ordering of food (this means ANY food, whether it be an appetizer or a main course), in my area, if it is in a Bar that serves food, they usually will not charge you Tax on the drinks you order ONLY if you are sitting at the Bar and the Bartender is serving you. If you are sitting at a table, and a Waiter/Waitress is serving you, then they will charge you Tax for your drinks as well.

As for the Add-On of Mandatory TIPs in one's bill, this is only done at select Restaurants (my experiences indicate this is usually done at a Chain-Restaurant). The main thing is, once you have been served by a Waiter/Waitress at these places, everything goes down on ONE Check, and thus, the reason/justification for them adding on that TIP for larger groups. From what you described, if everyone received a separate check, then the TIP should NOT have been added on to each person's Check. If I went through what you described, I would have paid the bill MINUS the TIP. And, as I said before, if they have a problem with that, let them call the Police to settle it.