A New Generation of the NKL

To all my lovely, loyal NKL fans and friends:

When I founded the National Karaoke League in 2008, I never expected it to grow to the heights that it has!  In the past three years, I’ve enjoyed watching it grow and change to become one of the most unique and welcoming communities in Austin.  In that time, hundreds of league members have come to the microphone, and I hope that the NKL has brought each and every one of you friends, fun, and many good memories (or hazy drunken nights–either way!)

And while the NKL has grown and changed, my life has changed too.  Since 2008, I finished law school, became an attorney, realized I hated being an attorney, freelanced, consulted, started a website, and, eventually, got my dream job at Google.  All of these changes have brought excitement and new challenges, but have also taken up more and more of my time.  As a result, I wasn’t able to grow and improve the NKL in the way I knew it was capable.

Luckily, I’ve been able to rely on our amazing board members to continue the tradition of the NKL and bring continuing seasons of fun to new performers.  In fact, they’ve done such a great job, that I realized the legacy of the NKL was safe in their hands, and that it was time for me to pass the torch.  Therefore, I’m extremely excited to announce that as of last season, I have permanently stepped down as CEO of the NKL.  Even better, I’ve found not one, but two, veteran NKL board members and performers to take my place.

As such, I hope you’ll help me welcome Kelly Strait and Kara Kalasky as the new co-CEO’s of the National Karaoke League.  Between these two very capable ladies are more than 10 seasons of NKL experience.  They’ve served as teammates, captains, board members, kjs, presidents, hosts, and–ironically–both have been voted biggest flirt at least once.  I know they will be able to take the NKL to even higher heights, and I know you’re all going to love some of the ideas and changes they have in mind.

2012 is going to be a great year for the NKL, and I hope you’ll register now for the spring season to be a part of it.  And who knows–with all this new free time I’ll have on my hands–I might just end up competing myself.    Congratulations to Kara and Kelly, and as always–Sing or Die!

Whitney Francis

NKL Founder

Finals for NKL Fall 2011 Season – Downtown Division

Well, another season of NKL is in the books. It was a wild ride of a season, and a good time was had by many. Before we get into the nitty gritty of Thursday’s festivities, I would just like to say that it has been a joy being your blogger week in and week out. I’ve appreciated the feedback I’ve gotten from many of you, and hope you’ve enjoyed these weekly notes. I hope to be back doing this again sometime soon, so if there’s anything you’d like to see for next time around, please let me know. Love to you all.

Before we get down to business, I want to announce the members of next season’s NKL Board:

President – Kara Kalasky

Blog – Carter Delloro (hey, that’s me!)

Recruiting – Arthur Gerard

Charity – Andrew Friedenthal

Board-at-large – Stephen Morse

Board-at-large – Mark DeFrance

Now, let’s relive the Finals!

Round 1 – first solo round

Ego’s was officially at capacity Thursday night when Lindsay from the Red Team took the stage to kick off the evening’s festivities. Singing (or rapping, really) Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis,” Lindsay personified Christmas with her Santa hat and candy cane. The team, though, took the rough and tumble Queens neighborhood Run-DMC depict in the song and used it as the musical backdrop for an enactment of the War on Christmas. Members of the Red Team dressed as a Thanksgiving turkey, the Easter bunny, a St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun, among other things – all treating Lindsay to some pretty hard knocks.

That's not a leprechaun you want to meet in a dark alley.

Next up was Kelly from the Pink Team singing “Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet. She used the song’s introduction of the members of Sweet to instead introduce characters from the board game/movie Clue, like Mrs. White, Professor Plum, and Mrs. Peacock (clever re-use of the peacock costume from last week!). They each had a weapon and immediately went off into the crowd in search of victims, all to the frantic pace of the song. By the end, Patrick (Professor Plum) killed everyone with the gun in the ballroom (song tie-in! Another awesome touch.) before finally offing Kelly – the singing telegram.

That's the face of a criminal mastermind. We should've known it would be you, Patrick!

The final performance of the round was Holly from the Olive Team singing “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. (The dollar sign is essential.) In an homage to Cinderella (“Tonight / I’mma fight / ‘til it gets to midnight”), Holly started off being literally pushed around in her apron by her step-sisters. Fortunately, Arthur the fairy godmother (or gaymother, as Cinderella put it) stepped in to change her into a ballgown. Then she was greeted by the Prince, slow-danced until midnight and then told Time to go fuck itself with another costume change into club clothes for a big dance party at the end. And there was confetti. The choreography and awesome onstage costume changes were enough to carry the round as The Olive Team won Round 1!

Holly, you can do it! Only two more costume changes to go!

Round 2 – roulette round

The most nerve-wracking round started off with Charlie from the Red Team who drew “Fuck You” by Cee-Lo Green. As Charlie sang the song from the side of the stage, the rest of the Red Team told the story of what happened to Andrew after last week’s sudden-death roulette playoff where he immediately stripped down to his boxers and eventually mooned the audience. In this alternate version, Andrew was arrested for public indecency (yeah, how do we get away with all this nudity week after week? Thanks, Laura, for not calling the cops on us!), was tried and sentenced to jail by Micah, and then right when the Red Team was wondering where he was for their Finals performances, he appeared in jail clothes – having flown the coup from prison. Having “Fuck You” backing up the performance just made him seem like that much more of a baller.

You won't get away with all of this flagrant nudity, Andrew!

Jerry from the Pink Team took their roulette round for the second week in a row, and this time drew Ace of Base’s “The Sign.” This time he went from hosting Paula Deen’s cooking show to hosting the Gaylywed Game (modeled after the Newlywed Game, if that wasn’t apparent from the clever title) where the competing couples were Ellen and Portia and Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie. Jerry asked questions of the contestants while singing some of the song, and things got hilariously vulgar. And for those of you keeping track at home, Bert and Ernie were declared the winners. (Interestingly, “The Sign” was drawn in last season’s semifinals roulette round where it was also the basis for a game-show theme. Crazy how these things happen sometimes, huh?)

I believe the question was "What does Ernie name his condoms?"

In the last performance of the roulette round, Carter from the Olive Team got onstage as Will Ferrell’s impression of Robert Goulet, martini glass in hand. He drew “Livin’ on a Prayer” from Bon Jovi, which he sang in the lounge-y style of Goulet, before hitting on some audience members and misattributing Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” as a Bon Jovi song. The bit ended with him engaging in a staring contest with a porcelain dog (stuffed mountain goats – like in the original skit – are oddly expensive). It was a low-key production compared with the other numbers in the round, but it apparently went over well since The Olive Team won Round 2!

