Entertainment
Wtcicii,
Preview
The following is a brief guide to
weekend events. Please call
venues for more information.
CONCERTS:
Duffy's Tavern, 1412 O St
Sunday: The 9s, Musico
Duggan’s Pub, 440 S.l 1th St.
Friday and Saturday: Radio King
Kimball Recital Hall, 12th and R
streets
Saturday: Tomas Robertell. lute
Knickerbocker’s, 901 O. St.
Friday: Johnson's Complaint
Saturday: Happy Dog, The Mediums
Mo Java Cafe, Suite D, 2649 N 48th
St
Friday: Wes Stebbins & Friends
Mueller Planetarium
laser shows
Friday and Saturday: Doors, U2
Pla-Mor Ballroom,
6600 West O St
Saturday: The Bobby Layne
Orchestra
The Royal Grove, 340 W
Cornhusker Highway
Friday: Rockin’ Fossils
Saturday: Firehouse
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St
Friday: Little Mike and the
Tornadoes
Saturday: The James
Solberg Band
THEATER:
Blue Barn Theatre,
614 S. 11th St
All weekend: “Three Viewings”
Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater,
12th and R streets
Friday and Saturday: “Pecker”
Sunday: “The Governess”
Museum of Nebraska History, 15th
and P streets
Sunday: “Swing Time” starring Fred
Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Lincoln Community Playhouse,
2500 S. 56th St
All Weekend: “Light up the Sky”
Lied Center for Performing Arts,
12th and R streets
Russian National Ballet performs:
Friday: “Swan Lake”
Saturday: “Sleeping Beauty”
GALLERIES:
Center for Great Plains Studies, 215
Love Library>
All weekend: “The North Platte
Project: Photographing Nature’s
Works & Their Transformations”
Haydon Gallery, 335 N. Eighth St,
SuiteA
Friday and Saturday: Harry Orlyk,
landscape paintings
Jostyn Art Museum, 2200Dodge St
All weekend: “Dali’s Mustache: A
Photographic Interview by Salvador
Dali and Philippe Halsman”
Noyes Art Gallery, 119 S. Ninth St
Friday and Saturday: Faridun
Negmat-Zoda, oil paintings; Max
Cox, pottery; Tom Borg, blown glass
I Ryan Soderli.v DN
A GLASS OF beer waits for a patron of Duffy’s to take a drink as audience members sing karaoke.
Pf| Matt Miller 1)X
*« HE AIN’T GEORGE STRAIT, and that’s OK. Paul Peterson of Lincoln sings karaoke Wednesday night at The Neighbor’s
93 Lounge, 7010 0 St. Aspiring performers can sing along with nearly 5,000 of their favorite songs.
Local karaoke bars let guests display hidden talents
\
By Jeff Randall
Senior staff writer
Rock stars lurk among us.
On every street comer and in every
building, there sit individuals who have
not only the presence, but also the unre
fined talent to become a cultural phe
nomenon unto themselves.
And every weekend, these human
bundles of glitter and strobe lights
unleash their secret rock-star personae.
They are a part of karaoke culture.
Imported from Japan in the 1980s,
karaoke takes the age-old tradition of
singing along with the radio and turns it
into a spectator sport. The music plays,
the lyrics scroll and the people sing.
But this simple act of singing along
with popular songs in front of an audi
ence has divided people worldwide
down a distinct love-hate line.
Those who hate it lament the skew
ering of beloved songs. And, on occa
sion, everyone can relate to that. Eric
Carmen’s “All By Myself” was never
meant to be manhandled by a slightly
intoxicated accountant. White boys
probably shouldn’t be attempting to riff
their way through “Baby Got Back,”
either.
But karaoke lovers have found the
ability to overlook the frailties of their
fellow singers - even though, as every
karaoke practitioner knows, I always
sound great.
“You have to be confident, maybe
even overconfident” says Mark
Minchow, a 35-year-old Lincoln resi
dent with a penchant for David Bowie
and Cheap Trick. “If you think you suck,
then you 11 never get up on that stage.”
Although he’s a recent Lincoln
arrival, Minchow has been ripping
through the ’70s glam-rock catalogue at
clubs in Des Moines for about five years
now, and he thinks audiences every
where are the same.
“No matter where you are, I think,
people are going to clap and sing along
when they hear
At about 10:30 p.m., the crowd has
begun to swell significantly. All of the
tables and booths in front of the stage
have been filled, and the sound system
has been belting out everything from
“Your Cheatin’ Heart” to “Papa Don’t
Preach.”
Teresa’s name is called, and she
grabs a cigarette.
and yellow lights bounce off the shiny
gold wall behind the stage, and “Crazy,
in the style of Patsy Cline” pops up on
the big-screen television that displays
the lyrics.
She looks over the crowd with a
smile and wraps the cord loosely around
her hand and wrist.
She starts to sing softly, and as the
song pro
Surrender, he said.
“It's just a given.”
And after perform
ing that song literally
hundreds of times,
Minchow has learned
how to milk it for every
thing it’s worth.
“Once you get up on
stage, you want it to last
for a long time. You’ve
stepped up, and the hard
part’s over.”
A night at the club
For the typical
karaoke hound, the
evening begins at about
10 p.m. At popular clubs
such as the Neighbors
Lounge, 7010 O St., one
must arrive early to
insure a spot in the
Ryan Soderijn/DN
TOM TELLEFSEN, a senior English major at UNL, sings Elvis Costello’s
“Radio, Radio” as Shithook’s Phil Shoemacher and the rest of the band
provide the music. ^A
gresses, her
volume
increases.
The song
ends with the
sustained
“And ah’m
crazy for
lovin’
yoooooouuu
uuu ...” and
as her voice
fades, a smat
tering of
applause is
heard.
She
smiles again,
takes a slight
bow and
heads back to
her table.
Her
night s lineup.
“If I know I’m going
to be singing, I’ll come early,” said
Teresa Parks, a Neighbors regular. “I
want to make sure I get my song request
in, and I want to make sure nobody takes
my song before I get to do it.”
For the record, her song is “Crazy”
by Patsy Cline.
“I don’t usually smoke, but I do
when I sing,” she said as she lights it up.
“I don’t know why. Maybe I think it
makes me look cooler.”
She half-walks, half-trots to the
stage, and pulls the microphone awk
wardly from its stand. The red, green
x:.“t friend and
s e 1 f -
described drinking buddy, Karen, voic
es her approval.
“That was even better than last
time,” she says, still clapping.
Teresa gives her thanks, picks up her
Please see KARAOKE on 10