by Willy Mitter on I've done my fair share of karaoke-ing while I was living in Japan and Korea, so I have experience with the type of places you can find. Everything from the hole-in-the-wall clubs where you enter songs on a keyboard with paper taped onto the keys to the more clean and high-tech places where their machines rate your pitch, rhythm, and dynamics. Given all of this, Rock Box rates amongst the best. First, let's start off with their amazing song selection, which is pretty up-to-date. You probably won't be able to find any other karaoke place here in the Seattle that has songs just 3-4 months after they originally got released. Even their Japanese selection is on par with what I've seen in the karaoke places in Japan! The karaoke itself is pretty much your standard affair; the song plays and you sing. It does not rate you or anything like that -- which can add another dimension of fun, -- but I was impressed with the song selection technology. You are lent an iPad that you use to both find the songs you want to sing, and control the karaoke box. The environment is pretty impressive as well. It is a bit trendy and modern -- my favorite thing is that in the windowed rooms, there's a switch that makes the window transparent or opaque. If you're not familiar with the technology, you just have to see it for yourself. I love that it has a full bar, along with food/snacks. That's one thing that's rare with the karaoke places I've been to in Japan/Korea. They generally do serve food and offer canned alcoholic beverages, but I've never been in one with a full bar. I'm very impressed with this place, so I'll give it a full 5 stars. However, there is room for improvement. Such as: * Better sound-proofing between rooms. It's actually not bad at all when your song is playing, but if when it's quiet, the sounds from the people next door does bleed through a little bit. * Provide tambourines or other hand instruments. * Upgrade the karaoke machine to one that has rating technology. The ones in Japan give you scores based off of various different criteria and keeps a scoreboard, but even a simple single score would help add another layer of fun. * Use the actual music videos for the songs, if there is one. I realize this is a bit harder, as it requires more data space, and possibly contracts with the record company. But this also adds another layer of fun,as the music videos usually are more interesting than the stock karaoke videos.
by Brady Karow on Good spot? I think it depends on the days you plan to go here See, when I occasionally go to Bruno's I find the place to be more & more sorry which sucks because I still remember how much I used to have fun here several years back when they played all kinds of live jazz & class was at its brink Now, I'm beginning to feel that Medjool has infected Bruno's into a douchebag frenzy which usually happens on Friday or Saturday night Especially, the Pussycat Lounge upstairs...I think the name gives a clue to what smells up there and downstairs...armpits On the other hand, I came here on a Thursday night and listened, danced to a reggae, salsa live band in the main floor...it was off the hook! I had so much fun. The DJ also plays a great mashup of song hits from 80s hip-hop to electronica... Bruno's is a hit or miss
by Adam R. on There are some places where the normal laws of the world no longer apply. Some places transcend time and space and throw physics and indeed common sense out the window. The Clermont Lounge is such a place. It is always interesting to learn how people hear about the Clermont. I would assume most people hear about it from word of mouth or from going to organized events like this last weekend. There are always those that actually stayed at the Clermont Hotel and happened to go to the basement to see what was going on. Those people are probably best avoided. At some point they raised their price to $10 which seems a little high. I guess that is just a sign of the condition Social Security is in. At least the drinks are cheap. So you may ask yourself, what is the Clermont? Well imagine a place like the Cheetah, which is a strip club in Atlanta. Now imagine taking the people that worked at the Cheetah and hiring them in the same profession about thirty or forty years later. THAT is the Clermont: where strippers go to die. It is well hidden in the basement of the hotel and you have to enter in the back, which is an appropriate analogy. It was actually very very crowded when we went too. Inside is a full bar with a stage inside. I guess they need a barrier to protect the girls from something. There are always a couple guys really really into it too. They are either sitting there smoking with one hand under the counter or getting a lap dance, or as I like to say, preventing the stripper from falling down with your lap. The girls: Girls may be an inappropriate word to use here. Seasoned citizens might be more accurate. This might be the cellulite capital of the world, and they are not afraid to show it off. Some of the girls have on some interesting outfits, one of which looked like Dorothy's blue dress from The Wizard of Oz. A warning to those of you thinking of going: there are some things in life that cannot be unseen. Maybe not as bad as Tubgirl, but close. The rest of the place is okay, they have a dance floor where you can get away from the show and forget what you just saw. The bathrooms are very weird with the guys having a giant shared urinal basin and one stall with no door. I heard the girl's has curtains instead of doors. They also do not allow any cameras and are very strict about it. I am guessing it is more about protecting your camera than anything else and they just do not want to have to buy you a new one when it breaks. If you go here sober you will regret it, and if I go again I will be wearing more layers of clothes, perhaps a HazMat suit.