This was definitely method acting, and in no way because I was trying to get drunk.

Round 3 – second solo round

Libby from the Red Team got things going in the third round of the night with the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun.” In her trademark adorable style (nobody does adorable like you, Libby!), she portrayed Frodo Baggins with teammate Sam playing, of course, Samwise. Libby brilliantly re-wrote many of the lyrics, like this gem of a chorus: “Let me go on / to the land of Sauron / Let me go on / oh ring, I know you’re the one.” Along the way, they encountered Gandalf and nazguls, and the whole thing ended with Andrew-as-Gollum falling into Mount Doom with the ring. Epic.

There goes Andrew finding another good use for his newly shorn noggin.

The Pink Team’s Kara went next with a sexy performance of Britney Spears’ “Til the World Ends.” She and her scantily clad backup dancers were dressed as Mayans, warning us about the imminent end of the world next year, according to their calendar (anyone else excited for the epic end-of-the-world parties we’re bound to have this time next year?). The choreography was tight and Kara had a mid-song costume change (which I’m always a fan of, if you couldn’t tell) into an even slinkier outfit. The strength of her performance contributed to this being the closest round of the night in terms of voting.

Those are authentic ceremonial Mayan end-of-the-world accessories!

Finally, it was Betsy of the Olive Team singing “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. She began the song in a wheelchair surrounded by teammates in military camouflage gear and sporting fake guns. After hobbling around on a crutch, she disappeared behind a sheet for the second verse and emerged by the second chorus done up as a Na’vi from the movie Avatar (mid-song costume change!). After getting seduced by some other Na’vi, she had a dance battle against Holly the Military Officer, and then rode around on Carter the dragon. Throughout the ending, she changed the words to “Baby, I was born to be blue.” Blue – the skin color; not blue – the sad emoticon. In a round filled with elaborate costumes and storylines, The Olive Team yet again emerged victorious.

Na'vi Betsy riding the dragon. Anyone know how to get blue face paint off a pink dress shirt?

Round 4 – group round

The Red Team kicked off the final round of the Finals with Daft Punk’s “One More Time.” As it was their last song of the season, they wanted to bring back some of the favorite costumes “one more time.” Hence you had Charlie wearing his Buzz Lightyear costume from “Cowboy” and Andrew bringing up his severed leg from “Footloose.” Christine and Sam were dressed as giant foil robots to reference Daft Punk themselves, but ended up looking more like Flight of the Conchords in their “Robots” video. (And yes, that was intentional.) It was a great song, and the performance was a fitting reminder of all the things we loved about this team over the course of the season.

Maybe my favorite picture ever of Libby.

The Pink Team’s final performance of the evening was LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It.” First off, hot song. Secondly, hot performance! Under the theme of an LMFAO Christmas party, the Pink Team did us the favor of showcasing all those sexy bodies we’ve gotten to see so much throughout the season. There was sexy Rudolph, sexy elf, sexy present, sexy Kevin from Home Alone and the capper was Josh as sexy Christmas tree with nothing on but his underwear and a string of Christmas tree lights. It was the kind of big, creative, performance-heavy production that Pink gave us all season, and it was a fun way to go out.

Can you tell which one is Sexy Jesus?

The Olive Team wrapped up the night and the season with “Dream On” by Aerosmith done as a tribute to Inception. The props in this one were pretty elaborate. For example, there were unfolding buildings for the part where Arthur (Leo DiCaprio) taught Meaghan (Ellen Page) how to build landscapes in dreams, and then when the team went into the different levels of the dream, there was a rotating backdrop to illustrate each level. There was a choreographed fight between Mindy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Holly (those anonymous subconscious dudes), and once everyone got to Limbo, they each fell off a step stool (in reverse order of their dream-levels) in order to provide the “kick” that brought them back up through the levels of the dream. The whole number finished with Arthur/Leo singing “maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you awayyy” as Holly spun as the top. Did she fall? We don’t know; the song ended before we could find out. Goddamn. It was enough of a production to carry the final round for The Olive Team, as well.

Mindy falling in order to get kicked back up a level, while Arthur still hangs out in Limbo.

With a sweep of every round, the Olive Team was declared the champions of the Fall 2011 season of NKL. Thanks to everyone who competed and filled each week with fun, memorable, creative numbers. I hope to see each of you back in the league at some point in the future, and at the very least showing up to watch some of next season’s competitions. We’ll close this out with a record of the winners of all of the individual awards for the regular season:

Best Costume – Josh’s Ursula outfit from “Poor Unfortunate Souls”

Best Movie/TV reference – John’s Drop Dead Gorgeous homage on “Don’t Cry Out Loud.”

Biggest Flirt – Kara

Most Naked/Most Likely to be Naked – Carter

Best Concept – Erik’s musical chairs on “Make Me Smile”

Best Performance – Holly, Arthur and Carter‘s “Single Ladies” dance

Rookie of the Year – Colin

MVP – Andrew (well-deserved, IMO, for leading – alongside second-year vet Libby – a group of creative, charming, talented rookies all the way to the Finals.)

Semi-Finals!

Well, hot damn! That was a real barn-burner, huh, folks? I think it’s safe to say that we haven’t seen anything like this before. Well, apparently, the first season of NKL saw something like this, but I don’t think anyone in the league right now was there for that so we’ll call it History. Let’s set the stage. Red and Blue came into the night tied at 39 points apiece. It would come down to whomever received more votes on this night. Pink led Black by 26 votes, so Black would have to overcome that deficit in order to win the night. How did things pan out? Well…

Round 1 – Solo

In the night’s opening performance, Jennifer from the Blue Team sang “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper as Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Except this skit referenced the sequels in the series (I forget which ones…the third, maybe?), wherein Marty McFly (Colin) is playing guitar at a school dance and second Marty McFly (Erik) comes in trying not to be seen. Colin’s hand started disappearing, as in the movies, but then everything worked out as the two Marty McFlys shared a slow dance together at the end of the song. It was the mixture of cute cleverness that Blue has exhibited over the course of the season. This time, though, they were going head to head against the Red Team‘s Christine, singing “Extraterrestrial” by Katy Perry. The Red Team brought their usual cavalcade of pop culture references for the semis, and they started off the night with an X-Men theme. Andrew was cast as Professor X, but the team wasn’t happy with his bald cap, so Sam-as-Wolverine shaved his head right there onstage. I’m not sure what else happened, because my eyes were glued on that the whole time. And Andrew’s commitment to his character ended up winning Red the round!

