You know how my favorite type of bar is a bar in walking distance from where I will pass out. There are only two bars in walking distance from where I am staying in Detroit and one of them is the city’s oldest gay bar and the other is gay friendly. I have not left this area at night since I’ve been in Detroit.
The gay bar, the Woodward Cocktail Lounge, pictured above is on Woodward and Milwaukee. The first time I went there I thought it was closed or out of business. For security reasons, the front is boarded up but there is an entrance from the back parking lot.
Because it stays light out so late this time year I walked there in complete sunshine my first time at 8:30 PM. When I walked into the darkened bar my eyes had not adjusted yet. I did not see the three steps at the entrance and I fell into the bar. If you want to be noticed, be a white guy at a bar where everyone else is African American and throw yourself down the steps and into people’s bar stools.
Three days later, I know everyone’s name and have become a bit of a regular. Last night was karaoke. Not the type of karaoke where a drunk frat guy will try to be funny by singing “I am woman.” This is the type of karaoke that had me asking, “Why doesn’t she have a record contract.”
If someone was particularly good and singing a danceable tune, half the room would get up and burst into a choreographed line dance.
At a certain point, I was told that we are leaving and going to the other bar, Northern Lights. There was more karaoke there to be conquered.
Two minutes later, we were in a sports bar and restaurant type of situation, with a lot of frat dudes and metal heads. But in the world of karaoke, everyone knows each other.
If the whole world was into competitive karaoke, there would be no more war.