Rock star.

Most of the time, I'm happy to stay far, far away from the spotlight -- probably a lesson learned from my sole experience fronting a rock band in high school. I'm far better off behind a drumset, better still seated in the audience. Needless to say, when I tagged along with a group of Time Out New York colleagues last Friday night to SpotLight Live, a glitzy new karaoke bar-cum-theme restaurant on Broadway in Times Square, I intended to be there for moral support alone. That impulse was fortified upon arrival, when I noticed that the club broadcasts performances live on the Internet, as well as on a massive flat-screen video monitor in the street-level lobby.

Still, there's something to be said for spontaneity. Despite the fact that I'd never sung karaoke before in my life, and that it was a Friday night in a packed club in the well-touristed heart of midtown... well, let's just say that my inner Brian Johnson took control. Having left my shame somewhere back there on that stage, I'll even show you what my impassioned account of "You Shook Me All Night Long" looked like -- backup singers, air guitarist and all.

The adoring fan in the last photograph is TONY comedy editor Jane Borden, who certainly proved that she has a sense of humor here. She also took several turns in the spotlight, as did TONY theater critic Adam Feldman and music critic Hank Shteamer. (I'll let them post their own photos.)

SpotLight actually records every performance on its stage; you can take home a DVD, should you choose to do so. Unfortunately -- or perhaps extremely fortunately -- my star turn was the last performance of the evening. The recorder, alas, had been turned off.

(Or maybe that happened after I started. No one would say.)

EDIT Sept. 5: Time Out New York Arts & Culture editor Elisabeth Vincentelli -- a.k.a. The Determined Dilettante -- has posted her own recollections of the evening on the TONY Blog.

Comments

[ACB]

Rock on!!

[sd]

You could have really owned the stage if you'd have worn the hello kitty breastplate. (Been a reader for a couple of months; really enjoy the site.)