Rockstar Dreams

My band, Negative Ken, has a new singer. She's a little green but she's got great potential. All she needs is a little experience. With that in mind, we went last night (Myself, the singer, Lauren, and my drummer Lee) to Arlene's Grocery to partake in a little Rock N' Roll Karaoke.

Every Monday, Arlene's has a live band (who are AMAZING!) playing from a playlist of hits (about 60 songs). The only thing missing is: You! This is exactly like Karaoke except that playing in front of a live band is a whole different experience. Tempo and arrangement are often different than the recordings and adjusting to those differences is the kind of experience I wanted Lauren to have. She chose to sing "I love rock n' roll" by Joan Jett.

She took the stage, the 4th song of the night, and the boys instantly went nuts. She was wearing a slinky black cocktail dress and she got into the song with her whole body. With every shake of her hips and her purring lyrics, the men in the crowd responded. All was going well through the first chorus until...

She muffed the lyrics. As the second verse started, she lost her place in the lyrics book and the singer in the backup band had to come over to put her back in place. All of a sudden, the life went out of her performance. She stopped moving, she wasn't enjoying herself, and her singing was a little flat. It's not a critique, because we've all been there as performers, but it was valuable experience she can learn from. I was very proud of her. She really is a natural and she'll knock everyone's socks off in our first gig together once she finds her footing.

Of course, this did not absolve me of my responsibility of getting up there and rocking the house. Which I did, to the tune of "The boys are back in town" by Thin Lizzy. I don't want to pat myself on the back, but the girls screamed in delight. :-)