One increasingly popular variant of karaoke is “live band” karaoke. As its name suggests, the instrumental accompaniment in this version is supplied by actual band members rather than CD’s or MP3’s. (A scene from a typical night of live band karaoke, at some random bar in North Carolina that I’ve never been to, is shown in the photo on the left.) I’m not generally a fan of live band karaoke, for a couple of reasons. First, the song list is limited to the repertoire of the band. Typically this results in a choice from among a mere several hundred tunes, rather than the tens of thousands of song offerings at the best venues for “traditional” karaoke. Second, because the song isn’t coming from a pre-recorded medium, there’s no source of data to feed the lyrics to a video monitor. Thus, in the live-band karaoke format, you either must have the words memorized, or must supply your own copy of them. (To meet that need, you might end up referring to the lyrics in the form of a printout you made from the internet, or on the screen of your smartphone. This creates an additional drawback: reading from an elevated screen, as you would do at an ordinary karaoke venue, can be like reading a speech from a teleprompter, in that it allows you to still engage with the audience. In contrast, repeatedly staring down at a cheat-sheet that you’re holding in your hands is much more likely to get in the way of your making eye contact with the crowd.) Relatedly, you’re largely on your own for synchronizing the vocals with the instrumental backing. While the band will provide you with some cues, you can’t rely on every single word of the song changing colour at the appropriate time to prompt you throughout the song.
For some people, these disadvantages of live-band karaoke are outweighed by the benefits of an experience that simulates fronting for a rock band. I have to say, I have an enormous amount of respect for lead singers of real bands, who are required to memorize the words to dozens of songs at any given time, and who need to have perfect timing as well as superior vocal abilities.
Despite my general disdain for live-band karaoke, one night each year I participate in an activity that closely resembles it. Continue reading
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