Bars and restaurants around Baton Rouge are encouraging people to sing their hearts out – even if they look like complete idiots doing it. Several places in the Baton Rouge area have been offering karaoke nights for those aching to release their inner American Idol. Walk-On’s on Burbank Drive gives city residents a way to relax before a hectic week by offering karaoke on Sunday nights. Bobby Palmer, manager of Walk-On’s, believes there is one reason why this night is so popular. “A lot of people come because there aren’t a lot of bars or restaurants open on Sunday nights,” Palmer said. Not everyone that comes to perform has a great voice, but that is all part of the fun, according to Palmer. “The people that get up are half good, half bad,” Palmer said. “It’s gotten really popular in the area in the last year, I think.” Red Star bar, located downtown on Laurel Street, offers “Largely Ironic Karaoke” on Wednesday nights. “We’ve probably been doing this for four or five years, and it’s been popular since day one,” said Frank McMains, owner of Red Star. Its karaoke night started with performers singing with a live band. But the bar had trouble securing a live band on a regular basis, so they switched to prerecorded music. The idea behind the night has not changed, McMains said. “A lot of the spirit of the night was not about people getting up there and being really delicate with the music but getting up there and having fun and being obnoxious,” McMains said. “You didn’t have as many people that were taking it super super seriously. [There are] fewer torch songs and more guilty pleasures.” Skeeters’ Lounge on Old Hammond Highway offers karaoke Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with the exception of the second Saturday of every month. Darryl Harvey, manager of Skeeters’, said one of the upsides of having a less than crowded karaoke night is having more opportunities to sing. “When it’s a smaller crowd, everybody gets a chance to come out and sing. … There’s a shorter wait,” Harvey said. Skeeters’ karaoke night, which offers mostly country and rock songs, has been taking place for about eight years now. Harvey said he has seen improvement from regular attendees. “People that continue to come get better and better every time,” he said. “Some people start out not so good, and they keep coming back. And now, they’re singing with a band.” Peter Parker, publisher of the online Karaoke Scene Magazine, said karaoke has been around in the United States for at least 20 years. “[Karaoke] began to take shape and become popular in the 1990s, but it came here in the late ’80s,” Parker said. According to Parker, karaoke is a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed by all. “Karaoke is a very democratic form of entertainment,” he said. “It cuts across all economic and racial and ethnic and cultural lines, and everybody enjoys it similarly. You may walk into a nightclub that has karaoke as a form of entertainment and see a doctor and a janitor sitting at the same table talking about Sinatra music.” Many said karaoke is popular because it gives people a chance to let loose and do something they normally wouldn’t do. “People come to have fun,” Harvey said. “Everybody’s got to have their 15 minutes of fame. Everybody has to take the stage every now and then.” McMains agreed with Harvey and said karaoke is popular for a variety of reasons. “A lot of people enjoy being the center of attention,” he said. “There are people that legitimately enjoy singing and performing. There’s also a kind of element of the forbidden. It’s a little taboo and awkward to see people belting out their favorite songs. It’s a controlled and safe way to burn off a little steam.”
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