Karaoke! At an actual karaoke place, this time, meaning we were largely limited to actual hits rather than the obscure nonsense we tend to sing at home.
I arrived a few minutes after the starting time, so the others had already gone in. I didn't know the surname of the person who'd booked the room, so I told the receptionist, 'I'm looking for a group of millennials with interesting hair.'
'You're in room seven,' he said, sagely.
For my first song, Rei and I performed 'Scream' from High School Musical 3, with all the intensity we could manage. It was swiftly followed by another guest's pick of 'The Emptiness Machine' by Linkin Park, which really brought home how thematically similar 'Scream' is to a Linkin Park song.
Tem wasn't able to come along, alas, but asked us to perform 'Livin' on a Prayer' in xyr honour; Rei and I dutifully belted it out. It was fun! Very difficult song to sing without dramatic arm motions. We did not manage to resist the dramatic arm motions.
I also fell prey to the temptation to gesture dramatically when joining in on another guest's pick of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' later on. At one point, during this song, I turned and saw that all the people in the room had turned on their phone torches and were waving them in time to the music.
(NB: when I say 'all the people in the room', I mean about five people, but please feel free to envision me bringing the house down in front of a massive crowd if you'd like.)
My other performances:
- 'Teenage Dirtbag' was another person's pick, but it was one I'd been thinking about singing myself, so I took the second microphone. The whole room sang along with gusto.
- When I'd warmed up enough to get overambitious, I attempted 'All the Things She Said' by TATU and 'Savior' by Rise Against. Both very fun; both very challenging!
- I did 'Dreams' by the Corrs. One member of the party, not having realised it was a cover rather than the Fleetwood Mac original, expressed confusion at this 'dance remix'.
- As a favour to my twelve-year-old self, I performed 'Hunter' by Dido, a song I loved when I was a kid. In my head, I'd tied it to my childhood dragon obsession; a friend of mine told me that the music video featured a dragon, and I didn't realise until I was an adult and actually watched the video that this was an outrageous lie. I was sure other people would know this one, but apparently not, so I ended up doing an unanticipated solo!
- I correctly judged that most of the room would know 'Immortals' by Fall Out Boy. Everyone sang along with this one; it was fun!
- A guest who'd gone to the loo came back into the room during my performance of 'How You Remind Me' by Nickelback and said, 'Oh, this song,' damningly. Another person also expressed unhappiness when I chose this song for home karaoke earlier in the year. Karaoke is not a place for taste. Every time this song gets a disparaging comment, I'm just going to perform it again, louder.
And a few notes from performances by other people:
- We all ended up on our feet, doing ridiculous synchronised backing dancing, during a solo perfomance of 'Lay All Your Love on Me' by ABBA. Great fun.
- I forced Rei to sing 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' by Panic! at the Disco because they'd recently read a songfic based on it and were cursed to be unable to take it seriously. 'I'm going to murder you,' Rei informed me, as I handed them the microphone.
- The people singing 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash also struggled to take it seriously, and it was very funny to see them losing it laughing while attempting the very sombre lyrics.
- The songs everyone could join in on were a real blast. 'Rasputin' immediately followed by 'Stacy's Mom': an incredible combination. I also enjoyed everyone singing passionately on the chorus of 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Girls.
- 'Maybe I should add this to my Bill/Dipper playlist,' Rei commented to me during 'Murder on the Dancefloor' by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Shortly afterwards, they spotted me making notes for this entry and expressed concern that I was going to expose their Billdip playlist plans. I was actually just noting that most of the room ended up on their feet and dancing during the song, but, because I was so amused by Rei's reaction, I'm now also telling you that it's going onto their Bill/Dipper playlist.
I arrived a few minutes after the starting time, so the others had already gone in. I didn't know the surname of the person who'd booked the room, so I told the receptionist, 'I'm looking for a group of millennials with interesting hair.'
'You're in room seven,' he said, sagely.
For my first song, Rei and I performed 'Scream' from High School Musical 3, with all the intensity we could manage. It was swiftly followed by another guest's pick of 'The Emptiness Machine' by Linkin Park, which really brought home how thematically similar 'Scream' is to a Linkin Park song.
Tem wasn't able to come along, alas, but asked us to perform 'Livin' on a Prayer' in xyr honour; Rei and I dutifully belted it out. It was fun! Very difficult song to sing without dramatic arm motions. We did not manage to resist the dramatic arm motions.
I also fell prey to the temptation to gesture dramatically when joining in on another guest's pick of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' later on. At one point, during this song, I turned and saw that all the people in the room had turned on their phone torches and were waving them in time to the music.
(NB: when I say 'all the people in the room', I mean about five people, but please feel free to envision me bringing the house down in front of a massive crowd if you'd like.)
My other performances:
- 'Teenage Dirtbag' was another person's pick, but it was one I'd been thinking about singing myself, so I took the second microphone. The whole room sang along with gusto.
- When I'd warmed up enough to get overambitious, I attempted 'All the Things She Said' by TATU and 'Savior' by Rise Against. Both very fun; both very challenging!
- I did 'Dreams' by the Corrs. One member of the party, not having realised it was a cover rather than the Fleetwood Mac original, expressed confusion at this 'dance remix'.
- As a favour to my twelve-year-old self, I performed 'Hunter' by Dido, a song I loved when I was a kid. In my head, I'd tied it to my childhood dragon obsession; a friend of mine told me that the music video featured a dragon, and I didn't realise until I was an adult and actually watched the video that this was an outrageous lie. I was sure other people would know this one, but apparently not, so I ended up doing an unanticipated solo!
- I correctly judged that most of the room would know 'Immortals' by Fall Out Boy. Everyone sang along with this one; it was fun!
- A guest who'd gone to the loo came back into the room during my performance of 'How You Remind Me' by Nickelback and said, 'Oh, this song,' damningly. Another person also expressed unhappiness when I chose this song for home karaoke earlier in the year. Karaoke is not a place for taste. Every time this song gets a disparaging comment, I'm just going to perform it again, louder.
And a few notes from performances by other people:
- We all ended up on our feet, doing ridiculous synchronised backing dancing, during a solo perfomance of 'Lay All Your Love on Me' by ABBA. Great fun.
- I forced Rei to sing 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' by Panic! at the Disco because they'd recently read a songfic based on it and were cursed to be unable to take it seriously. 'I'm going to murder you,' Rei informed me, as I handed them the microphone.
- The people singing 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash also struggled to take it seriously, and it was very funny to see them losing it laughing while attempting the very sombre lyrics.
- The songs everyone could join in on were a real blast. 'Rasputin' immediately followed by 'Stacy's Mom': an incredible combination. I also enjoyed everyone singing passionately on the chorus of 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Girls.
- 'Maybe I should add this to my Bill/Dipper playlist,' Rei commented to me during 'Murder on the Dancefloor' by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Shortly afterwards, they spotted me making notes for this entry and expressed concern that I was going to expose their Billdip playlist plans. I was actually just noting that most of the room ended up on their feet and dancing during the song, but, because I was so amused by Rei's reaction, I'm now also telling you that it's going onto their Bill/Dipper playlist.
