​During my time writing this column, no other karaoke company has kept me busier than Absolute Karaoke. They're everywhere. After two-and-a-half years of combing the greater Seattle area searching for fresh audiences to impress, I'm pretty certain at this point no one has contributed more to the growth of karaoke in this town than they have.

Whenever they announce a new venue, my first inclination is to hit that spot immediately. But I've learned (through attending some dead opening nights) that it takes about a month to get the word out in order to build a solid crowd. Last Saturday night, I hit up the Fremont Dock, a place where Absolute has hosted a karaoke show both Fridays and Saturdays since the beginning of the year.

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​I was enjoying an easygoing Saturday afternoon with friends in a plush townhouse at the Eagle Harbor Inn on Bainbridge Island when the texts started flooding in about Whitney Houston's death. The first thing we did after receiving this tragic news was brainstorm what numbers to sing for an all-Whitney tribute at The 122 Bar that night.

It was a fun but silly idea as I stopped to consider the songs we called out: "The Greatest Love of All," "I Will Always Love You," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". Every one sounded more absurd to attempt than the next. When it comes to mimicking Whitney, they're all suicidal (oops), especially if you're a guy. But since everyone seemed into it and had no problem wasting their precious turn to make a fool of themselves, I had to suck it up and do my best.

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​On Valentine's weekend, I went with my girlfriend to her home island of Bainbridge. We drank for a few hours in Winslow, and as she lay passed out in the car at 11 p.m., I was able to slip into Isla Bonita to sing a few songs.

There were about 25 people there, all regulars. It's a long, brightly-lit Mexican lounge with the bar on the left and a row of tables to the right. The singers performed in the middle of the room between the bar and pool table areas.

The set up was very old school. There was no computerized song library, no light show, no musical interludes between performers. The KJ was just a guy calling up singers and changing out discs, and the older crowd sang mostly '80s Pop and Classic Rock. In other words, this was my kind of place.

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​Last Friday was my cousin Raffy's 50th birthday party. I had the date marked on my calendar for weeks, but didn't learn until that day we would be singing at Star Bar & Grill in Federal Way. Nothing gets me more excited than being surprised with a karaoke night I didn't realize I was going to have.

The only other time I sang in Federal Way was on a dead Wednesday last April, where I checked out three different spots but did not find the audience I was looking for. I knew this night would be different because it was the weekend and I had my cousin Karlo with me. Some of my most epic karaoke nights have been with him by my side.

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​Drinking is an essential part of enjoying any karaoke night. It provides the energy to motivate people to sing, as well as the patience to tolerate horrible singers. Recently, I've come to realize that I haven't been doing enough drinking lately. Aside from every weekend at Tarasco, it's been months since the last time I truly tied one on while checking out a new karaoke bar.

Since most of the spots I review are during the week, the fear of feeling like shit at my day job has subconsciously caused me to install a governor on my intake. As a result, singing hasn't been nearly as fun. Karaoke or no karaoke, what's the point of hanging out in a bar around a bunch of drunk people if you're not going to get drunk yourself? Plus, every time I sing without enough booze in me, I'm distracted by it to the point where I'm literally thinking about how I wish I had more to drink as I'm singing the song.

This week I arranged Thursday off from work so I could get wasted at Kate's Pub in Wallingford on Wednesday night. I grabbed my buddy Juan and we got there just before the show started at 9 p.m. My plan was to get five slips in quickly, and take a shot before and after performing each one. And just for good measure, I brought a list I compiled of the most played-out karaoke songs and decided I'd take a Jager shot any time one of those songs was sung as well.

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​The Venue: Tuesday night was my last chance to find a new spot to sing before the snow hit Seattle. Just before midnight with only hours to spare, I drove from my house in Greenwood all the way to West Seattle to sing at A Terrible Beauty.

Taking into account the distance and the impending storm, I understood the two shots of Cazadores I usually take with my first beer to help loosen and charge me up could not be enjoyed on this night.

The Book: There were many song binders laid out on tables throughout the bar. Half were organized by artist, and the other half by song title. The artist catalog was 174 pages thick.

The Setup: Just like their original Renton location, this is a gorgeous Irish Pub furnished in wall-to-wall dark wood. They have an elevated stage located in the corner in front of the windows that look out onto California Avenue. From the stage, the performers sing out to the entire bar. There is a monitor onstage and a big plasma TV above the bar that displays the lyrics. They have a solid sound system and the microphones sound very good.

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​The Venue: Back in '09, when I first reviewed the Kona Kitchen, it was a dead Maple Leaf bar that could barely string together five singers on a weekend night. Last Saturday, I returned to discover a vibrant karaoke scene that rivals any place in town.

The Setup: My friends and I arrived at 8:30pm. The bar and restaurant were filled with people. The stage and KJ station were still situated in a customized nook between the two areas, but on this busy night really stood out as the center of attention for both rooms. There's a monitor on stage and two plasmas in the bar for lyrics.

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​The Venue: Every third Sunday of the month, The Mercury, a private club located under Auto Battery on Capitol Hill, welcomes non-members to come in and sing at an event known as "Guilty Pleasures Karaoke."

The doors opened at 9pm. I got there at 11. The entrance fee was $3 for members and $5 for everyone else. I was briefed at the door that everyone who worked there was a volunteer, smoking was allowed, and to be careful because the bartender poured very stiff drinks.

Someone was nailing Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" as I walked in. The club was dark and the music was thumping. There were only around 15 people there, but everyone was having a good time and loving their cigarettes.

The Setup: The KJ station and stage were located right in the middle of the dance floor. The majority of the crowd was seated on this island of tables between the stage and the bar. The sound was phenomenal. They just had new speakers installed in October, and they shake the entire place.

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​Since first discovering it in September, I've been back to Queen Anne's Spectator five times to sing at the Baby Ketten show. Last week I checked out Ketten's other residency at The Hideout on First Hill, which hosts karaoke the first Sunday of every month.

The Venue: The Hideout is a long bar with a high ceiling and artwork covering every wall. The bar takes up one side of the room and one long booth is on the other side. Since it was Sunday, I was hoping for a dead night, as there are about 50 songs I've been dying to sing that can only be found in Baby Ketten's catalog. But when I arrived at 8:45, the place was packed.

The Setup: The stage and KJ podium are located on the opposite corner from the entrance and look out to the entire room. There's a nice red curtain backdrop at a big projector screen that displays the lyrics above the singers.

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​North Seattle has four karaoke bars that get a ton of action on the weekend. Living in Greenwood, I know through years of experience that by 10:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays, the Baranof, Rickshaw, Mandarin Gate, and the Yen Wor Garden are all packed and have rotations exceeding 20 singers. That's great for people who don't care to sing a lot and just want to party, but then there are the rest of us, who get very antsy if they don't get a chance to show their stuff at least once every 45 minutes. A couple weeks ago I found an untapped venue right near these hot-spots that can more than handle the spillover.

Heads or Tails Sports Bar on Aurora has karaoke from Thursday to Sunday night. It's a small room with the bar along the left and tables pushed together in the back corner to surround the stage area. The run-down look of the place reminded me of the old Beacon Pub, one of my favorite karaoke dives that no longer exists.

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