In the night’s other head-to-head match-up, Roz from the Black Team led off with the English version of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons.” In a sultry red dress, she sang the song quite well while the rest of the team distributed 99 actual red balloons around the bar. It was a nice approach that allowed for some fun balloon-hitting and -popping. It was met, though, by Spencer from the Pink Team, singing the second Katy Perry song of the round, “Peacock.” It began with choreography from her, Kara and Kelly as peacocks, and then soon incorporated barely-clothed Josh and Patrick with peacock faces strapped to their waists. This had all the markings of a great Pink Team number we’ve seen this season – choreography, spectacle, commitment – and, as with so many times before in the season, Pink emerged victorious.

They call it peacocking... No, literally, she was peacocking all through this number.

Round 2 – Roulette

The Roulette Round kicked off with Erik from the Blue Team, drawing Cher’s “Believe.” He was “Stan or Kyle” from South Park (Erik is apparently not a big fan of the show), and their concept was one in which Kenny was continuously killed and reborn for a new episode, and then subsequently killed again. The song, then, worked out in their favor tremendously when Erik changed the lyrics to “Do you believe in life after death?” and Cher’s paean to the vocoder became existential query on the premises of animated sitcoms. Deep, guys. The Red Team‘s Lindsay then followed up with Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” which had very little to do with their adorable Peanuts tableau, with the newly bald Andrew cast as the hapless Charlie Brown. Pop culture beat out pop culture here, though, and the Blue Team took the round.

Oh my gosh! They killed...this whole number and totally won the round.

In Matchup #2, Ira from the Black Team set up the premise of a high school prom, and announced that the song he was about to sing was one he had written for his high school sweetheart, Ana. The innocent set-up made the reveal of “S&M” by Rihanna a perfect song to draw in the round. That ironic juxtaposition was seen and raised by Jerry from the Pink Team, though, when he appropriately drew Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” as chef Paula Deen. And since everything goes better with butter, he had two strapping shirtless young men arrive onstage and promptly smothered them in it. And of course that was enough to again put Pink over the top in the voting – they won the round!

Ira looks so wholesome, but it turns out he's a freak in the bed.

Round 3 – Group

The Blue Team led off the group round with MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” sung largely by a museum guard, reprimanding visitors for disturbing the artwork. Of course, members of the Blue Team played different works of art, and an aspiring photographer, among other characters. Trademark Blue Team recontextualization. And it went up against trademark Red Team pop culture references as the Red Team performed “The Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as different characters from pop culture – lots of Doctor Who, for example – who time travel. With everybody doing the dance from the song, it was enough to propel the Red Team to victory in the round.

Marcus, dude. I don't think those are the real paintings! You may have bigger problems than someone touching them...

The Black Team offered up Green Jelly’s “Three Little Pigs” for the Group Round, with Nehemiah narrating a twisted version of the classic fairy tale that cast James as the Big Bad Wolf. The gang acted out this new version, which ended in Rambo-Roz taking down the Wolf and everybody celebrating. It was fun and creative, but would it be enough to take down the Pink Team? The Pink Team‘s group number was “Alone” by Heart, which was sung as the theme for a Jerry’s Kids telethon that somehow went from being about Jerry Lewis to Jerry Sandusky – the recently-alleged child-rapist football coach at Penn State. Apparently the audience preferred violence against beloved fairy tale characters to child molestation references, because the Black Team won out on this round.

For the night, this left the Pink Team a clear victor! They will move on to the Finals on Thursday night to face the Olive Team. In the Red-Blue matchup, however, there was a tie! A tie! They tied over the course of the regular season, and then 194 votes later they were still tied! For only the second time in NKL history, there was a sudden death roulette round between the two team captains. Erik from the Blue Team sang Madonna’s “Material Girl” while Stephen played the air-fork-guitar in his underwear, and Andrew from the Red Team wasted no time in stripping down to his boxer-briefs  before singing Abba’s “Mamma Mia” and closing with a full mooning of the audience.

I'm not quite sure what's going on in this picture, but I know for sure that I wish I'd been a part of it.

Through a good old-fashioned applause-o-meter, the Red Team barely eked out a victory in one of the more thrilling nights of NKL in recent memory (I assume). And they will be the third team competing in Thursday’s finals against Pink and Olive. Congrats to the Black and Blue Teams (hehe) on fantastic seasons, and best of luck to all in the upcoming Finals.

Week 6: NBA season will finally be able to get underway once NKL ends!

Well, folks, that wraps up another regular season of the National Karaoke League – Downtown Austin division! As everybody gets ready for what promises to be a thrilling semifinals this Thursday, let’s get straight to the recap of what went down during our final week of the regular season.

Round 1

Christine from The Blue Team led off the night with “I’m Your Man” by George Michael. The setting? Marcus’ bachelor party. Christine was…let’s call her the “guest of honor” at the party, but as she started her striptease – boom! She Crying Game’d the whole bar. And then continued having fun with her fake member as Marcus’ fiancee left him and he ended up marrying Christine instead. Hey, if you’re going to do it, do it right. Following that was Mark from the Olive Team singing the Black Crowes’ version of “Hard to Handle.” Mark controlled the stage solo, dressed head-to-toe as a cactus. Hard to handle, indeed – those bastards are sharp!

That cactus is singing! Now I've seen everything...

After that, the Pink team‘s Samantha sang “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins. Apparently she missed rehearsal that week and so had no idea what was going to happen while she was seated on the stage. She ended up being pelted with Angry Birds, and defecated upon by heartless grackles. Man, I hate grackles. But Sam took it all in stride like a champ! Speaking of champs, Andrew from the Red Team was up next (foreshadowing!) performing “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. Taking his inspiration from a literal reading of the hook (“cut foot loose”), Andrew did it 127 Hours-style as he tried to remove his leg from a rock. Eventually he succeeded, freed himself and had a nice shin to carry home with him.

Andrew, redefining the idea of leaving it all on the stage.

In the final performance of the round, Jonathan from the Black Team sang “Heartless” by Kanye West. In front of a seemingly elaborate stage set-up that looked totally badass, Jonathan was a robot searching for that missing extra piece: his heart. It was a nice concept that was well-executed but in the end it was no match for the crushing boulder that was Andrew’s “Footloose.” Congrats on a well-earned solo round victory, Andrew!

Round 2

Stephen, being his bizarre self. Oh, and dressing up in bizarre costumes. How bizarre!

