OK I said it. I can’t believe that I just admitted that karaoke can be cool. Notice though that I did not say that I would ever perform karaoke, I am just admitting that it can be very entertaining watching your friends sing well-known songs on stage. Actually, the first time that I ever admitted to enjoying the accursed karaoke was at Roxy’s Green Room on Main Street. Before that I always bolted from the bar that I was in whenever someone picked up the mic. Anyone that has ever been to Roxy’s can attest to the fact that the girls there can do no wrong…
Recently a group of us (RoBear, Sound of Buffalo-photo, Style S***, and the Amy’s) decided to head on over to Klub Karaoke on Niagara Street to see what it was all about. Actually (here I go again), I paid a visit to the place a few years back and remember that it was kinda interesting. First of all it’s on a section of Niagara that I rarely (never) find myself hitting at night… for no other reason other than that I am not familiar with the nightlife in the surrounding neighborhood.
Anyways, a couple things about this joint that I find super interesting are… they have a bathroom fixture bolted onto the front of the club/house (?) and (get this) the top of the bar is made of chalkboard! Sweeet! There are small buckets of chalk that you can grab and in-between drinking and singing you can chalk up the bar to your heart’s content. This is a creative idea, and one that the bar crowd likes to take advantage of. Speaking of the bar crowd, Klub Karaoke has an eclectic one. We noticed that there was a good number of college students hamming it up on stage along with some locals… all in all there was a wide variety of people, which means that there was a wide variety of ‘talent’.
Klub Karaoke has been around for about 8 years, and in that time has attracted a pretty good crowd of regulars. We could tell that most of the people on stage were seasoned singers and loved the spotlight. We heard just about everything that night and even found ourselves (along with the entire bar) singing along with a few of the performers. Yikes… that’s the beer talkin’. Neil Radice Sr. owns this rather unusual bar and when we spoke with him he wanted to pass along to BRO viewers – “Anyone interested in singing is more than welcome to join in the fun. We have 8 week long competitions once in a while that have become infamous in certain circles. It’s all about having a good time. Any Thursday, Friday and Saturday you can find us over here belting out our favorite songs to an audience that appreciates the effort.” Thatis all I need to hear. I will definitely head back to The Klub to catch some more kOekOekOekaraoke. See, I can still barely type the word let alone admit that I enjoy myself at Klub Karaoke. By the way, Sound of Buffalo was the only one in our group who had the courage to get up and sing that night. What a ham!
Oh, I almost forgot. The crazy colored disco ball is just about the funniest thing I have ever seen at any club. It is totally spazmotic and adds an additional cheesy element to the scene as it hovers and flits about each singer’s head!
Take Neil up on his offer and pay a visit to Klub Karaoke located at 2081 Niagara St, in Buffalo (716) 877-1025.
Top Photo: queenseyes
Bottom Photo: RoBear