Queereoke – The Midway Cafe

Update: a harsh winter drove out all but the most diehard queeraoke-​ers, leaving the dance floor to its sexy/​sloppy true self! Long live ‘Gansett in a can and endless renditions of Meredith Brooks’ Bitch.
Pro-​tip: While the weather is nice, you should get there early (by 10:15) if you want to secure a spot on the rotation before it gets late.
Pro-​tip 2: Grab a slice of pizza at Burritos next door if you’ve had one (or three) too many drinks.
Also: CASH ONLY GUYS

Should be called half karaōke– half twenty something grind fest. Was supposed to be 4 hours of karaōke but apparently that’s an absurd concept. When I inquired of the bouncer and DJ «is karaōke over?» After a 45 minute top 40 dance party– the answer «we can’t play karaōke all night!» Silly me. Apparently queereoke is a clever ruse for the same crap music played at ever other bar in the city. No Elton, no George Michael, Boy George, Queen or even Lady GaGa. Meh.

If you want to listen to an epic rendition of 4 Non Blondes’ «What’s Up» and drink $ 2.50 PBRs, this is the place for you.

The Midway is a dive. Dark and dingy, cheap drinks, and sticky floors.
Queeraoke is a fun collection of mostly female queer people. The few men who do show up take more than their share of stage time singing, but that probably means that men who come to Queeraoke are mostly there to sing rather than to hook up — just as well since they’re not likely to succeed. People sing the same old songs too often; I try to break from that pattern and never do the same song twice. The song selection isn’t bad but alternative is poorly represented. (But then most of the crowd won’t recognize it; one night I sang a Muse song and half the audience didn’t even know the band let alone the song!)
The song books are seriously out of date, and each one seems to be incomplete. (Pieces of the alphabet are simply missing and each one is missing a different part.) Some nights they bring a computer that you can use to make requests; it has an up to date database.
The main DJ, Summer’s Eve, is OK. The assistant DJ, Erin, always has a big welcoming smile for everyone and she’s seriously hot.
To answer a couple of questions in other reviews:
1. Why the cover? So they can afford to pay the DJ. Karaōke recordings aren’t cheap — the DJ is paying at least $ 1 per song and he’s got a library of thousands of them. And his time is worth something.
2. Why don’t they have song X? First, see the answer to question #1. Second, the song selection of the karaōke companies is somewhat idiosyncratic; the song you really want to sing may not be available, or may only be available in a bundle that is mostly dreck that nobody wants.

this shit is a hot mess. i cannot believe they charge a cover for it. the venue isfine, nothing special, and the drinks are only average, so why the cover?

I’ve been here a few times, and its a solid night. It’s a dive bar, but the best bars tend to be. Five dollar cover, five dollar well drinks, and the cutest female-​bodied queer people you can find. Small breaks of pop music between sets of kareoke, and the crowd was very welcoming to the occasional gay man (re: me) so I had a blast.
Granted its in JP so unless you’re local you need a ride. If it were closer I’d probably be a regular.

I love dive bars, so the dive part did not bother me. My regret is that I did not bring the phone to capture a performance or 2 on video. Though the crowd was mostly female, there were a few men. One young guy performed Foreigner’s «I want to know what love is,» and it was priceless. Both bartenders were nice and efficient. The DJ’s musical variety betwixt performances was notable. Wreckx n Effect’s Rumpshaker (with the video on multiple tvs) and then Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. wow. I honestly love that she threw in some Mumford and Sons — however it was oh-​so laughable to see a couple of women dancing to the English folky mandolin as though it was … Salt n Pepa.

I had an awesome awesome night at queeraoke! The singing was horrendous but the energy was great, the drinks were strong, the bartender was nice and there was dancing. Definitely a win.
Attention queeraoke patrons on ³⁄₁₁: I lost a digital camera that has a memory card with super duper sentimental pictures on it… A trip I took, my grandmother, etc. If by any chance you picked it up PLEASE shoot me an email at
and I’ll give you my address to mail the memory card to. Your good karma points will be off the charts. Thank you!