Stephen from the Blue Team kicked off Round 2 with “How Bizarre” from O.M.C. For that 90s classic, the Blue Team busted out several of their costumes from throughout the season and turned it into a commentary on their own lovable weirdness. Then, Rachel from the Olive Team serenaded us with “I Touch Myself” from the Divinyls, wherein a deliveryman delivered her a special wrapped man-package that she ended up unwrapping mid-song. The nakedness that ensued was undoubtedly the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen on a stage.

Rumor has it that Josh does drag pretty well.

That sexiness was quickly superseded, though, by the sexiness of Josh from the Pink Team in drag doing Adele’s “Rumor Has It.” With two backup dancers, he gave us a Glee-inspired rendition…except that no one in Glee can pull off that look. (I don’t watch Glee, is that true? Josh, they should have you as a character on that show.) Sam from the Red Team followed that with Gene Kelly’s classic “Singin’ in the Rain.” What started as a simple version, faithful to the film of the same name, soon Charlie entered the picture dressed as one of the characters from A Clockwork Orange, expressed his disapproval of Sam’s “lame” performance and then proceeded to beat and kick Sam just like they do in Clockwork Orange to that song. Considering Clockwork Orange is one of the five DVDs I own, I thought it was pretty awesome.

Nehemiah, this picture should be your business card. Or something like that.

Nehemiah from the Black Team closed the round with Pearl Jam’s “Black,” or as he described it: “Black” on black on Black. It was a stirring rendition that prompted candles to be raised by most of the crowd, and also featured Roz as a sun (I think) that ran away at some point, thereby destroying all life as we know it on planet Earth. Would such an existentially demanding performance be rewarded with victory? In fact, the winner was Josh from the Pink Team with his rousing performance of “Rumour Has It.”

Round 3

The Blue Team started the group round with “Don’t Forget About Me” by the Simple Minds. You may know the song from the soundtrack to the hit movie, The Breakfast Club. The Blue Team was betting you’d make that association since they dressed up as breakfast foods to sing the song as a different kind of Breakfast Club. Well-played, and nice callback to the “Creep/Crepe ” number from earlier in the season. The Olive Team went next with a version of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” sung by two cops who took obvious joy in pepper spraying and beating the crap out of hippies and ballerinas. Social commentary!

Rachel is having way too much fun putting the smack down.

Next up, Kara and Josh from the Pink Team sang “Con Te Partiro” by Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli. Well, sang might not be the right word…I think I’m looking for the word “nailed.” It’s easily the most technically difficult song that’s been sung this season in NKL and they both sounded flawless on it. And I imagine the Super Mario theme was because the lyrics were in Italian? It seemed impossible to follow, but the Red Team did just that. Charlie, Sam and Andrew led the bar in a super-fun performance of “Shout” by Otis Day and the Nights. They handed out togas to people on other teams and encouraged everyone to get up and dance – which many people did.

The first frat party hosted by Ego's

The Black Team closed out a really strong round from everyone with Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop.” Roz and Ana expertly delivered the female parts, and then Nehemiah let rip on the male guest rap part while clad in truly era-appropriate clothing (1993, people!). While many of the numbers were tons of fun, the chops of the Pink Team won out in the group round. It was a strong finish to the regular season, and hopefully a portent for an even better postseason.

Fall 2011 Banned Songs

• “Rumor Has It” – Adele
• “Someone Like You” – Adele
• “Take on Me” – A-ha
• “Hard Knock Life” – Annie the Musical
• “Love Shack” – B-52′s
• “God Only Knows” – Beach Boys
• “Can’t Buy Me Love” – Beatles
• “Eleanor Rigby” – Beatles
• “Single Ladies” – Beyonce
• “Hard to Handle” – Black Crowes
• “No Diggity” – Blackstreet
• “Keep On” – Brady Bunch
• “Con Te Partiro” – Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli
• “Heaven is a Place on Earth” – Brenda Carlisle
• “I Shot the Sheriff” – Eric Clapton
• “Miss Independent” – Kelly Clarkson
• “Since You’ve Been Gone” – Kelly Clarkson
• “Lean on Me” – Club Nouveau
• “Try a Little Tenderness” – The Commitments
• “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” – The Darkness
• “Shout” – Otis Day & the Nights
• “Bills Bills Bills” – Destiny’s Child
• “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” – Celine Dion
• “Poor Unfortunate Souls” – Disney
• “I Touch Myself” – the Divinyls
• “And I’m Telling You” – Dream Girls
• “Love the Way You Lie” – Eminem ft/ Rihanna
• “The Real Slim Shady” – Eminem
• “Glamorous” – Fergie
• “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” – Aretha Franklin
• “What’s Goin’ On” – Marvin Gaye
• “Rich Girl” – Hall & Oates
• “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) – Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
• “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” – Whitney Houston
• “I’m Your Baby Tonight” – Whitney Houston
• “I Want You Back” – Jackson 5
• “At Last” – Etta James
• “99 Problems” – Jay-Z
• “Bad Reputation” – Joan Jett
• “Hate Myself for Loving You” – Joan Jett
• “I Love Rock n’ Roll” – Joan Jett
• “The Longest Time” – Billy Joel
• “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” – Toby Keith
• “Singin’ in the Rain” – Gene Kelly
• “Cowboy” – Kid Rock
• “Bulletproof” – La Roux
• “You and I” – Lady Gaga
• “Drop the World” – Lil’ Wayne
• “Footloose” – Kenny Loggins
• “Material Girl” – Madonna
• “Don’t Cry Out Loud” – Melissa Manchester
• “Moves Like Jagger” – Maroon 5
• “Feed the Birds” – Mary Poppins, the Musical
• “Wild Night” – John Mellencamp
• “Father Figure” – George Michael
• “I’m Your Man” – George Michael
• “Float On” – Modest Mouse
• “Moondance” – Van Morrison
• “Bye Bye Bye” – N Sync
• “Hot in Herre” – Nelly
• “Big Poppa” – The Notorious B.I.G.
• “How Bizarre” – O.M.C.
• “Black” – Pearl Jam
• “Last Friday Night” – Katy Perry
• “Little Red Corvette” – Prince
• “Springtime for Hitler” – The Producers: Musical
• “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – Queen
• “Creep” – Radiohead
• “Bartender Song (Sittin’ at a Bar)” – Rehab
• “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” – R.E.M.
• “Hang With Me” – Robyn
• “Shoop” – Salt n Pepa
• “Nobody Does It Better” – Carly Simon
• “Don’t You Forget About Me” – Simple Minds
• “Peek-a-Boo” – Siouxsie and the Banshees
• “Oops…I Did It Again” – Britney Spears
• “Fidelity” – Regina Spektor
• “Jesse’s Girl” – Rick Springfield
• “Streets of Philadelphia” – Bruce Springsteen
• “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” – Rod Stewart
• “One” – Three Dog Night
• “Luka” – Suzanne Vega
• “America, Fuck Yeah” – Team America
• “Goin’ Out West” – Tom Waits
• “Gold Digger” – Kanye West
• “Heartless” – Kanye West
• “Fell in Love With a Girl” – White Stripes
• “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” – Jackie Wilson
• “Valerie” – Steve Winwood
• “Mexican Radio” – Wall of Voodoo

