Songbird
Sat, 22 Sep 2007.
A significant amount of the people I’ve met here during my time in America have heard me sing. I realised this the other night. The reason this is notable is because I am not the guy that bursts into song around strangers, I need prompting. Another reason is that, for me, singing just isn’t one of those things you’re supposed to hear from a person until you’ve met them a few times and know them well. It’s something akin to knowing the names of their siblings or their favorite foods.
To be honest, it’s that sort of false modesty. I know my voice sounds pretty ok. Not professional by any means but I wouldn’t be an embarrassment. I don’t like to blow my own trumpet but when people give me an opening, I’m all too happy to oblige.
It started when I was at my officemate’s house and I spotted the dusty guitar case in the corner. I was happy because I hadn’t been able to play an acoustic in a while so I grabbed it and started strumming. We were actually waiting for two out-of-town girls to meet us for a night out but when they arrived, I had already packed away the guitar and started flipping through a magazine. At his urging, I pulled out the guitar again and sang to these two complete strangers. That was a pretty big case of nerves right there.
Later I had two friends over at my apartment so that I could show them how delicious my homemade pesto is. My guitar was somehow conveniently left out in plain view and they got to hear my half-complete cover of Hey Ya that I am stealing from Obadiah Parker.
Then there was the out-of-town girl from Ohio who got to hear my incomplete cover of James Blunt’s High.
And finally this week was the night I went out with a workmate to his roommate, his roommate’s fiance and his roommate’s fiance’s friend. It was my first trip to a karaoke place. I have gone through 20+ years on this planet without being to one because evidently I’m not very Asian. It was weird singing into a microphone for the first time and hearing myself so embarrassingly clearly but I think I kicked some ass. I warmed up with a very squeaky rendition of Dashboard Confessional’s Hands Down (I know, I’m sorry Mike) and then I really sold it with Can’t Stop and I wrapped up with something easy: Matchbox 20’s Mad Season.
All this of course means that I’m going to have to upload a video of my singing to YouTube and join the other poseurs singing acoustic covers of their favorite bands. :D
Jack…….jack….jack slowly shakes head Hands Down?? sigh On the upside - Can’t Stop :-D Nice choice :-)
And yes, as a self-appointed representative for the hordes of Jack fans out there, we DEMAND video evidence your your singing.
(well done on doing karaoke, theres no way in hell I could ever control my nerves enough to do that :-P)
I’ve only ever done karaoke twice. Its way more fun when you are drunk. Otherwise its just embarrasing.
Its especially horrible when you are stone cold sober, trying to belt out a boys 2 men song and the video on behind the words has a couple of 50 year olds making out. You cant concentrate on the words with that kind of shit going on behind it. So i guess it pays to know the words to your song considering most of them have cheesy background video that looks like 70s porn.
Karaoke tip #2 don’t make the mistake some of my friends made and sing something with nice long guitar bridges, something like enter the sandman, which leaves you standing on stage waiting for words to come up for around 3 minutes.
My other notable karaoke experiment was a drunken rendition of Betty Davis Eyes after my 21st.If i ever do karaoke again i will endeavor to pick my own song .I must admit a part of me has always wanted to sing rawhide. I’m so lame.