Normally, Tuesdays at most venues are about as exciting as a wet firecracker. Yet, when you walk into Pal’s Restaurant on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta on Tuesday nights, you feel like you’re in the middle of a full-fledged concert.
It is a concert in a way, with multiple people trading time on the stage in an assembly line of performers belting out renditions of their favorite musicians‘ songs. Fahamu Pecou is busy turning the temperature up as the emcee and gets the crowd crunk by buying second rounds of drinks. There’s screaming, hand waving, cheering, laughing, hugging and dancing. One woman slices through the crowd like she’s Beyoncé — which for a few minutes she really is.
Between 8 p.m. and midnight on Tuesdays it becomes unhinged inside Pal’s Restaurant as people devote themselves to their part-time fantasies. It is karaoke like you’ve never seen it before.
“They never been to a karaoke like this before,” says deejay Selector da’shon. “Yo! Karaoke is unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen. You never know who’s going to come through on the stage. And it’s really mad fun.”
And by 10 p.m. it’s practically pandemonium. It’s the place where people are able to live out their dreams and showcase their skills. Even though folks are having so much fun, this is also serious business for them.
“We all do karaoke, whether it s in the car or in the shower. Now there’s a platform for you to do your karaoke and do it onstage. And you live out your childhood fantasy and rock it like Beyoncé or Chaka Khan,“ Pecou says. “It’s really all about fun. You don’t have to feel like your a great singer to enjoy yourself at karaoke. Everybody will jump on stage and be your background singers. It’s all family. It’s fun.”
Yo! Karoake was crazy when it first started. But after 15 weeks, Yo! Karaoke is taking over Auburn Avenue in a way that few people could have anticipated. Just as good is the fact that people can review the carefully controlled chaotic night on www.facebook.com/yokaraoke.
Joi, who collaborated to bring Yo! Karaoke to fruition and who helps manage Pal’s Restaurant, eloquently sums up the magic of these supercharged Tuesday nights. “It’s in the historic Sweet Auburn District, in the old 4th Ward, in an area that is rich in culture and tradition. This is a building that has a rich family history. All the progressive cool people. You come here and get freed up. People that you didn’t know were rock stars become rock stars at Yo! Karaoke, and Fahamu is one of the most brilliant modern-day artists. I love the energy that Pal’s possesses. It fits me,” she says.
And based upon the attendance every Tuesday evenings, Joi is not alone in her sentiments. –terry shropshire
Top photo: Joi
Above: DJ Selector da’shon (left) and artist Fahamu Pecou
