The Karoake Korrespondent Crashes the Winter Olympics!

Last weekend, I went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Vancouver, BC to check out the scene at the Olympics with a couple buddies. Finding a spot to karaoke wound up being way more of a pain in the ass than we ever thought it would be. We got in late Thursday night and started asking around about k-bars right away, but most people didn't have a clue where they were. We were only able to build up a list of six spots to check out.

After trying to stay conscious through all the beers and shots I drank starting at noon on Friday, I really wanted to get the singing out of the way that night so I could drink without worry the next day. The problem was the bars we found in and around downtown that normally did karaoke had canceled it because of the Winter Games. We did find a Japanese restaurant with private karaoke rooms, but there is no fun in that--so we bagged it. We ended up at a non-karaoke bar called the Penthouse, and promised ourselves we'd confirm a karaoke spot before we started drinking on Saturday so we wouldn't run into the same problem.

The next day, we decided on a place called Checkers Bar & Grill and got there at around 9 p.m. It's a sports bar connected to a Best Western in the West End just outside of downtown. In addition to the Olympics, there was UFC going on that night. The karaoke started after 10 because they had to wait until the last fight was over.

I was good and didn't start drinking until 3:30 that day. As soon as the KJ started setting up shop, I got a book from him. It wasn't that big a selection, but it seemed to cover a lot of the essentials. I was definitely going to perform something by a Canadian. Bryan Adams was who I was originally going to go for but didn't trust my voice that night. I decided to go with Winnipeg's own Bachman Turner Overdrive and perform "Let It Ride."

The KJ's name was Whitney, and he kicked things off with "Let's Stay Together." Singing Al Green is not easy, and this dude delivered it with a lot of soul. He called me up next and I did pretty well, too. The bar was packed with people decked out it Canadian red, and they gave me a really good ovation. It was the first time I'd ever tried BTO. Now that I know I can handle Randy Bachman's voice, there are like five other songs I'm going to check out the next chance I get.

The next few singers did karaoke standards. The gal after me sang Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking," and she was followed by guys that did awesome renditions of "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Jesus is Just Alright." The crowd was loving it. I was really happy to see the people were enjoying the show, because I was starting to suspect Vancouver wasn't a karaoke town. It turned out we were just asking the wrong people where to go.

My buddy Jake was pretty surly at this point and started heckling a dude that was struggling miserably with "Sweet Caroline." The guy was dying up there, and Jake kept screaming "Come on!!", "You're off!!" and "Sing Faster!!" I felt kind of sorry for the guy, but couldn't understand how anyone could screw up that song, which is a total gimme.

Jake didn't do much better with his offering, however. They didn't have his staple song, "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins, so he chose "In the Air Tonight" instead and stumbled on every verse. He didn't know the song as well as he thought he did, and it got him.

My favorite performance was right before we left. A dude in his 40's sporting a Canadian hockey jersey sang "Courage" by Kingston, Ontario's The Tragically Hip. He really rocked it, and the whole crowd sang along. I never realized how much I liked that song. It was a great way to close out the night.