all photos: Bradley
all words: Alfonso
After three weeks of qualifying rounds, the Tuesday night Rageaholic’s Anonymous meeting that is Sticky Rice Karaoke teamed up with its new cousin, Little Miss Whiskey’s Kostume Karaoke, to throw the 2nd Annual H St Karaoke Championship BATTLE. Judged by last years winners TEAM NIGHTHAWK, along with special guest judge and “best band in the fucking world” frontman Scott Rattler, it was time for the finalists, including yours truly, to meet at the Rock n’ Roll Hotel and see who’d walk away with $500 of Captain Morgan’s money, a dinner for 4 at Sticky Rice, and glory.
This is our story.
Or I should say this is our story as I’ve been able to piece together from random notes to myself I scribbled throughout the night and what people have told me. (Times may or may not be at all accurate.)
9pm, day before the show: I complete my Rob Johnson mask. I’ll explain later.
8:00pm: Get to the RnR Hotel and check in with Andrew “Mandrew” Herndon, host of Sticky Rice Karaoke and ambassador of raging extraordinaire. We’re told to write down our stage names and first song choice and then check back at 9. Decided on the name “Alfonso Bravo aka Lorenzo Lasers”, both for the alliteration and because Bradley made the point that anything with lasers wins. For the first song I went with “No Diggity”, since it went over so well at Karaoke Camp and because it rules.
8:20pm: RnR Hotel Burgers are pretty damn good.
9:00pm: Backstage to discuss logistics and I meet my fellow competitors. There are a few faces from last year and a whole lot of new ones. “Rockenheim”, “Juan Sanchez”, some dude (Ryan Mitchell!-ed) in blackface who’s name had a Haiti reference (said dude was asked to remove the blackface, which for some reason surprised him?), “Lily Manilli”, two Lady Gaga’s: “Laurabolical” and “Lil’ Miss Ro Ro” (only Laurabolical was an actual lady though), a whole mess of others whose names I can’t remember, and last year’s runners up Rob Johnson and Paul Alexander aka “CHAMPAGNE SPECTACULAR”. Andrew explains how we’ll be called up. I’m not in the first batch so I’m good.
While this is all happening some guy dressed like Captain Morgan reportedly hits on my girlfriend while I’m backstage, which I guess is to be expected at these sort of things.
9:10pm: Andrew, co-hosting with Russell from Sticky Rice and Kostume Karaoke’s host Debbi, starts the show by introducing the judges. Scott Rattler walks on stage and chugs two PBRs at once, which is exactly the kind of behavior expected out of a special guest judge.
9:15: Debbi warms up the crowd with “Love is a Battlefield”. Captain Morgan and his Pirate Babes dance on stage accordingly.
9:25pm: Lil Miss Ro Ro does “Poker Face”. His white tights look impossibly uncomfortable but he seems fine.
9:30pm: Andrew calls out the next batch of contestants and I’m in that group.
9:31pm: I am handed Jameson.
9:35pm: I go backstage to change into the matching denim jacket and jeans I found at Unique last weekend and grab my Rob Johnson mask.
About the Rob Johnson mask: Rob and I have been friends for some time and he’s one of my all-time favorite people to karaoke with, and people in general. I knew him and Paul would be teaming up again so I decided to take his face and tape it to some cardboard, stick some chopsticks to it, and use it for all the parts he would normally sing when we “No Diggity”. This made complete and total sense at the time.
9:45pm: I can’t believe I’m wearing this?
9:50pm:I go on stage in front of a couple of hundred people and sing “No Diggity” with my Rob Johnson mask.
10:00pm: Seemed to go over well. Captain Morgan Pirate Girl gives me a Captain Morgan’s t-shirt and has me pose for a picture. Where did this new tall boy of PBR come from?
10:15pm: Laurabolic does “Bad Romance”, apparently without use of the prompter because Andrew didn’t have it on his computer so he played it off her iPhone. Double-impressive to me because I still have no idea what the hell the words to that song are.
10:30pm: Tequila shots with Bradley/bad decisions.
