youtube

Weekly Shows

Take the stage with a real live band and unleash your inner rock star. Every Thursday night you’ll find us at 710 Beach Club in Pacific Beach (710 Garnet Ave) from 8:30pm til 12:30am.

Email us to join our mailing list to get weekly updates!

For a complete listing of all our shows, take a look at our Gigs page.

Looking for the best in San Diego Karaoke & San Diego Wedding Bands? Check out our special events options!

Rock Out Karaoke is San Diego’s most dynamic live music performance group, combining the raw power of a live rock band with the fun of audience participation, where individual singers take center stage with the live band! Complete with lyrics displayed on a monitor in real-time with the music, nothing is missing from this unique karaoke show!

Looking for Love

When I first stumbled upon the karaoke gold below, I was pretty amazed and amused at the video personal ad. A little further investigation revealed an entire YouTube channel dedicated to this guy and his favorite hobby – singing karaoke. There are so many things we could say about this, but the videos pretty much speak for themselves. In case you’re wondering, this guy is a great demonstration of how to own the karaoke stage as explained in our blog post last week.

In his own words,
“i am a 45 y/o karaoke singer from the Sacramento area looking for a woman to go out and sing some songs with. i would like to try working on some duets because that would be fun.
if you are a woman between the ages of 37 and 47 and are interested in calling me after viewing the video you can call me at…”

Here’s another one with a demo of his superb karaoke skills:

Think we should add some Steve Winwood to the Rock Out Karaoke song list?

And finally, in case you’re interested in hearing a 12-minute monologue (and a little singing) on life, love, and this guy’s killer karaoke gear setup.

“Doing this beats sitting there with all the other losers at the old-time, world famous, neon dive bar while they warble their way through Sweet Caroline, Don’t Stop Believing, Before He Cheats… I could go on, but I don’t want to waste your time or mine. I’m trying to make my life into a work of art, so I can have the spiritual peace of mind to go about the “mundanity” that is my life.” (Notice that the three songs he mentions are some of our top picks!).

So maybe this fella needs to go back to rehab for a while. Or quite possibly, he’s simply a hopeless romantic. We’ve already seen an on-stage wedding proposal this year, so who’s to say he can’t find love at a karaoke bar? Too bad this guy isn’t in San Diego or else we’d invite him to take the stage with Rock Out Karaoke anytime. Maybe we can take up a collection at our next show to buy this guy a plane ticket from Sac-town..

7 Tips for Live Band Karaoke

Singing karaoke with a live band is a completely new ball game for most of us and can be pretty intimidating. Not only are you on a bigger stage, but you’ve got to adjust to the (increased) stage volume and high energy. Luckily, we’ve got some helpful hints for you. After playing in San Diego’s original live band karaoke show for over 4 years, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to be successful. Read on and be the rock star that you know you can be.

1. Own the stage. So this one might sound a little obvious, but you’ve got to act like you’ve been there before… even if you haven’t. Even a mediocre singer with great stage presence and dance moves will wow the audience much more than a great singer who just stands there. Rock Out Karaoke regular, Kristen gives us a textbook example of a singer owning the stage.

2. Song choice. If you’ve ever watched American Idol, you know that song choice is key. Make it count. While we like to think that all our tunes rock (since they pretty much do), there are simply some karaoke tunes that rock somewhat harder than others. Go for a song you really know by heart, so you can concentrate on tip #1.

3. Liquid courage. Sure it’s expected that you’ll indulge in a few drinks to lubricate the pipes, but there’s also a point at which you become “that guy (or girl.)” Enjoy the drink specials and try to find your sweet spot just before you hit the stage.

4. Bring your own cheering section. Even if you’re not a great singer, having some familiar faces there to cheer you on makes you seem that much more like a rock star. Plus, they can sing along with you, help calm your nerves, record your performance to post on YouTube, and have that cold beer waiting for you when you return to the table.

5. Look at the audience. This one goes back to points 1 and 2. If you can connect with the audience, they’ll love you. Relax, take your hands out of your pockets, and step up with some confidence. It’s okay to smile, too. Look them in the eye and tell them how you’re the Man in the Box.

6. Stick to the lyrics. Unless you’re singing a Weird Al song, changing the lyrics is probably only enjoyed by you and a couple of your buddies who don’t get to hear the F* bomb enough. Read what’s on the prompter and rock the original version.

7. Come back for more. With live band karaoke shows all over the US, you’ve got no excuse for making it part of your social scene more often. In San Diego, we play about 6-8 public shows each month. That makes for plenty of opportunities to ‘rehearse.’ The best way to get better at something is practice, practice, practice!

Most of all, enjoy yourself and others will too. Rock the stage with a live band and brag about it at work the next day!

ROK the Vote!

We’ve been nominated by our friends over at 10News.com for their annual A-list for Best Music in the wedding category. Now it’s up to you to help us get to #1. Voting ends on Sep. 3rd, so hurry!

While you do have to enter an email address to vote, you can deselect one of the choices to receive emails from them – no spam! Click the link below to ROK the vote and help us get to the top. Thanks to everyone who has voted so far and we’ll see you at a show soon.

House of Blues Pub Crawl

What do you get when you combine 300 people, killer drink specials, a 20,000 watt sound system, the House of Blues main stage, and live band karaoke?

The Local’s Memorial Day Red, White, and Booze Pub Crawl to the Park. That’s what.

This is the kind of event where you just had to be there. Photographer, John Audley, with Be Water Photo captured some great moments during our 90-minute peformance; but you really had to be there to believe it. There’s probably lots of video floating around out there – if you have a great clip, contact us and we’ll put it on our YouTube page!

From what we could tell, the girls outnumbered the guys for this event. Not bad, considering we are in Man Diego.

The theme was Red, White, and Booze – sort of a “Top Gun” feel, which would explain the overwhelming number of aviator sunglasses.

From The Local Pub Crawl at House of Blues San Diego

We enjoyed all the stage antics, energy, dancing, and great vocals from the lucky participants. Highlights included the Vanilla Ice impression (by two chicks, of course), the Michael Jackson tribute during Billie Jean, and Chris’ stage dive after Rebel Yell. In the end, we were just stop #2 of 5 on a killer pub crawl. Here’s hoping that at least someone remembered us…

Special thanks to Scott, Todd, James, and the rest of the HOB San Diego crew for kicking ass with the production. Thanks Nancy, Nina, and the Local for having us – we had a blast!