Karaoke Night rocks Fireside Cafe in more ways than one
Laughter and conversation vibrate off the walls of Fireside Cafe giving the room its own beat, its own pulsating rhythm. It becomes difficult to tell which is filling up faster – the sign-up sheets or the café seats. It’s March 27, Karaoke Night, and Castleton students are here to have their voices heard.
Mere minutes into the event, the conversation has given way to steady clapping accompanying an energetic Tegan & Sara cover. Dani Crawford and Jess Cameron, stage names D-Craw and J-Cams, were the first duo to take the stage, and the night, by furious vocal storm.
When asked what inspired them to perform, both agreed “We’ve been practicing this routine in the shower. And we normally jam out to Tegan & Sara so we had it down. When we heard about karaoke night we had to do it.”
Cameron said Crawford introduced Tegan & Sara to her this semester.
“She made me a CD for the car and now I’m even singing it alone! Now when we sing it in the suite, I can’t help but picture Karaoke Night.”
Castleton freshman Karyn Burns won the Karaoke Night Grand Prize that night – half of the WIUV donations, $33 – after astonishing listeners and onlookers with her melodious version of Greg Laswell’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
Like other performers, Burns was not in it for the money.
“I didn’t really expect to win the grand prize, nor did I think about it a lot. I mostly got on stage for fun and because my friends strongly encouraged me to.”
WIUV Music Director and DJ Jaren Carpenter, came up with the idea for the event.
“I had the equipment and I had the time so we were ready to go. I didn’t expect it but it was amazing,” he said.
Even though the event was only scheduled to last until 10 p.m., students were signing up to sing their favorite tunes past 10:30.
“I did not expect it to be so popular. But we had many people who weren’t part of the station just show up and like what they saw. It was awesome,” he said.
Matthew Trombley, general manager of WIUV, says that the radio station is working on hosting another Karaoke Night before the semester comes to a close.