11:00pm: CHAMPAGNE SPECTACULAR close out the first round with “Let’s Go Crazy”. Rob has a purple mullet/suit on and Paul is wearing…something. Something amazing.
11:11pm: Text from my girlfriend “Fuck Yeah! Where are you??” Apparently I’ve made the second round. No idea where I actually was at this point.
11:20pm: Andrew leads the crew on stage on “White Wedding”, no wait “Rebel Yell”, no wait “Mony Mony” no wait oooooh it’s a medley.
11:40pm: Go on stage and do “Thunderstruck”. Spit beer in the air. It doesn’t look as messy when Tommy Lee does it.
Midnight: CHAMPAGNE SPECTACULAR do “Intergalactic” dressed as Pikachu and a robot. Jesus.
12:05am-1:30am: I have no idea? I do know CHAMPAGNE SPECTACULAR won in a final showdown with Lil’ Miss Ro Ro, bringing it home with Paul wearing a bikini top under a velour jumpsuit for “Doin’ It”. Andrew then got the entire place to sing “Time of my Life”. I remember that being fucking awesome.
2am: Wendy’s is amazing.
Previously in Live DC:
- 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
- 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
- 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
- 2/7: LiveDC: Augustana/ Graffiti6 @ 930 Club
- 2/6: LiveDC: All Things Go Presents: Reptar/ Casual Curious/ Fort Lean @ Gibson Guitar Showroom
- 2/6: LiveDC: TYCHO/ Beacon @ RNR Hotel
- 2/6: LiveDC: The Kills / Jeff The Brotherhood @ 9:30 Club
God loves a cheerful giver.
Sorry Al, I don't read posts by LIARS. Liar liar liar liars. Jerk.
This looks so awesome.
It was fun. My recommendation for next time: Select as finalists the crowd favorites, not necessarily the people with the tightest BYT connections. Kind of put a damper on the proceedings.
Nate, I assure you neither I nor BYT had anything to do with who got selected for the finals. Rob and Paul were the obvious crowd favorites, and I'd never even met Lil' Miss Ro Ro till that night. I've also never met the judges and it was all based off their scoring, but if you want to write a letter to Scott Rattler I'll see what I can do about getting you his info.
Michael, you should have come anyway.
BYT has nothing to do with this event. Minus the fact that we love it. But we're not associated with it. I do enjoy how we are somehow part of all the conspiracy theorizing re:DC nightlife.
Thanks for the response. Don't want to turn the comments here into a debate, so I'll be quick:
It's probably not really fair for me to complain, because I do have a horse in the game here. I was just surprised that what seemed to be a few crowd favorites didn't make the finals. And the fact that a group of people who were (as far as I could gather) BYT-connected roommates did make it was a little off-putting.
Still, it was a great time, and thanks to whoever deserves thanks for all the work that went into it.
this is my favorite event at roroho hands down
the talent is seriously amazing
every year is better than the last
Nate, i heard the same rumors backstage
but what concerned me more, as well as one of the judges who i spoke to after the finals, was the lack of female representation among the finalists (as well as the judges)
karaoke is by no means a male sport
but out of all 5 judges, only 1 was female
out of all 5 finalists, only 1 was female
i'm all for guys with crazy shenanigans that rock the house
but there was more than one gal who did too
that would be my only constructive criticism for next year
karaoke on
Svet:
Fair enough. Someone said it was a BYT event and I saw it discussed here, so I just assumed. I suppose I could have checked.
I would point out that my (mistakenly) pinning blame for this on you comes from not knowing anything about y'all, a far cry from conspiracy-theorizing.
Anyway, sorry for the digression. Carry on.
BYT = Illuminati! OMGz!
define BYT connected? I mean, in a way-it's a pretty wide web of 2 or 3 degrees of separation that is spread here. I will say that we met Alfonso as a result of loving his rendition of "No Diggity" at Summer Camp, which prompted me to buy him a drink, but him aside (and obviously the photographer we staffed) I don't think I personally know anyone who's in the finale. Anyway-there is always next year. ALWAYS.
I repeat, this is Andrew Herndon's event and always has been (and he does a great job at it). BYT had nothing to do with it aside from giving it some press, which, if we were to use that as a meter of a "byt event" would make 18 events a week BYT events.
