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Palace Hotel karaoke venue review on www.where2sing.com

REVIEW: The Palace Hotel

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The speakers are not new, but they're the right size, and up high on poles which means the sounds really fills the bar. And the KJ's player, amp and mixer are neatly roadcased, sitting on a table that has been covered with a black cloth, and looks business-like. The stage area is simply a corner of the bar, but it serves the purpose well, and the singer stands in front of a large rear-projection screen, with his monitor off to one side. There are no micropohone stands, but instead the host hands each singer a solid corded mic which seems to produce a great sound.

In fact, the whole setup produces a great sound, albeit that most of the singers aren't really up the the task. The mic is being held at the right distance, the sound mixed nicely, but this is pub karaoke and the singers are just the locals enjoying a great afternoon of karaoke. During the course of just one song, I see more than four request slips being handed up, so I hand in mine fairly soon after getting a nice cold XXXX Gold.

Sundays are lazy days in Brisbane, a time to head out of the city and out to one of the beaches, or perhaps the bay. Heading north about 20 minutes, there's the Redcliffe peninsular, accessed via a long, low bridge that seems to span the estuary water endlessly, and, from the height of the tall lightpoles, pelicans are apt to roost and paint those passing below who are unfortunate enough to have open sunroofs. But no pelicans today as I drive along, even though this is a Sunday afternoon and the sun is blazing down. Perhaps pelicans don't work on Sundays.

After the several minute drive over the bridge, I veer off right and follow the water, and keep heading right until I'm in the corner of the Redcliffe peninsular called Woody Point. Normally I would stop here, buy fish and chips from the rather downmarket but nevertheless extremely pricey fish shop on the corner, then walk across to the edge of the water, and sit at a bench admiring the view and munching fish and chips. Not today - or at least, not yet.

Because I continue driving following the water, and up the hill that gives a great view of the bay - and at the top I find the pub I'm seeking, the Palace Hotel.

Woody Point has come up in the world in recent years - well, all apart from the fish shop which merely increased its prices - and the Palace Hotel has been appropriately tarted up to fit in. It certainly wasn't one of those multi million dollar renovations that turn rundown shacks into pseudo Irish pubs, but rather a pleasant and sympathic neatening up of an old hotel, and to my mind it has been done rather nicely. The effect is of an old hotel that has been modernised, and which has retained its olde worlde charm.

Walking up the steps into the building, there's a spacious restaurant on the right, though not in use today, and the main bar is on the left, occupying approximately half the building. The serving bar is in the middle, and the areas that surround it all have windows giving an excellent view of the bay - not those large modern windows that destroy an old building, but rather nice big windows but in keeping with the hotel's architecture. There's also a generous deck overlooking the water, with about half a dozen tables for those who'd like to relax outside, and it's covered with an awning to protect from the sun.

I can imagine a pleasant day spent at the beach, then coming back to the Palace Hotel for a late afternoon drink, meal, and karaoke. Ideal.

But those in the hotel seem to be regulars, and indeed regulars keen to sing, so perhaps the lack of any signs outside saying karaoke is to blame for not attracting those who have spent a day on the beach. This story on where2sing.com should fix that!

This is AJ's Karaoke, and he lady running the . . .(full story on where2sing.com)


Read the rest of this exclusive Karaoke Gig Review, and find whether this karaoke gig is still running on Where2sing.com . . .

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