MUSIC

Gamba Karaoke

We love this place so much that we wanted to keep it a secret. But we also love this place so much that we had to try to drum up some business for them. Go Gamba!

Before we found this place, South Bay karaoke hunts were all about masking feeling uncomfortable while a Korean mobster wannabe at the front desk ran your credit card through next to a jar of stale hard candy (unsure if he’s sukebe or scowling), unsuccessfully leafing through Top 40 lists and K-rap, choking on cigarette smoke clouds from anorexics (guys and girls) crowding the front door in matching black outfits (and matching hair dos), or going out with groups who pretty much only sing in korean or chinglish. Thank goodness for Gamba!

This holy grail is hidden in a quaint strip mall next door to one of the hottest restaurants, GocHi Japanese Fusion Tapas. The decor is sparse and shabby, not out to impress, in fact some of it is downright Salvation Army (old puffy plaid couches), tipsy halogen lamps, with five-n-dime metallic mylar fringe promoting “privacy” along the windows and Ikea cartoon animal prints on the walls. But they pack on excess where it counts: big ‘ol binders filled with songs of all genres (over 17,000 English titles from pop to country to Broadway to you-name-it) to finally resolve my new wave/offbeat karaoke fantasy. They have Portishead, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tori Amos, Sublime’s Date Rape, King X’s Detachable Penis…! They also have an extensive selection of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, and Spanish songs for you lucky multilinguists out there.

I must warn you that the tiny matronly Japanese woman who runs Gamba Karaoke doesn’t speak much English and is stoic as hell, so her pragmatic demeanor can be mistaken for chilly aloofness. Sometimes we just surrender attempts at awkward small talk when met with curt retorts and unblinking, unsmiling stares. Up until around 10:00p she has college students help, but after that she’s on her own, so that might have explained the time when I asked for some green tea (they have canned Japanese sodas, teas, coffees, and snacks for a nominal fee) and without a word she bolted away. I had no idea she was zipping to the back room to get some ice-cold ones. She was back in 0.4 seconds with the drinks. She apologized profusely for being so slow. Uh-huh.

Since this is her business, and business is pretty slow at times (that’s probably why we like it so much though), she has to be shrewd about the price, so watch your watch here because you will be charged for a full half-hour if you are only fifteen minutes past a billable hour. The student help, on the other hand, give us awesome deals.. shhhhh. Also, no alcohol and absolutely NO CAKE PARTIES, if people still have those anymore… and by “people” I mean immature food-wasting brats. Pastry is precious!

This is a karaoke box joint, where groups of varying sizes (1-30 persons) can belt out and belly laugh the night away for $15-25/hr (depending on the room you rent; add $5/hr for nights). What’s the difference between a Karaoke box and a Karaoke bar? I’ll leave it to the text on their website to fill you in:

What is a Karaoke box ?
Is it different from Karaoke Bar ?
Karaoke Box is very, very differnet [sic] from Karaoke Bar.

As soon as you check in Gamba_Karaoke, a sound proof room is assigned to your party. Size of the room depends on size of your party. Each room is equipped with Hard_Disk based Karaoke Sytem [sic], digital voice processing Amplifire [sic] (pitch change, Echo, etc) especialy [sic] designed to Karaoke system, also big TV on which you can see lyrics.

You select a song number on song book and punch in remote controller. Hit SEND button, Computer chip works for you to read the song from hard disk in Server and play sound and on screen.

Now you are ready to sing with your wireless microphone.

Karaoke boxis a special room(Sound proof room) only for singing. No one other than you, your friends, and family can hear your voice. It can be used for practicing,　hanging out with friends, or parties ! It’s a lot of fun and also a good exercise to lose your calories(Diet!?)!! In Japan, Salary Man salaried worker goes to Karaoke after 5 PM (Japanese call it is as After-Five) to get rid of the much stress of Japanese office life. Even luch [sic] time, some people goes to karaoke and sing for 30min…

According to some study, you consume about 50-60Kcal per one sing which is equvalent [sic] to approximately 10 min walking. There are some hospital in Japan, they use Karaoke for obesity treatment.

Since you breath [sic](abdominal breathing for singing) well, you will take oxygen and it will contribute your health.

Okay, the rooms aren’t necessarily soundproof (you can hear the guy next door squealing Radiohead), and I doubt anyone would want to go singing with their family, or “exercise” with their voice and breath. If you are interested in a “Karaoke for good health” regiment, they serve ionized water here. Sometimes “high end” equipment means microphones taped to hold in the batteries, and rubberbands on the remotes for the same purpose, but it still sounds okay, tinny but okay. You do get to play with the echo and pitch if they can find the corresponding remotes. The “Big TVs” are actually 26″ CRTs as opposed to Koreatown’s massive plasmas with electronic-rating scale accoutrement, but Gamba Karaoke, assuredly, is the only Karaoke Box that supplies plastic tambourines and maracases (maracasii?)… maracas.

Gamba Karaoke
10990 N Blaney - Cupertino, CA - (408) 865-0955
HOURS: M 5:00pm-1:00am; W,Th: 6pm-1:00am; F 4:00pm-2:00am; Sat-Sun: 2:00pm-2:00am; Closed Tues

Tags: California, karaoke