Since arriving home from my travels and celebrating the Irish holiday of St. Patrick's Day, I finally buckled down and did some homework today. I even visited the UCD library. After completing a comprehensive outline of my Irish History paper and catching up on some emails, we met to pick a Paris hostel. We are staying at this place run by the Vietnamese who in response to Stacy's email wrote "If the name Stacy Curry is felt, it will straighten". Hmm.. okay then. We decided it was time to hit the Wicked Wolf. It has been a while since we've belted it out and it seemed a good time to show Laura the glory of the favorite Thursday Night hangout. Claire, Stacy, Laura and I met at 9:30 with Stacy's neighbor Megan, her friend Allie and Allie's friends from home. One of whom was from Lake Forest, representin' LC.
We headed to the Wicked Wolf and perusual the place was slow to get going. Our man Brock Jones, DJ & Karoake default man was holding it down with some songs, starting with a favorite "Are We Human or Are We Dancer?". It wasn't too long until he was dedicating Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to one Miss Stacy Curry. How he knew her name.... um, we come here a lot?! After pondering the usual karoake book for a jam that fit our mood, we decided on Lady Marmalade. As we waited, we were graced with the musical stylings of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise". A childhood favorite, I rapped along, only to be told by Laura that I was "down low gangsta", under the surface. I laughed, I do rock a mad running man. All those years of Fresh Prince and Wayans Brothers. Nothing sets the mood quite like Bohemian Rhaspody and we were belting it out.
Finally it came time for Lady Marmalade. I had already called all the Lil Kim parts. Unfortunately this was just the Christina Aguilera version (no rapping, let down for sure). I'm pretty sure that Lady Marmalade is a karaoke must do, so cross that bad boy off the list. Before I could sit back down, I was summoned to the stage to join Stacy in a song that graces my top 5 favorite songs of all-time "Friends in Low Places". I always have a soft spot in my heart for some G.Brooks, and thus, it was necessary to bust this one out. Stacy sang back up due to her sicky voice, but it was a jam nonetheless.
We got a little old 90s music flare going out, Tearing up my Heart and Hit Me Baby One More Time. Then a fleet of Spanish speakers came up and sang "La Bamba". It doesn't get much more authentic than that. They finished it up with the Macarena, which took me back to the younger days and made me wonder why on earth it was so popular. Other than it is a dance everyone can do.
Stacy, Allie, and Megan decided they wanted to sing a little Heart, "Alone" so they hit the stage. About a minute into the song, Stacy walks off stage. Claire follows her to check on her, turns out she was just heading to the bar. Allie came to try to get her to finish the song, bringing the microphone with her. Thus at the end of the song, Brock called out to the bar..."Stacy, where are you? Bring back my microphone, or I'll Kill you". Brock loves Stacy. The microphone was returned and all was mended between Brock & Stacy. In fact, when Alster came up to sing (the X factor man himself), Stacy got a little shout out in Boyz II Men's End of the Road from Mr. Jones. Not enough love for him to allow Alster to sing her ultimate favorite.."Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". We wrapped up the evening with a little Aerosmith "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and in true Brock Jones' fashion, he finished the night with Lionel Richie. It's his signature jam and tonight he got up on the railing to sing, part of which he directed towards me and Stacy.
We chatted with Brock after the final fiesta and we promised him we'd be back again next week. He is definitely starting to recognize us as regulars. He asked Stacy if she was Irish since she was "crazy like an Irish Girl" and has red hair. Stacy tried to convince the barkeep to sing, but he declined, saying Brock wouldn't let him. We consulted Brock who said he could sing...ah maybe next week. Only midnight and having burned some cals singing, we headed next door to Supermac's for some late night grease. The guys at the counter must have thought we were idiots... 1) because when ordering we asked for "fries or chips or whatever you call them" 2) Stacy asked if the Irish Indepedent was "a real newspaper" 3)when Laura went up to the counter to ask for more ketchup (or tomato sauce or whatever) she told them she needed more for Brittany..like they knew who I was. But we did go through a lot of ketchup, most of which I'm pretty sure ended up on Stacy's hands in the struggle of dipping her tenders or rather scrapping them through the sauce on her tray. Most beautiful girl in the world? I'm not sure Prince would think so now. She recounted all the times Brock called her out, and told us of her dreams and aspirations to marry the barkeep (whose name we don't know) so she can spend the rest of her Thursday nights for all of her life at the Wicked Wolf.
We headed to catch a cab, which one backed down the street to pick us up. A decision I think he later regretted when we got in. Stacy began to recount our night to him. She talked about Brock "the karaoke master", the owner of the place. I corrected her, Eugene owns the place, and the cab driver said "yes, I know Eugene well". Stacy asked if he knew Alster too and then another off the wall comment. He was loving us. In the midst of it, Stacy goes "I found a newspaper in my jacket". She had put the Irish Independent in her jacket to take home. He asked us why so many Americans (obnoxious ones at that) were out and Laura was quick to say she was "from the land down under" (which we were going to sing but we ran out of time). He dropped us off at the gate where we offered to pay him in Hungarian Forints and we bid our farewells, laughing the whole way back to our rooms. Successful successful night for sure. Amazing how much singing and laughing is good for the soul.
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