Voices for the ‘empty orchestra’

Young Chang

It is almost the end of the song, and Diane Newell’s rendition of

Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” has quieted the room.

But anyone who is anyone in the karaoke world knows, it ain’t over

yet. That last note, if she can hit it, will make her everything she has

presented herself to be in the past two minutes.

It comes. She makes it. She’s pulled off a Whitney.

Newell, 35, saves this song for when she’s the most blue. The vocal

release and the cheers that follow make her smile. Wearing a lavender

T-shirt, lavender jeans, a white sweatshirt tied around her waist and

white sneakers, she’s an inconspicuous Tuesday-nighter who steals

people’s attention through song. She thrives in her moment of

karaoke-induced fame.

Donald Miller, a karaoke host at the bowling alley, Kona Lane in Costa

Mesa where Newell sings, calls the pastime a culture. Characters in Bruce

Paltrow’s recent release “Duets” portrayed it as a lifestyle -- one that

liberates a burnt-out traveling salesman (Paul Giamatti) and brings a

father-daughter duo (Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis) closer together.

“Some people like line dancing,” Miller said. “They jump around from

place to place. People who sing karaoke do the same.”

There’s no pressure and no rules. No one makes money from going

onstage. A few with natural talent get serious about their singing. The

rest get a little mike-happy and sing their bad day away. The audience

drinks and carries on.

And that’s the thing about karaoke, pronounced kada-O-kay: It’s not

for listening, said Yuki Iwai, a customer at Kariyushi, a Japanese

restaurant in Costa Mesa that features karaoke. It’s for singing.

“Better to listen to a tape,” he said. “Or watch TV.”

But when a meal has just been had and a few drinks have just been

drank, when friends are around and nothing seems capable of turning bad,

the microphone beckons and you follow.

You take the literal meaning of the word -- “kara” means “empty” and

“oke” means “orchestra,” so “empty orchestra” -- and fill the one-man

pit.

“We don’t care -- good singer or bad singer. We should sing,” Iwai

said.

Patting his stomach, he shares another karaoke philosophy: “Good for

health.”

Veteran karaoke performer Joe Buffardi sang Elvis Presley’s “Can’t

Help Falling in Love” for his ill mother over the phone, and then by her

bedside two years ago, before she died. When he was 10, she took him to

watch “Love Me Tender” in a Philadelphia movie theater. Buffardi, now 48,

would drag a chair to the record table to play the King’s hits.

Today he sings them onstage, often at the Kona Lane bar, accompanied

by music, a mike and a television with vanishing words. Karaoke brings

back memories, Buffardi said, especially of his late mother.

Tracey Liltz, who performed Beth Hart’s “L.A. Song” in what resembled

a small impromptu concert, loves the momentary appreciation.

“A lot of people have really nice voices, but we’ll never be the

Whitney Houston’s and Christina Aguilera’s,” she said. “So this is their

time to shine and practice their gift.”

FYI

* WHAT: Karaoke at Kona Lane

* WHERE: A bar at the back of this bowling alley, 2699 Harbor Blvd. in

Costa Mesa.

* HOURS: 8:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8:30 p.m. to 1

a.m. on weekends.

* CALL: (714) 545-1112

* WHAT: Karaoke at Kariyushi Restaurant

* WHERE: 1907 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

* CALL: (949) 515-1990