Fall 2011 Total Scores

I have had requests for the scores from each week. Let me know if this set-up is something y’all like:

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Olive	16	23	36	45	58	63
Pink	5	21	24	28	39	52
Blue	1	6	14	23	36	39
Red	3	9	19	22	26	39
Black	10	11	12	22	25	26

Week 5 – Charity Week, or Our Chance to Spend Money on Something Other Than Costumes, Props and Booze

Thanks for your patience everyone. My Thanksgiving holiday started Friday – almost right after NKL – and I’ve been doing a lot of traveling since then. But I’ve had y’all on the brain (I just can’t quit you), and now have the space to breathe, kick back and recap our awesome week last week.

It was a highly successful Charity Week. Through a combination of team donations and about a half dozen silent auction items, we raised a total of $650 for Music For the City! Thanks to all the people and organizations that donated items for the auction (Kerbey Lane Cafe, Common Interest, Coco Coquette, Wild Orchid Salon, etc.). And thanks to everyone for donating money – especially the Pink, Red, and Olive teams, who all donated over $100, earning them three extra points on their totals for the season.

This past Thursday was also the first time we ever tried a “No Frills” night. That means there were no props or costumes for the solo rounds, and only the contents of a pre-determined prop box could be used for the group round. As expected, everybody stepped up and delivered an entertaining, creative night despite (because of?) the limitations. Speaking only for myself, I guess, I hope this night becomes a fixture of the league because I thought it stretched everyone in fun, interesting ways. But don’t take my word for it! Let’s see for ourselves:

Round 1

Slappa de bass!

Meaghan from the Olive Team kicked off the night as the frontwoman for an air band performing “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by the Darkness. Though a certain someone was arguably costumed (according to some…) by tying his shirt around his head like a bandana, Meaghan brought the heat and gave a ripping performance that had many in the audience clapping along. Audience excitement continued to rise with the performance by Spencer of the Pink Team on Joan Jett’s classic “I Love Rock n’ Roll.” She took to heart the idea that Skin = Win and removed her shirt as the song moved along. She was joined by some of her teammates, resulting in a party-tastic orgy of flesh and rock.

Oh Micah! Leave it all up onstage.

Micah from the Red Team ended the topless streak (four people in the first two songs!) by crooning “Moondance” by Van Morrison. It was a sultry, totally clothed performance that was the first entirely solo run of the night – but certainly not the last. In fact, Christa from the Black Team immediately followed it with a fantastic rendition of Etta James’ “At Last” that she sang straight-up – and totally killed!

Claire, putting the team on her back! And sides! And her front.

Claire from the Blue Team concluded the round with Club Nouveau’s cover of “Lean on Me.” Initially, Erik accepted her invitation to lean on her and started a chain that led to her being leaned upon by every last one of her teammates. Due to her diminutive stature, I’ve gotta give props. But was it enough to buck the conventional wisdom that skin=win? In fact, the winner of the round was…Claire from the Blue Team!

Round 2

The Olive Team again kicked off the round, this time with Carter (that’s me!) doing “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles. Well, it was really an entirely different song, as he/I changed all of the words to be more NKL-themed (“Look at karaoke people…”). You’d be surprised how many people in this league have names with the same syllable pattern as “Eleanor Rigby.” Or maybe you’re not anymore, since you saw this. There was one name he/I could have used that wasn’t, but I’m not telling you who it was… Then, Jerry from the Pink Team kicked it up about a million notches with his performance of “Drop the World” by Lil’ Wayne. Holy shit, that was awesome. With a vicious fury belied by his preppy clothes, Jerry dropped a whole lot of kickass on us.

Is that Lil' Wayne up there? Sure sounds like it! And by that I mean, frightening.

Next up was Libby from the Red Team doing “Fell in Love With a Girl” by the White Stripes. Aside from just being her usual cute self, she also seduced Christine away from her dance partner to come fall in love with Libby. But it was okay because her boyfriend don’t consider it cheating. Ira followed with the Black Team’s second solo run of the night, serenading the crowd with “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls. Ira just continued his gift for combining singing talent with humorous and enjoyable song choices.

Ira, Rush is totally overrated. Dreamgirls, though...

Erik concluded an exceptionally strong round all around with “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. What? You haven’t heard of it? It was a number one hit in the UK in the 70s and has been reissued as a single on four separate occasions. God, you’re such an American. For help, Erik called up members of other teams to play musical chairs. Every time the music cut out from the Harley song, everyone had to sit down. Arthur eventually won the contest, but would Erik win the round? When all was said and done, however, Carter from the Olive Team won the round!

Round 3

Josh, don't just stand there! Get her out of that thing before she goes back in time! Or forward.

For the group round, teams were now able to use the contents of the prop box provided by the Board. To start us off, however, the Olive Team performed “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem without using any of the props. They changed the words to “The Real Slim Betsy” and had people stealing the mic from Betsy and rapping in her place. The Pink Team followed that with “Hard Knock Life” from the musical Annie, rewritten as “Prop Box Life” and taking full advantage of all the prop box had to offer.

That's a fairly accurate visual representation of Love, at least as I've known it.

The Red Team continued the prop box madness with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen. Sam put on as much weird stuff from the prop box as he could and turned himself into the titular character of the song while acting appropriately wild. The Black Team went up and performed “The Longest Time” by Billy Joel in all of its glorious multiple parts.

Wow. There are no words. Except maybe, "Ow."

The Blue Team closed out the night with its rendition of Jackie Wilson’s classic “Higher and Higher”  with their attempts to make human pyramids. While initially getting stymied at two separate three person pyramids, they concluded the song with Jen at the top of a very sturdy six person pyramid. Success! The group round ended up going to the Pink Team for “Prop Box Life” and their creative use of the limited props available to all of us.

