There is something so comforting about being the sober person in a bar.

Went out last night for a friends birthday. She’s a fairly new friend, but I’ve felt like I’ve known her for ages. I know in my heart that she would do anything for me if I needed her to – and that includes picking my drunk ass up off the floor.

For her birthday she had one request – she wanted to go to karaoke. Knowing some of her history – I know that this girl used to be a karaoke host – or Karaoke Jockey in the past. She was a regular at some fantastic karaoke nights. She understands how important the levels are and how sometimes the crowd can make the night. As she moved back to this area of the province recently, she put it out there to the Twitterverse that she wanted to go to karaoke and where should she go. Nearly every person that responded told her to go to the Chainsaw. Which sadly – does not have a website for me to direct you to. Or if they did, I couldn’t find in my half-hearted attempt to find it in the top 3 pages of google results.

Anyhow – my hubby has gone to karaoke there on a couple of occasions and really enjoyed that sometimes people were willing to dance for you if the song was right. Even he agreed that this was a great place to go.

As I knew the hubby would be one of the few boys in a sea of girls, I knew it was safer if he could relax a little over some wobbly pops. It didn’t seem fair that the birthday girl had to drive either since she should be able to kick back and relax and so I decided to be the DD. Younger me would’ve fought tooth and nail to avoid this fate, but older me knows how much fun it can be.

As the sober person in a bar you can watch everything and everyone. More than half have no idea that you are watching their drunken behaviour and those that do could care less. I was able to sit back and laugh at all the craziness going on around us, and even at our table while everyone seemed to be having a great time. The mood of the place really helped me to enjoy myself and I was very glad I wasn’t drunk or I might have been one of the girls on stage singing the B52’s love shack and screwing up the words.

We arrived at the end of some “love bingo” being run by the Love Shop and the University so we saw some really interesting things. From blow up man dolls to battery operated boyfriends. As they streamed out you could find condoms on the floor, which of course needed to be passed onto the birthday girl. Safe sex is important after all.

Slowly the sex toys were replaced by all sorts of people with all different tastes and styles. From the girl “Candy” with the frizziest white and pink hair ever, to the man in the cowboy hat and NASCAR jacket, to the older lady with a Travis Tritt t-shirt to the cast of the Jersey Shore at the table beside us. There was a girl wearing all back but with hot pink shoes, hot pink belt and hot pink earrings. There were many girls wearing skirts so short you could almost see their underwear and metalheads with incredibly long locks, bullet belts and screaming voices.

there was such a mish mash of people and everyone seemed to be getting along. (In the case of the jersey shore couple beside us – possibly getting along too well for a public setting until she poked him in the eye with her fingernail.) I was struck by how strange it was to see such an interesting group of people together. From the barely of age, to the senior citizen – everyone was there to have a few drinks, sing a song or two and generally have a good time.

I think the Chainsaw is trying to meet all of their clientele’s needs and it was nice being in a positive atmosphere. From the worst singers to the best, everyone was just happy that you tried.

Of course no trip to a karaoke bar is perfect. The music levels were off, the speakers were regulated to one defeaning speaker rather than several spread around so that it doesn’t blow out the eardrums of your patrons. The KJ didn’t really do a great job of keeping things in order as he tried to add new singers to the rotation. As no one used the microphone stand, more and more people would trip on all the cords.

But the negative aspects of the night don’t overshadow the smile that was on my friends face as she came off the stage from singing a hot little number. Her voice was amazing and everyone there couldn’t help but cheer and catcall when she was up there. It was like she turned into this amazing diva that I knew was inside her but couldn’t fully see the depths of until she was belting out a tune. It was electric.

Oh yes, being the DD when you have people who are genuinely having a good time, means that you can’t help but have a good time. I’ll have to remember that the next time I have to drive for girls night 🙂