I shouldn't have used that phrase; I was mistaken. There was a set of roommates who I assumed were BYT-connected because I assumed that BYT was running it; now that I know I was wrong I instead assume that they were connected to Andrew Herndon or whoever was actually in charge.
So my apologies for directing my criticism at BYT; it's misdirected.
it's cool. we still love you nate.
Aww, my first article with drama in the comments thread. I guess I should be savoring this?
Nate, any connection to BYT, or Andrew, is totally inconsequential. It was based totally off the judges scoring, and not even Andrew had anything to do with who got picked. Saying he had was handpicking finalists does him a disservice, and I can tell you it took a lot of work for him to put together a night we all enjoyed so it's not really fair to insinuate he was behind some conspiracy to get his friends through.
Let's just agree it was a fun night doing something ridiculous that's not worth anyone getting upset about and do it again in a year. (There's your notification, Michael)
Oh man, there's someone else posting here as Nate now. Weak.
Alfonso - I'm just all butt-hurt because I wanted us to do some OMD shit or PSB together but you insisted at Velvet you weren't doing it.
Now you're kind of not my friend. Sorry.
Oh well shiiiiiiit I didn't think I was but let's get up at Sticky and do that anyway. I would have been more sensitive but I didn't think it would matter, re: you being all dead inside and stuff.
Let ME weigh in on this.
The purpose of the event is to be badass. That's it. It's Karaoke!! not Kara-o.k. I thought everyone was pretty awesome. We did the first one because my birthday fell on Karaoke night and I wanted to Celebrate it with something bigger and better than normal. It's a lot of work to put something together like that, and I almost didn't do it, but I fucking LOVE karaoke. I wouldn't have spent my mornings on vacation in Portland stressing myself out and e-mailing a million people for anything else. The way I set the judging up was simple. I find one person that's a local celebrity type person to be a judge and then 2 other judges, last year was Paul and John from US Royalty with Zui from being friends with Paris Hilton. This Year was Scott Rattler with last years winners Jessica and Austin. There were at least 2 finalists that none of us including myself knew before the event. other then them qualifying the week before at sticky... If anything I was bummed that none of the contestants from LMW made it into the final, they were good! Neither Myself nor Russel Judged anything until the final song, and then we only judged crowd applause (which is really effing hard btw). Maybe next year I'll think about a different judging mechanism but In my mind it will be team Champagne Supernova and if I'm lucky maybe I'll get somebody truly awesome to be the Special Judge... Also Mickey "Hollywood "Fangs was not a judge at all he was just there to pound beers and look cool.
Also the roommate thing was the sticky rice house, so again I can see this causing confusion even though it had absolutely nothing to do with the competition.
Again the purpose of this event is more than a contest, it's to send Karaoke to the next level, and if you saw that Awesome Robot move you would agree. It worked.
I thank Everyone who came out and raged or got their faces rocked off, Lily you were as always outrageous and awesome!
also further proof of the badassery. During my song we accidently soaked the TV in beer so the last 6 contestants and the semi final and final rounds were done only with my shitty slanted projector projecting on a side wall above the corwd, and I don't remember anybody messing up. Bravo!
I wish there was a picture of me with Scott Rattler on my back though. That was awesome.
I do love BYT though. I've known all these kids for years. They are friends with everybody that puts on events. That's how this website came about, if you see the same cast of characters it's usually because they are the same people that like all that stuff and have known everybody for years. That's how the world works. I'd like to get to know DCist a little better. Somebody introduce me.
well put, and not just for the props
Andrew and all the participants inspire this stellar event to the max and put the rage in outrageous
just gave my $0.02 for the feminist shoutout
we'll just have to bring it harder next year
for the glory of love (karaoke style)
1-- I am loving the level headed and friendly debating within these comments as opposed to getting all hater-y and defense-y. Good form.
2-- As unaffiliated audience member-- I don't think Nate at all meant to put a specific label on the cliquiness, but as a first-timer I definitely see the point that a whole lot of people on the stage in various capacities seemed to know each other. Which, though I understand it really didn't change anything about the contest, did get noticed by some of us.
