Live karaoke band provided by: Karaoke Rockstarz
Not only am I a Reno local, I am a native to this city, and I had never been to Brew Brothers. Mostly because I considered it just another tourist attraction inside one of the many casinos in downtown. However, I have been hearing ads for their Monday night live band karaoke for a really long time and I have been wanting to try it for a while. I had Tuesday off, so I thought, "What the heck!"
I went a bit early because their website said that it started at 9pm, but in actuality it began at 10pm, but signups started at 9pm. No big deal. I took the time to enjoy the Blackened chicken alfredo from their restaurant. The staff was really great and the food was excellent. My dish tasted a bit different than I am used to, but it was not bad at all.
I will admit to being a bit nervous, even after singing karaoke for 16+ years. I've sang on all sorts of stages, including Sammy's Showroom in Harrah's Reno for a kamikaze karaoke competition several years ago. I had never sang with a live band before...until tonight.
I went up to the lady who was taking song slips and she explained to me how everything worked. I asked her about the words. It's a live band, how did they work that? It's the same as regular karaoke. The words are on the screen. It's just with a live band instead of a recording. I gotta say that it made it that much more realistic and fun. She was really nice, and sang Alanis Morrissette nearly better than Alanis.
I was the fourth singer to sing. Which was good because I wanted to see other people sing first to get an idea of what I was in for. I sang "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick. Apparently, it was one of the band member's favorite songs to play. I smiled when I heard that. And, it went over well with the crowd.
The band was really good. They sang backup as well as handed out props such as hats and feather boas for the singers to use on stage. The lighting was such that really created a great atmosphere which made it feel like you were really the lead singer of the band.
The audience was very receptive to everyone who went on stage. Good, bad or otherwise it didn't matter. There are many places that I have sang where the audience will not applaud for anyone except for their friends, or sometimes not at all. The audience at Brew Brothers applauded for pretty much everyone and that really helped brighten the atmosphere, too. Some random guy even gave me a hug after I got off the stage. That was nice, too.
Every Monday they have a contest to give away bar tabs. $20, $30 and $50. I didn't know I was even in the competition. Just after midnight they gave away the prizes. They called the 3rd and 2nd place winners. Sweet. I'm out of this competition. No worries. And then they called the 1st place winner.... Onyx! (For anyone out of the loop, that's yours truly). I was really surprised because there were others who sang way better than I did, so the conspiracy theory is that they just wanted to find out my real name..lol... either that, or the crowd reacted better than I thought. hehehehe....
Either way, it totally made my night.
Even though they only do karaoke for three hours on Monday nights, and you pretty much get to sing once, tonight that didn't matter. I had one of the best times that I've had in a while at karaoke and that is what mattered to me. I enjoyed watching everyone else singing, good, bad and otherwise. I just wish that Falcon could have been there. I know he would have had a great time.
I give Brew Bothers Live Band Karaoke:
P.S. I have a few pictures that I wasn't able to upload tonight, but I will get them off my phone asap for you guys.
