We’re back at San Diego’s premier Memorial Day event!
If you’ve followed us for any part of our 16 years in existence, you’ll remember that we played several Sing Dance Crawl events over the years (10 consecutive years, if you’re counting!). We’re happy to be back for another year at the House of Blues San Diego for some live band karaoke, starring YOU!
Grab your tickets, because this event always sells out and they’re going fast. Proceeds benefit the Wingman Foundation, so you can feel great about partying for a great cause.
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! Contact us today if you’re looking for the best interactive entertainment you can get for your next event!
The Rock Out Karaoke family had an unthinkable loss over the Thanksgiving holiday, as our very own Andy Hinson passed away at age 53. We’re still processing, grieving, and supporting Andy’s family during this time, and we thought it appropriate to try and describe here what Andy meant to us.
Any musician will tell you that there’s something magical about being on stage with others and feeling completely locked in. When you’re able to do that with someone dozens / hundreds of times for 10 years, you become family.
We first met Andy in early 2012 when he was playing with local Zeppelin tribute Dazed and Confused. He was a great addition to the ROK lineup, and having a second bass player on the roster would allow us to play much more often during those busy years. Andy committed to learning the 200+ songs on our list and had them all down within a matter of weeks. It certainly helped that he was a natural rocker and loved so many of the tunes we played.
Over the years Andy played too many gigs to count. These were our busiest years, and we traveled to Vegas, LA, and the California desert for corporate gigs — along with weekly and monthly commitments close to home at 710 Beach Club, JT’s Pub, House of Blues and more.
Andy always had a quick smile and easy going demeanor (usually supplemented by a quote from Big Lebowski or any number of classic films). Having grown up in Northern Virginia, he was a die-hard Washington Redskins (Commanders) fan. Beyond his affinity for great movies and football, Andy loved what you may think of as “pure” classic rock. Bands like Rush, Kiss, and of course, Led Zeppelin. And the hair – we have to mention those perfect golden, full-bodied locks, which, for much of the time we knew him, fell well past his shoulders. Definitely the envy of many women in the crowd!
Perhaps what we’ll cherish most of all from our time with Andy is how he treated others. He was simply one of the nicest guys we’ve ever known. One of Andy’s longtime friends summed it up perfectly by saying [paraphrased], “The best thing about Andy is that he played a starring role in some of the best days of the lives of everyone who knew him.” We agree wholeheartedly.
Thanks, Andy, for playing a starring role in many of the best days of our lives. Until we meet again… we love you.
San Diego’s best event band (and longest-running live karaoke band) will be back at the House of Blues San Diego on Sept 3, from 7-10pm. This all-ages, no cover karaoke show feels like a blast from the past for us — we’ve played dozens of gigs at the House of Blues since 2007. We’ve had weekly residencies, monthly gigs, and rocked tons of private parties (including the world’s best pub crawl). So this really feels like coming home for us.
Join us on stage on Sept 3, and who knows what the future will hold? Perhaps we’ll be back in October! Only one way to find out what it’s like to be on stage with a live rock band. And the HOB sound system is incredible (duh!).
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! Contact us today if you’re looking for the best interactive entertainment you can get for your next event!
After playing several San Diego corporate events in the first half of this year (and a really fun event in Palm Springs), we’re back on a public stage very soon. You’ve been asking when… so we’re delivering!
We’ll be back with live band karaoke at the San Diego County Fair for two Friday nights: June 10 and June 24 — both nights from 9pm til 10:30pm on the Coors Light Avenue Stage. Shows will be all-ages and free with your Fair admission.
Those of you who are OG Rock Out Karaoke fans will remember we played the Fair several years in a row (this same stage was called the Showcase Stage back then). We even thought it worthy of blog posts in 2010 and 2011.
This year’s theme is Heroes Reunite! After being cancelled for the past couple of years, everyone is ready to let loose at the Fair this summer — and we’ll be right there with you to celebrate our heroes and belt out some great tunes on stage.
So grab those kiddos, warm up those pipes, and meet us for live band karaoke at the San Diego Fair!
Take yourself back to 2006, specifically, October of 2006. George W. Bush was president. The radio waves were dominated by songs by Ludacris, The Killers, Beyonce, and The Fray. NBC’s 30 Rock had just premiered. Justin Timberlake was still bringing SexyBack.
For karaoke fans in San Diego, it was also the month that Pickford’s Party decided to create our fair city’s first live band karaoke group. With support from the fine folks at R.T.’s Longboard Grill (RIP Longboards), we launched our first live show on October 25, 2006. Our original lineup consisted of Roberto Renovales (bass), Colin Farnell (lead guitar), Nick Vincent-Maloney (drums), and John (Skipper) Ruzicka (rhythm guitar).
The turnout on the first night was, let’s just say, modest. But word quickly spread of our Wednesday night residency at Longboards, and we continued to grow our karaoke fan base as well as our song list. We continued that Wednesday residency through the winter and into 2007. The “regulars” who started to show up week after week meant that we were really onto something with this idea. We gained a lot of momentum in those early months and even played a few private parties and corporate events. Most of all, we had a ton of fun playing gigs every week.
Over the next year or so, life events and career choices meant we would need to replace drummer Nick who moved to Portland. We auditioned a few drummers, but none were a great fit for the group for a variety of reasons. Luckily, we had crossed paths with Eric Ganci previously, who was ready to join immediately.
As Eric puts it, I first saw ROK as an audience member. I’m blown away by the concept…like, I’m giggly with excitement because the concept is so fun. I sing Margaritaville and right after the gig I tell the band “if this drummer chair ever opens, I want the audition.”
Our momentum carried us into 2008, where our weekly Longboard gigs were packed every Wednesday (we put friends of the band on “the list” to get in free and skip the line). We also caught the attention of several other area venues, where we started monthly residencies at House of Blues, played as the “house band” at a battle of the bands event at Viejas, and started growing our list of wedding and corporate clients in San Diego and beyond.
Details and dates are fuzzy, but over the next few years we added more band members to round out our group and create redundancy in each position so that we could commit to more work. Guitarist Rob Wells joined after we convinced him to leave his own cover band (though we think he may have been cheating on us a bit in those early days). Bass Dave Swendsen and guitarist Mike Stoltz had both played in a band called Meld with Eric, so they were a natural fit. Drummer Matt Souza was also a key member for many years before moving to LA.
By the early 2010’s guitarist Paulo da Rosa, drummer Shawn Ballard, and bassist Andy Hinson had signed on to help keep the rocket ship flying high. By that time, we had also established a new weekly residency on Thursday nights at 710 Beach Club in Pacific Beach. That weekly residency lasted for more than four years and after shifting to monthly appearances in 2015, our current data says we’ve played 300 gigs at the venue. 300!
With so many years behind us, it’s hard to pinpoint all the great moments on stage and off. But who can forget the time we had a marriage proposal happen on stage? Who remembers the time we partied with Jack (of Jack in the Box fame)? How many times did we run the PB Idol live band karaoke competition? We could write for days on the 9 years we hosted the “sing” portion of the now-legendary Sing Dance Crawl bar crawl.
If you’re still reading this far down, thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with us. We’re hopeful we can continue to rock San Diego events and bars for the next 15 years and beyond as we bounce back from the pause brought on by COVID last year. Thanks to all those who have supported us over the years, joined us on stage, hired us for your company events, or just followed along from the sidelines. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Mad love 🤘
Rock Out Karaoke
We would be remiss if we didn’t pay special tribute to long-time host and forever supporter of the band, Carlos. We lost Los earlier this year, but he’ll always be part of our story.