Queereoke has its good nights and its bad nights. There’s generally a pretty good feeling of community going on, with everyone singing and dancing through a lot of the songs. The dance breaks in between are generally fun. I have been here occasionally surrounded by groups of chicks who can’t hold their liquor and are damn annoying when drunk, but I find that there are more good nights than bad.
One of the first times I went, a Japanese tourist couple wandered in, looked around, and hid in the back for awhile – they seemed like they really wandered into the wrong place. Then they got up on stage, sang a ridiculously cutely-​accented and enthusiastic rendition of «Twist and Shout,» and got the whole crowd jumping, clapping, dancing, and singing. It was unspeakably adorable.
If you do want to sing, get there early-​ish to get on the list, or you might be going right at last call – or next week.

OK Queeraoke
So I agree with David D. Don’t go here if you don’t plan on drinking. I went here once while I was on antibiotics and I was horrified. I kept turning in a circle trying to find somewhere to look that didn’t make my skin crawl. And the singing oh god the singing.
So the booze of your choice numbs the eye-​widening fear that would usually accompany a sober queeraoke night.
I go, i drink, i sing, i dance to the same Le Tigre song I’ve been dancing to for years and i stay till the end even if i didn’t plan to. I never see anything I would have missed but i go week after week anyway.
Love/​Hate.
A few pointers to everyone:
1. Don’t sing ‘Come to my Window’ any more.
2. Don’t propose marriage on stage
3. Don’t stand in the middle of the amazingly small dance floor and make out, you get in the way. And, while i don’t speak for everyone, I’m pretty sure that no one wants to see that when they rock out to Dio or Mariah. ok please stop kthxbai.

Consistently, this has been the WORST night I have EVER gone to, but I can’t stop going! It’s the same music every week, the same people singing the same songs every week, and me asking myself the same question @ 2:00 am «why the FUCK did I do that again?!»
Don’t get me wrong, Karaōke @ Club Café is the WORST night in general, but I think my car refuses to drive there.
This night is awful, but it finds ways to salvage itself. NEVER go here alone. Only go if 5+ friends are going. Do NOT go to see the same 3 – 4 girls sing «Don’t Stop Believing»… try to get there after 12:00 to avoid it … you’ll thank me later. Do NOT go if you don’t plan on drinking … you will start complaining before your hand is stamped.
If you are a TRUE Karaōke fan (and I hope there is no such thing), I’m sure you will have fun here. I just can’t get into the idea of watching the same girl sing Alanis Morissette’s «You Oughta Know» (with infinite technical difficulties), observe the audience DANCE to it, and call that a night out. :(
Otherwise, I have fun being in the company of my friends, and getting wasted while trying to tune out what’s happening on stage. I wish there was an Applebee’s in JP. :’(

Save the stage for the gays. Queereoke is definately an avenue for Thursday night aural debauchery. Although, the show doesn’t usually get started until after 10pm, once it does… there’s nothing that can stop it. Well, nothing except the ten to twenty minute hip hop breaks, which make for longer waits to sing, but overall the party gets hoppin’… after all, we queers DO love to tear it up on the dance floor. The drinks are affordable, the cover is reasonable, and if you don’t mind taking a cab home and trucking through a Friday hangover… this is the place to be on Thursday night.

The Midway itself is a divey mcdive bar– but every Thursday the queers come out, drink up, and get up on stage and sing everything from GNR to George Michael to Melissa Etheridge… to ok I sing Walk Like an Egyptian on the somewhat-​regular (it’s my happy place).
DJ Summer’s Eve keeps it fresh as promised. The dancing is fun. The drinking is pretty cheap. The queers are a party. The cover is $ 3 — hello, fab! And Angie the bartender wins awards every year.
I don’t get to JP very often– but I try to schedule my trip across the river to coincide with queereoke. It’s a dancy, sweaty, fun time.