One more week left – not this one, though! December 1st will be the last week of the regular season, with two weeks of post-season to follow. Home stretch, folks! Now get back to your turkeys and enjoy the holiday.

Week 4 – Theme Week, or…Rick Perry’s triumphant return to state politics.

Well everyone, that was some insanity, huh? Another theme week has come and gone, and what a doozy of a week it was. Armed with our Will Smith-inspired themes, we all seemed to go in a variety of interesting, creative directions, and I would expect no less from this group. Interesting fact of the night: When faced with the option of doing a prominent cover version of a song, or the original version of that song, three different teams opted for the covers. See if you can figure out which ones those were as we go through the recap.

Before jumping into the nostalgic fray, however, I want to remind everyone that next week is Charity Week! We’re raising money for Music for the City, and don’t forget that if you raise more than $100, you get a three point bonus on your overall scores for the season! So let’s bring in some cash. But Carter, I hear you asking, where am I going to get the money to donate for this worthy cause? I’m just a poor student/entrepreneur/intern/Occupy Austin protestor/business analyst! Well, fair NKL blog reader, this is the very reason we have declared next week to be “No-Frills Week.” Instead of dropping $30 on a leotard or a ginormous box of Twizzlers, you can donate it to Music for the City! There will be no props or costumes allowed for competition this week. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t have creative concepts or multiple people up on stage doing crazy things; it just means no props or costumes. With the grand exception that during the final round, all the teams will have access to a predetermined prop box, and you can incorporate any props from that box in your group round performance. And here is a list of the contents of that box:

• Red Noodle
• Rubber Chicken
• Blue Wig
• Flux Capacitor
• Gown
• Fairy Wings
• Pink Leotard
• Funny Hats
• And…general weapons…

I hope that helps! Go forth and create!

Round 1: Fresh Prince

"What're you doin'?" "Oh, you know, just hanging out." Hehehe...

The night kicked off with Samantha from the Pink Team singing “Hang With Me” by Robyn. If you don’t know Robyn, get yourself acquainted. Samantha totally nailed this song while doing impressions of things that hang together. You know, like bananas, hangers, or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Charlie from the Red Team took the theme in a different kind of direction with A-ha’s “Take on Me.” He was Prince William getting fresh with the ladies at his stag party. And, frankly, any song that features a mustachioed Andrew in drag is going to be fairly entertaining.

Ah! So fresh and so clean!

Nehemiah from the Black Team went up solo and gave us “Little Red Corvette” by Prince. It was fresh in all the best ways, as Nehemiah was looking especially dapper and danced around the stage with some very smooth Prince moves. Jennifer from the Blue Team was next and sang “Try a Little Tenderness” by the Commitments (totally underrated movie/soundtrack!) as the narrator for Beauty and the Beast. In what was the first number of many on the night to have some awesome referential costumes: the candelabra, the grandfather clock, the Beast. It looked great!

Arthur, such stylish tagging! Have you done this before?

The final performance of the round was Arthur from the Olive Team singing “Streets of Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen as the saddest re-imagining of the Fresh Prince theme song possible. Arthur/Fresh Prince ended up moving off with his aunt and uncle in Bel Air, but this time the dark specter of the AIDS epidemic permeated everything. (Kind of.) When all was said and done, the round went to Jennifer from the Blue Team! The costumes, the singing, the nostalgia for better days (1991, when the movie came out) all added up to a round-winner!

Round 2 – Independence Day

Apologies in advance for a lackluster round recap; I missed several of these numbers prepping for my group’s song. However, the pictures are quite revealing. First up was Jerry from the Pink Team singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Miss Independent” as Kim Kardashian. There was Kris Humphries and US Weekly, and it was a generally hysterical sendup of the whole circus. Oh that Kim…so “independent.” Second was Lindsay from the Red Team singing “Oops…I Did It Again” by Britney Spears. Their interpretation of the theme of the round was “In-Depends Day,” so they gave us a preview of Spears’ reunion tour from the future and had a bunch of old people in diapers. Laugh it up now, guys. We’re going to be old soon, too.

Hopefully Old Britney Spears has reached a sense of peace and purpose that always seemed to elude Young Britney.

Then, there was a pair of extremely patriotic readings on the theme. First was James from the Black Team singing “America Fuck Yeah” from Team America: World Police (love the soundtrack…the movie kind of didn’t do it for me). Fantastic song, and thanks to the American flags all over the places I couldn’t help but swell with pride. Bed, Bath and Beyond! Then Marcus from the Blue Team sang, “Nobody Does it Better” by Carly Simon as an ode to the awesomeness of the Red, White and Blue. Filled with American stereotypes (like baseball and twizzlers), this was a celebration of everything that makes us the most likable nation on the planet.

Man, Erik! You are really having fun with those Twizzlers.

Holly from the Olive Team delivered Beyonce’s classic “Single Ladies” for the final song of the round. And boy did she deliver! Flanked by two of the sexiest backup dancers you may ever see (in my totally un-biased opinion), Holly led a choreographed dance routine that incorporated some of the signature moves from the music video as well as some of her own original stuff. It was enough to win the round for the Olive Team!

Round Three – Wild Wild West

Such clean swastikas...did you use the swastika stenciler kit for that?

The Pink Team kicked off the group round in spectacular fashion with a rendition of “Springtime for Hitler” from the musical The Producers. A true classic, and one of my favorite showtune-y-type songs, they worked magic with it, goose-stepping across the stage and making a scene befitting the great song that it is. What did it have to do with the theme, you ask? Why France was on Germany’s wild, wild Western front. Just how Mel Brooks would have liked it. Yet, the Red Team followed with another strong number: Kid Rock’s “Cowboy” – hands down, the greatest Kid Rock song ever (damning with faint praise?). Their wild, wild West was a Toy Story homage, complete with some awesome costumes (slinky dog!??!). Which homage would prove the winner of the round?

Can we just note that Buzz Lightyear even had the little red zapper light? Awesome.

The Black Team stepped up to the plate with Eric Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff” in a heavily Rasta-themed performance. The song? Totally wild wild Western. The giant spliffs onstage? Not sure Wyatt Earp had access to such beautiful things, but it was damn entertaining. The Blue Team followed that with “Gold Digger” from Kanye West, as a bunch of prospectors from way back in the day. However, the gold they found wasn’t what you’d expect. Instead there were gems like grillz and the Golden Rule that they were filtering out of the river.

Max! Your soup is getting cold!

