Boiler Room, boiling hot - a review

The Boiler Room in downtown Portland is one of the city's most classic karaoke spots. It's been around for at least as long as I've been twenty-one and has karaoke 7 days a week, all night long. Its corner, old town location is easily accessible to the spill-over from nearby bars which brings quite a range of 20 and 30 somethings and even a few mid-lifers. Inexpensive beverages and two pool tables compliment the awesome activity that is Boiler Room Karaoke which allows performers to be on the same level as the audience. An audience so close that it's sometimes hard to tell who the singer is.

I happened upon BR just the other night (Wed) and was happily greeted with throw-back K-Jams like "Don't Stop Believin", "Shot to the heart" and "I Will Survive". Seemed typical enough except... You could barely distinguish the voices of the singers. Not because of a crappy sound system, but because the audience (many in the audience) were each singing at the top of their lungs, all the words, to all the songs. So much energy, so much love, so much music. Kind of unreal. For a few hours you felt like you were in the closing scenes of the most magical musical ever! In true musical form, the night ended with "Seasons of Love" (Rent). "Five Hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes!"

Have to give the Boiler Room 5 stars for a boiling hot night of musical karaoke madness and awesome audience participation.

Writing this blog, makes me want to go karaoking right now. Ambassador, here I come!