The Rock Star Live Karaoke continued its tradition of drawing a large crowd on Wednesday.
The event, which is held at the Observatory on the last Wednesday every two months, attracted approximately 200 people to either participate or watch their fellow students. Rock Star is karaoke with a twist: rather than having the music be played from a machine, there is a live band to play a repertoire of 222 hand-picked songs behind the singer.
“Whenever you do it for the first time, you feel like a superstar,” said advertising student and participant Allie Grant. “Everyone always enjoys themselves.”
The band itself is made up of music industry veterans. Jeff Pearce is a founding member of the band Moist, a band that has three platinum records to its name, while his Rock Star Live band mate Gerry Finn played with the band the Killer Dwarfs. Chris Taylor-Munro, another member of the band, has toured with people like David Usher and Brian Byrne.
“It’s a fun experience,” said Pearce. “Even though we’re playing the same songs a normal cover band does, it’s always a unique experience. Every song is great, and in any given set, we might play a Tom Jones song followed by a Metallica song.”
The event did not just attract current Algonquin students. Former Algonquin alumni were also present, like recent computer systems technician graduate Craig Kelly, who has attended every Rock Star Live event for the past two years.
Others who attended were just people attracted to the event and had never attended Algonquin at all.
SA Events Programmer Baldeep Randhawa is incredibly positive about the event and the band.
“They’re great people to work with,” said Randhawa. “Some the greatest, kindest, most respectful people.”