The Olive Team closed out this round with an homage to Where the Wild Things Are, pretty much recreating the whole book/movie in about three minutes. With more exciting costumes and the wildest of wild rumpuses, they made John Mellencamp’s “Wild Night” enjoyable again. In a round with three homages, the winner was…the Pink Team! When in doubt, goose-step it out. Want to win just a little bit-ler? Just remember to heil Hitler! I think these maxims can go right up there with skin=win in the Official Guide to NKL (in stores soon!).

Fun times all around! See you all next week for Charity Night! Don’t forget to raise some money!

Week 3 – When the House is Open, don’t come a-mopin’

Well, this was open house week, and, not coincidentally, it was our most well-attended week yet! People young and old (well, not too young…) came from far and wide to see the famed karaoke stylings of our beloved league. And we did not let them down! The performances continue to get better and better as the season wears on; I’m so excited to see what everyone has prepared for the second half of the season.

That’s right! This marks the end of the first half of the regular season. It’s just flying by, isn’t it? Keep in mind that next week is Theme Week! Our lovely leader Beth has used Will Smith as her inspiration for the round themes, so Round 1′s theme is “Fresh Prince,” Round 2′s theme is “Independence Day” and Round 3 will be “Wild Wild West.” This should be interesting. Will we have our season’s first Roshambo? Tune in next week to find out!

Round 1

You know, Charlie, just one more episode of this Full House marathon, and you could totally get Lori Laughlin to come out of the TV and get with you. No, seriously, you should give it a try.

The night began with what was easily one of the most enjoyable and surprising numbers of the season so far. Charlie from the Red Team serenaded us with “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield – a song we all know and love, but have never seen quite like this. The concept started out clever enough with Charlie watching Full House and lamenting that he can’t be with Uncle Jessie’s girlfriend, Aunt Becky (Lori Laughlin). In the last half of the song, though, Becky catches Charlie’s attention from inside the TV and eventually comes out of the TV to get with an ecstatic Charlie, leaving Uncle Jessie upset and trapped inside the TV. Holy crap. So entertaining. Ana from the Black Team followed that up with another entertaining number in “Last Friday Night” from Katy Perry. They re-wrote some of the lyrics, though, to make into “Last Thursday Night” – a commentary on the National Karaoke League! They all donned ridiculous costumes and generally made it seem awesome to be in this league…in a really meta kind of way.

I do think this is how Tom Waits pictured this song being sung when he wrote it.

Next up was Claire from the Blue Team, serenading us with Tom Waits’ “Goin’ Out West.” Aside from the fact that she deprived us of a perfect song for next week’s “Wild Wild West” theme (she even was a sheriff – or an outlaw, some kind of Western type of costume!), it was  a great performance of a totally underrated song. Waits is one of my all-time favorite songwriters and musicians, and if you haven’t heard his 1992 album Bone Machine that contains “Goin’ Out West,” do yourself a favor and go illegally download it right now. Go! Or if you don’t know how to do that, come find me on Thursday. Betsy from the Olive Team was next and sang “I Want You Back” from the Jackson 5 – the twist was that she was Charlie Sheen, requesting that his brain please return to him. Even an original rap at the end of the song full of Sheen references couldn’t convince his brain, who made off with his coke and his goddesses. Such a mixture of joy and sadness.

Michele Bachmann, capturing the hearts, minds, and votes of everyone in Ego's last week.

The Pink Team closed out the round with Patrick giving us Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.” Thankfully, though, he made the song his own (that’s right, not a big Toby Keith fan over here), by dressing up as Michelle Bachman, and filling the song’s verses with the kinds of incoherent rambling that Bachmann has made her calling card during her run for office. Spot on impersonation, Patrick! However, it was indeed the Red Team that took home the prize for this round. Congrats again to Charlie for living out all our prepubescent fantasies! By winning a round of NKL I mean, gosh…

Round 2

The Red Team followed up their Round 1 win with yet another strong performance – this one from Sam, singing “Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin. Sam gave us a fantastic impersonation of Tobias Funke from Arrested Development, complete with cutoffs and a Mrs. Featherbottom costume. There was also Lindsey, Gob and Buster and some spectacular chicken-dancing. And I have a feeling this is another theme-week for the Red Team, who have done a themed week every time out so far. Roz from the Black Team got up next and killed “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart in some nice Rod Stewart drag. Jonathan was accompanying her doing his best unsexy dance. Jonathan, I must say: well-played. Even the Unsexy Police had to be called out to stop you.

My favorite part of this is how happy Jonathan looks, even though he is being forcibly removed from the stage for dancing so poorly. Don't let the man get you down!

Erik from the Blue Team did his first solo of the season with “Valerie” by Steve Winwood (or as most of us probably know it – the song Eric Prydz sampled for “Call on Me”). However, in what became a portent of things to come for the Blue Team, he changed the title to “Amelie” and performed an homage to the lawn gnome from that film. It was an energetic performance that referenced the film while enacting scenes that were shown in it. Really fun and creative! That was followed by Arthur from the Olive Team singing “Father Figure” by George Michael dressed as Darth Vader. Poor Mark was Luke Skywalker, doing anything for his father’s approval – even briefly joining the Dark Side. No, Luke, no! Darth seemed pretty tortured about his lack of parenting skills, but that still didn’t prevent him from cutting off Luke’s hand. Jerk.

Are we sure this is from the Darth Vader sketch, and not the Arrested Development sketch?

Kelly from the Pink Team closed out a round featuring back-to-back-to-back performances from team captains with Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” (yes, that is the official spelling of the song title). She totally killed the song, and accompanied it with more topical political commentary – pointing out the potential hypocrisies in the actions of the Libyan freedom fighters. Deep concept for a deep song. This time around? Arthur’s Darth Vader performance carried the day! Never underestimate the power of the nerd in NKL.

Round 3

I fear that when I re-watch this show, every time Red comes on the screen, I will just see Libby. Then when I see Libby in real life, I will only see Red. And then, as reality and fantasy slowly intertwine, I will descend into madness.

The Red Team closed out their TV-themed week with the B-52′s “Love Shack” done as the characters in Fraggle Rock. Holy crap, I had forgotten about that awesome show! And all five seasons are totally on Netflix Instant… The performance included singing the Fraggle Rock Theme Song over the end of “Love Shack.” I loved the commitment and creativity! The Black Team closed with “Heaven is a Place on Earth” by Belinda Carlisle done in a variety of angel costumes. It’s always a fun song, and those costumes…wow, well, just take a look at some of the pictures.

The saddest crepe in the world.

