Can we just take a pause here for a moment? Can we take a beat and just recognize our good fortune?
I looked it up and sure enough we aren’t the only place in Arizona where one can savor the live band karaoke experience. Google it and you’ll find out. Chandler. Phoenix. Scottsdale. No surprise to find it out there. If you’ve got a big enough population, you’ve got that all-important density whereby a critical mass of musicians could band together, work up a quiver full of songs across genres to make something like a live band karaoke experience possible.
But…Bisbee? A two-red light town of 5,000 people? Come on. That should not be possible. The numbers just aren’t there. Right?
Wrong.
As we’ve said so many times by now, Bisbee is an anomaly. Live music, day or night, is a beautiful fact of life here, almost 7 days a week. We might not have the population but when it comes to working musicians we definitely put up the numbers.
And we’ve got the band, namely One Ghost, one of Bisbee’s longest running rock and roll acts. All four of these gentlemen, Derek Dodd, Steve Drew, Sam Panther and Frank Tornoe are Bisbee Music Hall of Famers, in multiple bands. Their plates are full as it is, and yet…just look at this smorgasbord:
For those keeping score at home: That’s 71 songs. 71 songs at, say, an average 3.5 minutes each yields just over four hours of material. These human jukeboxes somehow squeezed all this into brains already brimming with music. Look at the genres: country, rock, a grip of Beatles tunes, oldies and standards, pop, 90s grunge, even a dash of hip hop. There’s a little something for everyone here, which is how karaoke is supposed to work.
It is impressive.
Last month we had some old friends in town and, in search of something fun to do on their last night it hit us. Live band Karaoke. Perfect! We met downtown and proceeded to tear it up, digging into the rotation with locals, tourists and people we’d never seen and may never again. It was glorious. Some people hammed it up, some shook with nervousness. Some could scarcely hide their embarrassment while some could have used a little of it. In other words, it was karaoke night. One song, one round led to another, and before we knew it the party was over, One Ghost was done for the night and it was time to go home. The carriage outside would soon turn back into a pumpkin, and all us Cinderellas made ourselves scarce.
What a night.
Karaoke is just about universal. Its fun and it’s a great Saturnalian equalizer. It gives regular folks the chance to blow off some steam and engage in a bonding ritual of mutual awkwardness with their friends. Often enough they’ll confess, with a measure of embarrassment, to requiring a dose or three of liquid courage before grabbing the mic (when was the last time a coffee shop had a karaoke night)? But what makes karaoke so popular is the payoff: singing ones’ favorite songs with a simulated backing band blasting through the speakers. Taking turns feeling like a rock star to an audience with the same motivation, in the same rotation, as you.
But trading that backing track for a real, live band? On the Bisbee Grand’s new, fantastic stage? Good heavens, now we’re talking. You wanna feel like a rock star? The Grand has you covered. Third Friday of the month.
While supplies last.
