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January 14, 2005
Karaoke From Hell at Dante's in Portland, OR, Monday, Jan. 10
First off I would like to dispel any notion that a karaoke night does not belong in a live show reviews blog by stating that it's very likely that the best performance in any club in this city on this night took place on Dante's stage. Backed by the not-quite-erudite, but impressive nonetheless, Karaoke from Hell band a woman with buzzed hair took the stage and nailed "Barracuda." Now, when I say "nailed" I don't mean that she just got all the words right and stayed in key--which is the definition used when I proclaimed that the Real Matt Wright and I "nailed" "Don't You Want Me" by Human League in Minneapolis a couple months ago. No, for three minutes this woman appeared to be the missing third Wilson sister that would have given Heart the power to conquer the world. Every inflection was there, every minute pause, and yet, she wasn't aping a performance by Heart. She was performing as Heart. It was the type of performance that makes you believe in things like American Idol. If I were Simon Cowell, she would be going to Hollywood, and I would be going home to wax my chest and read GQ.
...and then there was the rest of us. Excited by the attendance of our buddy Michaelangelo Matos from Seattle--who had a reading earlier in the day at Powell's Bookstore--we were all eager to get our lips against a mic and a bottle. Unfortunately, the place was packed and karaoke opportunities were far between, but Matos was able to sneak in two songs, including a steamy rendition of Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives" and an incendiary performance of "Love is the Drug" by Roxy Music. He quickly had a sweaty throng of dancers at his feet and proceeded to freak the fuck out, in a very good way (see photo).
Matt and I managed to get on stage for "Don't You Want Me,"--which is now officially "our song" in a completely hetero sense--and while I can not be objective, all indications were that we did Human League justice, which, I realize, is not hard to do.
A fitting cap to the evening came with our friend Lily's performance of "Lola," a tour de force effort that had the MC, and backup singer Tres Shannon imploring the band to play the outro for an extra minute just so every one of us in the audience, our necks stretched upward like hungry chicks, could shout out the last remnants of our voices.
Drinks Drunk: 1 shot of jag, 3 whiskeys, 6 beers
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Posted by at January 14, 2005 5:37 PM