3-- Good point about more women. Also, though I totally understood the sterotype that the metal head judge dudes were playing on- could done without the butt sex/ pedophilia jokes.
paul and I won because we are awesome. I have never been affiliated with byt. If you feel that we somehow cheated or were given special treatment then we challenge you to a karaoke duel. You pick the judges, you can even pick the songs. We will destroy any and all challengers. We fucking rule. So keep talking all that smack, you're just mad your girlfriend wants our
paul and I won because we are awesome. I have never been affiliated with byt. If you feel that we somehow cheated or were given special treatment then we challenge you to a karaoke duel. You pick the judges, you can even pick the songs. We will destroy any and all challengers. We fucking rule. So keep talking all that smack, you're just mad your girlfriend sweats my chest hair.
Also sorry for the double post. My phone sucks.
As face-meltingly awesome as this night was, I gotta say that the judges, Andrew, the MC, rob and paul and a few others gave off a very clique-y vibe and that definitly took away from the night somewhat. Dont get me wrong, its not that the end result was bad- 'Intergalactic' practically blew my testicles off. Champagn spectacular had clearly prepared WAY more than everyone else and they rocked. This event is awesome and its awesome that y'all put so much effort in, we HAVE to do this every year. but it basically seemed like everyone onstage was in on it along with a few select performers, while they barely tolerated everyone else. Sadly, everyone I talked to felt the same, and i spoke with a lot of people, most of whom I did not know. I think its safe to say that most people not part of the "in" crowd felt this way. The judges/organizers gave off the "I'm a cool bartender and I only talk to my other bartender friends" vibe. Maybe its a Sticky-rice thing? Whatever, it was an awesome event. Anyway, Lilly's "Born to run" blew my mind and for her to not make the semifinals was . . . suspicious. My 2 cents.
I would like to point out how pissed that dude is in the picture of me serenading his girlfriend with "Hold On" by Wilson Philips. Did I get scoring points for that??
It was great fun and thanks to the organizers! You haven't heard the last of me! How can I get high-res copies of the images? And i was promised a free sandwich!!
So, um, this was a totally fun event. As the only female semi-finalist and as someone who just moved from New York, a couple thoughts in response to some of the threads going here.
1. I just moved here 3 months ago. I don't know any of these people, and I made it to the semi-finals. This is a small city, and everyone seems to know everyone as far as I can tell. I found the crowd was pretty welcoming.
2. Yeah, the event had a fratty vibe, but that was honestly as much the crowd as the judges. I mean, this town is a little fratty. There were bored-looking corporate shot girls on stage for chrissake.
There are just fewer genres women can pull off in a crowd like that; my act was straight rocker chick, which played well. But that also got me equated with a fellating Mary Lou Retton and my ass slapped on stage.
Also, I agree that Lilly was awesome, and it was a cryin shame that we were pitted against each other in the first round.
Dudes, you were all amazing. Seriously. Let's do this every week! Oh wait...I do...
P a couple of things i'd like to put out there, as a co-conspirator in this raucousness...
glad you all came out and participated and care and stuff!
1 - agree with the poster who commented about the spirited yet civil nature of these comments.
b - super duper thanks to Andrew for a great idea and inviting me and my event to participate. It's awesome when your karaoke addiction is not only validated, but celebrated!
iii - we were way heavy on the boys in the end, and there were some killer female performances in the first round, but as has been pointed out, the judging was initially based on point scoring from the judges. the organizers/hosts (andrew, russell and myself) had no input in that. maybe next time, we should, for the sake of a more balanced semi final round. from that point though, it was clear that not only did the crowd eat them up, but Champagne Spectacular had prepared the hell out of everything they did. i dont think anyone can doubt their amazingness. note to future participants...more IS better!
3.5 - great coverage BYT, thanks. and for the excellent photos!
4 - half those costumes you saw ontage, you can try out yourself, and many many more...they're at Little Miss Whiskey's on the 1st & 3rd Wednesday of every month. See you on the mic!
Miss Debbi
Kostume Karaoke Hostess