Live band karaoke
The band plays the hits. Your people take the mic when they’re ready.
Somebody from accounting takes the mic for Livin’ on a Prayer, the band hits the key change behind them, and the whole party sings the last chorus. A real band plays the 80s and 90s hits on its own, sung out front, and hands the microphone to anyone who wants a song. The words are on a screen, a host works the floor, and the band follows whoever is singing: their tempo, the harmony and the high notes.
It books for an office holiday party, a sales kickoff or a team offsite, a conference after-party and the fortieth birthday of anyone who grew up on this songbook.
Trusted and booked by
The songbook
The songs an office of every age already knows.
The book runs from the 80s and 90s onward, because those are the songs a twenty-six-year-old and a fifty-eight-year-old can both sing without looking at the screen: Journey, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Prince, Madonna, Queen, Oasis, No Doubt, Alanis Morissette, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Outkast and the Killers.
Between singers the band plays the same book as a party band, sung out front, and the floor keeps dancing. A song for one particular person, the CEO’s karaoke song or the retiring colleague’s, is a request we can take the week before if it’s already on the song list, and with a few weeks’ notice if it isn’t. The band’s straight party set is on the repertoire page.
Sizes
A four-piece with a host, or a bigger band with a horn.
- The four-piece
- Voice and guitar, keys, bass and drums, with one of the musicians hosting from the stage. It’s the usual size for a company party of eighty to two hundred.
- Five to six piece
- The four-piece plus a host of its own on the floor and a horn or a second voice. It’s the size for a ballroom, a conference after-party or a crowd past two hundred, where getting the first singers up is a full-time job and the choruses want the extra weight.
When the party should keep going after the band, the DJ takes over through the same sound system on the same contract.
Occasions
Who books live band karaoke.
- Office holiday parties
- The party where the accounting team turns out to have a Bon Jovi problem. Office holiday party ideas in Denver puts this act beside the other ways a party can go.
- Sales kickoffs and team offsites
- The evening after a day of sessions, for a group that spent eight hours in a ballroom and wants to make noise together, in Denver or on a mountain retreat.
- After-parties
- After a conference dinner or a gala program, on the sound system that’s already set up in the ballroom.
- Weddings
- The last hour of a reception, or the welcome party the night before, for a couple whose friends will fight over the Whitney Houston.
- Milestone birthdays and parties at home
- A fortieth or a fiftieth with a crowd that grew up on this songbook, a Halloween party in costume, or a holiday party at home with a big main floor.
Live band karaoke questions
Stage sizes and power for each size are on the technical page, and the questions every booking shares, from substitutions to volume limits, are on the full question list.
- Does anyone have to sing?
- No. The band plays a full set of 80s and 90s hits on its own, sung out front, so the night works as a party even if the mic never leaves the stage, and the host never puts anyone on the spot. The first singers are almost always a pair or a group, and once two or three songs have gone well, the list fills on its own.
- How does a guest get on the list?
- The songbook is printed for the tables and shown on the screen. A guest picks a song and gives the host their name, and the host keeps a paper sign-up list and calls each singer up. There's no app and nothing to download, and two or three colleagues can go up together on one song.
- How is this different from a karaoke DJ?
- With a backing track the singer is on their own. With a band, the tempo follows the singer, the band keeps the song going if somebody loses the verse, a second voice comes in on the chorus, and the song ends when it should. The words are on a screen either way.
- How many people get a turn?
- About six to ten guest songs fit in an hour, so at a party of two hundred most people sing along from the floor. If the list is still long when the booked time ends, you can add another half hour on the night at the same rate as the rest of the evening.
- Who decides what's appropriate?
- The person booking. Say when you book whether the songs run clean or as recorded, and the host keeps to it on the night.
- How loud is it?
- The same band can play dinner first at a level the tables talk across, then turn up when the program ends and the karaoke starts. From there it's as loud as a party band, with its own monitors so the singer can hear themselves. If your venue has a sound limit, give us the number and it stays under it.
- What comes with the booking?
- The band and the host, sound support that's the right size for the venue, two lyric screens (one facing the singer and one facing the crowd), the printed songbook, an announcement microphone for remarks and a raffle, and whatever paperwork your office needs.
- What does the venue need to provide?
- For the four-piece, a performance area of about 14 by 10 feet, two dedicated 20-amp circuits, 90 minutes to set up before the first set, and a venue contact for setup and sound check. The bigger band's footprint is on the technical page.
Tell us the date and the headcount, and we'll bring the band and the songbook.
Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.