Thirty Day LA

One thing I should have done more of was set goals for myself on each of my Thirty Day LA outings. Since I didn’t have many more opportunities, when I went to do my new thing of the day on Tuesday night I thought about what goal I would try to pursue that night.

I went with GuitarHero and ObligatedGirl to karaoke Tuesdays at The Hideout in Santa Monica, which is about twenty yards from the beach. Yeah I do love me the karaoke, but I don't really like to sing. I’ve never sang in front of people completely sober, especially not in front of a crowd of white people who danced and sang country and honky-tonk like they were doing at the Hideout. Then I realized my opportunity. I did a trial run of just getting on stage first. ObligatedGirl and I pretended to do backup for GuitarHero on a Queen song but just stood there in the background. The KJ was really into GuitarHero’s singing, as was a loud drunk girl that we were talking to earlier. Four songs later and it was my turn. I conformed to the environment and chose No Rain by Blind Melon. I felt rather uncomfortable and stood there with one hand in my pocket while ObligatedGirl and GuitarHero made it a point to stand off the stage and behind me. When the song started and I sang the first word, the big group of people near the front of the stage me started screaming the song along with me. They did some crazy dancing/ hopping all over the place, closing their eyes with each pained yell of the song. I looked back at my friends and they were getting into it too. By the end, I seriously thought that I had become a rock star. The group cheered as I smiled sheepishly and shuffled my way back to the couch. I felt emboldened and knew that I had to sing one more song. I put it in the queue, which was actually a bunch of napkins, and waited my turn. Then the KJ announced that it was the last song of the night, and it was for me. Where before I was nervous, this time I was ready to go all out.

I got back on stage. The song title popped up on the screen - Nuthin’ But a G Thang by Snoop and Dre. I said into the mic that I was going to bring the streets to the Hideout and dedicated the song to all the people there who had some G in them too. The KJ cheered. The song started and the lyrics were from the radio-edited version, so I ignored them and rapped as many motherfuckers as I could. ObligatedGirl and GuitarHero would yell the last word of every phrase loudly and left me to fill in the rest. I tried to change lower my voice when Dre’s part came on and tried to sound sleazy and whiny when it was Snoop’s turn. When I finished, GuitarHero cheered into his mic, and I looked up and saw that there were only two people left in the whole place. It was great. I had not only accomplished my goal of becoming a rockstar, I had also helped the establishment get people out the door so all the workers could go home and sleep. I was feeling quite proud of myself. Unfortunately, the rich white beach-dwellers didn't seem ready to rock out to music from C-O-M-P-T-O-N and Long Beach yet. Maybe someday.

The Hideout
112 W. Channel Road
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Google Maps link
Karaoke starts at Tues 9PM, $2 off all drinks