Just up the hill from the Bastion Street bridge sits a place where locals of all ages gather.
Some come for the atmosphere, while others come for the food, beer and pool. However, it is the karaoke that brings many people out to the Oxy Pub.
Located on the corner of Selby and Fitzwilliam streets, the Oxy has been hosting karaoke nights for a number of years.
The Oxy Pub was recently voted by readers as Best Karaoke in the annual Best of the City reader survey. The venue was also voted Best Chicken Wings in town.
“It’s almost like a cheers atmosphere, where people get together. You’ll see different tables hanging out with each other and playing pool. It is a very inclusive environment,” said Todd Cameron, karaoke host at the Oxy.
For Cameron, a 12-year veteran of hosting karaoke nights, there are a few things that are needed to make a good karaoke night.
“You have to have a good sound quality, you have to make people sound good and have a good sound system,” he said. “ You need to have a good selection of songs and you need to have really good bars. You have to have good staff and good food.”
Cameron, who has spent the past six years as a karaoke host at the Oxy, believes it is all those things that makes the Old City Quarter venue such a popular place with locals.
“I think we have a really good collections of all those things,” he said. “We also have a really fun clientele that comes out. We have a lot of different ages. There are 19-year-olds that come out and there are 50- and 60-year-olds that come out.”
As a veteran karaoke host, Cameron said it’s important to ensure that everyone who wants to sing gets at least one opportunity to do so, adding that he likes to encourage people who have never sang before to try it.
“I just try and do a first-come, first-serve approach and make sure that everyone gets at least one chance to sing,” he said. “I always make announcements like ‘it doesn’t matter how good you are’”
In the six years that Cameron has been hosting karaoke nights at the Oxy, he said on a given night he’ll hear people request everything from the Spice Girls to Metallica, to random songs in a foreign language.
“If I can find it they can sing it,” he said. “That is my philosophy.”
Cameron said the best part about being a host is seeing people sing for the very first time, adding that the Oxy is a friendly place.
“There is no better feeling as a karaoke host to have fresh people coming up,” he said.
“You can see it in their eyes that they aren’t sure about it but they do kind of want to try it and sometimes halfway through the song you can kind of see a shift in their confidence.
“It really means a lot when I’ve encouraged someone to take that next step.”
At the end of the day, karaoke isn’t about how well you can sing, but how much fun you can have, according to Cameron.
“Its about coming out and getting to hear your friends sing and getting to sing yourself and blowing off a little bit of steam,” he said.
Karaoke nights are held on Thursday and Friday nights at the Oxy.