Don't Shy Away from Asian Karaoke

Tonight my family and some close friends were looking for something to do. Since it is so unseasonably cold here in Atlanta, we thought it may be a good night for bowling. We stopped by both the AMF Lanes in Snellville and Brunswick Lanes on Hwy. 29 in Lilburn. Both locations were full. It was probably a league night because it was going to be almost an hour wait for a lane, or maybe everyone else had the same idea as us.

So this left us without anything to do. We had already gone through the Starbucks drive thru earlier, so it wasn't as if we could go and hang out at a coffeehouse. We had talked about going to Barnes & Noble to waste some time, but I felt that wasn't that different than going to a library. We were really looking for more fun than that. Then the idea of going to Whole Foods to browse around came up. Whole Foods is a good haul for us. The closest one is up in the Johns Creek area, which is probably a good 30 minute drive from where we were. For some reason, the Snellville area doesn't have a decent gourmet grocery store. I don't understand why we don't have one in this area with so many people desperate for one, but that's a whole other article.

My friend suggested a karaoke place. We couldn't think of any bars or coffeehouses that were having karaoke on a Sunday night. Plus we had a kid along (my younger one, older one was at youth group), so hanging at a bar didn't sound like the best idea. Then we thought of Star Karaoke over on Steve Reynolds Blvd. in Duluth.

Duluth has a thriving Asian population. There are many Asian strip malls popping up all over the place. Some of these stores have been here for a while, but we hadn't gone in any of them until recently for fear of looking like a stupid white person. This year, we've put those fears aside and have decided to be more adventurous in our own city. We've discovered a great Asian owned dessert place called Cafe Mozart that serves traditional desserts, and another place called Suno Desserts which is unlike anything I have experienced before. Again, this place deserves it's own article.

Star Karaoke is located in one of these Asian strip malls near the corner of Steve Reynolds Blvd. and Satellite Blvd. We drove to the place and noticed that the parking lot was pretty dead. Of course it is 7:45 on Sunday night, so probably not the most hopping of times. The storefront glass windows were covered up so that you couldn't see in the place. The upper part of the windows were not covered, and we could see many neon lights with Asian words, I'm assuming Korean. This is a bit intimidating for us, but my friend and I decide to take a look at the place while the rest of the gang waited out in the minivan.

We entered a small foyer area where a very nice gentleman was waiting. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the place, but it wasn't an open club type room like I was expecting. Instead, there were two hallways with many doors. We told the man we had never been there before, and we didn't exactly know what we were doing, so he showed us one of the rooms and told us that we could rent the room for $20 an hour. My friend and I peeked in and found a small room that looked like a living room, complete with a giant TV, a large sound system, a coffee table, couches surrounding the walls, and candles lit next to a small decorative Christmas tree on top of the television. There was also a disco ball in the room, and colorful pictures of stars on the ceiling. It looked pretty cool, and safe, because we would be by ourselves and would not have to make complete idiots of ourselves in front of anyone else. My friend and I went and told the rest of our gang that we were staying.

The control to the karaoke machine was all in Korean, but the gentleman showed us the important buttons that we needed to know. He then gave us a giant book of songs, with the last section in English. He made sure that we knew that the lyrics would all be in English for the English songs. As we started singing our songs, it was hard not to laugh because of the videos that showed in the background while the song was playing. At one point in a song I was singing, there was a video of a fat white man jogging over a bridge! There were lots of videos featuring kayakers, bungee jumpers, and all other kinds of random stuff, including close ups of porcupines eating food. We noticed most of the videos were of white people located in various European cities, with a few Asian people here and there. I suppose the Asian lyric songs featured Asian locations and people. At the end of each song, you get rated on a 100 point scale. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but the karaoke rating system didn't like my voice so much, and I thought I had a pretty good voice! I struggled to make over a 75. My husband, who is generally thought of as tone deaf, consistently scored in the 90s, so I have no idea how that thing is scored.

This place was so much fun. I have never experienced anything like it. I suppose it's not that different than sitting in your own living room, but there's something about the place that just makes you want to have fun. At first, we were the only people there, but as the night went on, you could hear others crooning away in their own private karaoke rooms. The restroom was down the hall, so it was a treat walking down and hearing various voices belting out songs in other languages. The microphones there are loud and have massive amounts of reverb.

Star Karaoke serves drinks including beer, Asian wine, Asian juices, and regular old soft drinks. Upon arriving in our little room, the gentleman brought us a bowl of snacks. It was some sort of Asian trail mix. We weren't crazy about it, but it was nice of him to bring it to us. I think they may have served other food, but we had just eaten dinner and weren't looking for anything.

We had planned on only renting the room for one hour. The older kids called to be picked up from youth group, so my husband went and picked them up to bring them to the karaoke place and we continued singing. We ended up renting the room for three hours!

There is a scene in the movie "Lost in Translation" where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson hang out in a karaoke club in Tokyo. I remember thinking how strange the place was that they went to. It looked like they crashed someone's party. We now realize that this is what Asian karaoke places are like. It is so different than American karaoke and it was so much more enjoyable for us.

So if you find yourself with nothing to do, check this place out. For that matter, don't be afraid to walk into some of these Asian businesses that are all over Gwinnett County. It can be intimidating at first, but we have found that the owners are extremely friendly. Sometimes understanding one another isn't the easiest, but the folks at Star Karaoke made us feel completely welcome at their business. We'll definitely be back.