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March 28, 2008 - 4:45AM
Geisha A Go Go lets people sing karaoke in privacy
Comments | RecommendKelly Wilson, Tribune
Karaoke night finds 22-year-olds Ashley Grobmeier of Scottsdale and Lauren Almeter of Tempe tackling a Madonna classic, but their rendition of "Like a Virgin" isn't for everyone.
That's because not everyone can hear them - only six other friends, all celebrating a birthday inside a private karaoke room at Geisha a Go Go, the Asian-themed nightclub than opened last month in downtown Scottsdale.
"You can have your own little group of friends singing, instead of all of these drunken idiots singing Foreigner - or thinking they can sing Foreigner," says Grobmeier. "You're more comfortable. You're not in front of 50 people you don't know."
The four rooms - 100 to 225 square feet, accommodating 10 to 18 people per room - are equipped with a 40-inch flat-screen TV, low-slung green couches and a selection of nearly 10,000 tracks of artists from Gloria Estefan to Destiny's Child to Donna Summer. All are in a roped-off area of the lounge, with a switch to activate a light to get a cocktail server's attention.
Birthday girl Ashley Ackerlund, 22, of Scottsdale says the private rooms remind her of clubs in Las Vegas or Los Angeles "because it's total VIP and exclusive."
"There's definitely nothing like it in the whole Valley," says Ackerlund's 24-year-old brother, Chris.
"Scottsdale is so saturated with the same kind of bars," says Geisha a Go Go managing partner Steve McDonald, rattling off the names of five nearby clubs that vie to attract the swank, stand-and-model crowd. "They're all the same thing with the same music. We're really just trying to offer something different.
"You think you're only coming in here for a couple of drinks, and the next thing you know you're in here for three hours singing. I see people that get consumed with it, and that's a cool thing."
The rooms have hosted birthday and bachelorette parties and even a few first dates, McDonald says.
"Sometimes people just need an ice breaker and this is a good way," he says.
Private karaoke rooms are big in Japan, but Almeter says she doubts they will have the same effect here.
"I think people who go out in Scottsdale want to be seen. And if you're in a private room, you're not being seen," she says.
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