REVIEW: Fabulous sound, but...

EXCLUSIVE where2sing.com KARAOKE GIG REVIEW

I've seen this host in another venue, and was impressed by his equipment but perhaps less by his hosting manner.

He's young, and has obviously spent up big, but in the last venue I saw him with a fairly small crowd - and the venue has since fallen off the W2S listings. This is not to say that he struggles for singers, because he's running the kind of rig that brings discerning singers a long way to have the opportunity to sing, but it does mean that pretty much every person there is a singer, and that the wait to sing can be long.

Just out of Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, up on St Paul's Terrace and near the showgrounds, is the Jubilee Hotel. In the last few years it has received a makeover, and is now nicely decorated and boasting a number of extra areas. One of these is the covered eating area out the back.

I walked in the front door, past a sign advertising the karaoke, but all I could hear was the sound of singing coming from upstairs - and a sign at the foot of the stairs announcing a private party. I went to the main bar and asked the girl 'Am I correct in guessing that the karaoke is upstairs, and that it's a private party?' But no, she told me, the karaoke is out the back, 'It's quiet tonight' she volunteered, 'but at least that means you can get a few songs in'. I admire her positive note, and buy my drink.

'Out the back' turns out to be a large eating area, under cover - and modernised, like the rest of the hotel. I walk in at deck level, on which the long bar is also set, ahead of me is a lower main level, and to the right and taking up the whole width of the area - and slightly lower than my deck but higher than the central space - is the huge stage. The karaoke console is set up on the right of the stage, and it is a modern affair. Obviously purpose built, it seems to house everything that the host will need, with an LCD screen stuck on the front of it for the audience, and a flap-out LCD screen on the side for the singer. To the singer's right is a normal sized foldback on the ground, but at the front of the stage, on the extreme left and right are two huge FOH speakers sitting on top of hefty subs. This is the sort of equipment that would happily serve a band, and indeed the very reason that singers will come a long way to sing with this host.

However, the girl singing is rather ordinary in quality, and the sound therefore mediocre - but definitely no reflection on the host's equipment. And there sits the host, stretched back in a chair in the audience, headset positioned attractively on his head, cigarette in hand.

The crowd is small, perhaps 10 or 12 in all. A couple of guys sit on the deck onto which I've just arrived, and I choose a table nearer the stage and at which is a songbook. In the centre of the room sit a few more people, close to the host, and they seem to know him because they pass friendly remarks. And over the other side are a couple more guys.

The sound, as I've mentioned, . . .(full story on where2sing.com)

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