The Blue Team‘s group number was “Creep” by Radiohead. Or should I say “Crepe?” As with “Valerie,” they changed the meaning of the song to be about a poor breakfast crepe lamenting his exclusion from the special at a diner. The costumes were great, but my favorite part was the use of a giant fork as a guitar. And of course, I will never be able to hear “Creep” the same way again. Thanks, guys. The Olive Team went next with “No Diggity” from Blackstreet, re-conceived as a protest song from the seven dwarves against the evil Snow White and her diamond mines. Even though she “liked the way they worked it,” there was to be no digging at the mines that day.

Holly, this may be the best picture you've ever taken.

The final performance of the night came from the Pink Team doing Destiny’s Child’s “Bills Bills Bills,” featuring Josh as Beyonce and Samantha as Kelly Rowland, and served as a handy cliff notes to the history of Destiny’s Child. A great song choice to accompany a great concept and some great performances. It was a strong showing, but ultimately, the round went to the Blue Team for their story of the lonely crepe.

And so concludes another ridiculously long recap of NKL. Maybe next week I’ll try some creative concision. Until then, happy singing!

Week 2 – Muammar Gaddafi: The Musical

Hey there, Karaoke Fiends! It has again taken a few days just to recover from the excitement of another Thursday at Ego’s. In the interim, we all celebrated Halloween (even though it isn’t until Monday). Did anyone use NKL clothing or props for their Halloween costumes? Did anyone get ideas from any of the costumes you saw around on Saturday? It was hard for me to get totally gung ho about Halloween since every Thursday is like a little mini-Halloween. With singing. Maybe that was just me. What? You want to cut the crap and get to the recap? Fine, fine, but you have to read through one more reminder about contacting Andrew at Andrew.Friedenthal@gmail.com if you have any goods or services you’d be willing to donate to Charity Night. And now let’s review what went down in Week 2!

Round 1

After a lovely song I have never heard of from Beth (Roxette’s “Joyride”), the night’s competition was kicked off by James from the Black Team doing “Big Poppa” by the Notorious B.I.G. Not only did he nail the song, but the smurf costumes and concept were great! (And culturally relevant!) I’ll never look at Papa Smurf the same way again. Stephen from the Blue Team followed that up with R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” sung as the leader of a crazy cult (I suppose most cults are crazy, huh?). There was a lot happening onstage – but it was all awesome! And culminated in a mass suicide. Oh, Stephen, you’re such a charismatic leader.

Stephen, you know I'd follow you anywhere.

Mindy from the Olive Team sang the first song of the evening from an artist with periods in its name when she performed “You and I” by Lady Gaga. Dressed as a ghostly Marilyn Monroe, she turned the song into an ode to President John Kennedy and suggested that Lee Harvey Oswald was just the fall guy for the actions of a vengeful spirit. John from the Pink Team was up next with Melissa Manchester’s “Don’t Cry Out Loud.” Singing expertly from his wheelchair, he referenced Drop Dead Gorgeous, which I have not seen but now clearly must if it’s even half as good as that performance.

And he's still singing! Now, that's dedication.

The final performance of the round was the second rookie debut of the round (what up, Mindy?!?) as Micah from the Red Team serenaded us with “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys while dressed as a remarkably chill devil. It was the first song in another theme night for the Red Team. Would it pay off? We’ll see… (Cliffhanger!) But in the meantime, Round 1 went to John from the Pink Team! As Beth said, we love seeing people fall out of wheelchairs!

Round 2

Not pictured: scary-ass vampires. Girl, you about to get bit!

Round 2 began with Ana from the Black Team doing another solo (first season, second solo – go Ana!), this time to “Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett. Ana serenaded a couple of scary-ass vampires (Jonathan and Roslyn) but couldn’t stave off their pointy fangs. The Blue Team went next with Colin singing Regina Spektor’s “Fidelity.” They had a great series of online dating profiles that Colin sifted through while singing, until he finally found the one! Cool job, guys!

The Olive Team, celebrating Halloween all week long.

Next up was Rachel from the Olive Team singing “Peek a Boo” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was the second Halloween-themed song of the round, as Rachel’s sexy schoolgirl costume was flanked by Holly’s cat and Betsy’s tornado. Josh from the Pink Team went next with a great performance of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid. He went all out with his Ursula get up and took to the stage all on his own (save for the admirable work of the backdrop-holders).

Nothing drives a demon out of a small child like a millennial boy-band.

Lindsey from the Red Team closed out the round with “Bye Bye Bye” by ‘N Sync. Hell yes. And by “Hell yes” I’m expressing enthusiasm for both the song and the exorcism-themed performance with a cameo from Micah’s devil character in Round 1. Sadly, though, even my clever wordplay couldn’t win the round for the Red Team. It was Josh with his captivating Ursula performance, and a second round win on the night for The Pink Team!

Round 3

So how would the final homestretch play out? Well, the Black Team kicked it off in raucous fashion with everybody’s favorite Maroon 5 song from 2011 (have they had any others? did they release an album this year? I just watch The Voice. Blake is so dreamy… Oh, right, the Black Team.), “Moves Like Jagger.” Jonathan certainly did move like Jagger (in the sexy ways, not the creepy ones) while he seduced his dancing teammates. (Turns out that song is from 2010′s Hands All Over, which has a really creepy album cover.) The Blue Team followed that with their rendition of Wall of Voodoo’s classic 1983 New Wave hit “Mexican Radio.” Their Dia de los Muertos costumes were expertly done and fitting with the theme of the song – it kind of being about Mexico and all. Great capper on a great night, guys!

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with...

For their group round, the Olive Team sang La Roux’s “Bulletproof” as a bunch of superheroes. They got shot by the evil Mark DeFrance because they weren’t bulletproof, but then they took some bulletproof potion from the Olive Bar and exacted their revenge. And their costumes were sparkly. The Pink Team then did a costumed and choreographed routine to the Brady Bunch’s “Keep On,” which was eerily spot on. You guys clearly did your homework on that show!

Libby and Micah rocking out to Nelly in Hell. Not pictured: Andrew's boxers.

But would it be enough for a sweep on the night? Not if the Red Team had anything to say about it! Though Pink did ultimately win the night, the Red Team managed to win the group round with “Hot in Herre” by Nelly, featuring Michele Bachman, Stalin, a soulless ginger, the devil and a pants-less Andrew. Priceless. Congrats to Red, Pink, and everyone else for an awesome second week! To paraphrase the Red Team’s last number, things are really heating up in NKL. So take off all your clothes.