(Review by Khema)
Smoke filled and dimly lit the Sopranos karaoke bar lives up to its mob-drama namesake.
Well – almost. Sopranos isn’t a seedy dive – and the crowd tended more towards trendy young Colombo-ites, than to middle aged mobsters.
This was my first venture into the world of karaoke- and expecting a cacophony of off key, and over enthusiastic vocals – I settled in to pass judgement. But Sopranos it seems plays host to a far higher calibre of karaoke than anticipated, and participants seem to take their singing seriously. Certainly there was far less inebriated caterwauling than imagined – a look at the drinks prices (fairly astronomical) may account for that. In fact – there was one girl who performed a genuinely spellbinding rendition of Hallelujah (a regular, I gathered, she apparently has a trained alto voice) and was in herself worth the Rs. 500 cover charge that Sopranos seems to fairly arbitrarily levy on guests (regulars it seems were not charged, and of course, ladies go free.)
Of course, alto girl is no certainty – but it’s worth going just to watch the wonderful music videos which accompany the karaoke lyrics. Hilariously high entertainment value.
While there seemed to be a bit of moving and shaking between the bar and the sofas – Sopranos, which is wonderfully cozy, lacks the space for a dance floor so it seems standard practice to pop upstairs to Clancy’s if you want to bust a move.
It’s pretty casual – there’s no stage they just hand out mics and largely people seemed to sing from their seats – at least earlier on in the evening. The full on performance numbers (air guitar and all) were reserved for the wee-er hours of the morning. The informality makes the atmosphere pretty comfortable, and certainly lessens the intimidation factor. Next time (and I think it’s worth there being a next time) I may even venture to share my dulcet tones.
(photos from Sopranos’ website)
