Transit Bar's Tuesday Karaoke

Canberra comes to life on Tuesday nights with Transit Bar‘s weekly karaoke sessions. Starting at around 9pm, people from all over Canberra flow in through the doors, with a mix of monotone tunes and tone deaf vocals streaming through the chatter.
This particular week, a group of primary school teachers, some new to the karaoke scene, took to the stage early on to sing Britney Spears’s hit song ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’.
Sarah Kennett, one of the teachers, has been coming to Transit’s karaoke nights for over a year, while her friend Lauren Kirkland said it was her first time.
“It was nerve-wracking being up there, but I’m glad I knew all the words,” Ms Kirkland said.
Guests selected their chosen songs from a large book categorised by artists, and handed it to the MC for the night, Josh Nedeljkovic.
It was Josh’s third night MC’ing. Strangely enough, he was given the job after attending Transit for a 21^st.
“A few days later I got a call from the boss asking if I wanted the job,” he said. “It was great!”
Throughout the night the crowd grew larger, with over a hundred and fifty people attending – though not all of them were regulars. There were a lot of new faces.
Ryan Jacobs, manager of the bar, said it’s Transit’s sixth year hosting karaoke, and despite the absence of their regular attendees it was still a successful night, with around 70 percent of the party being between 18 and 25 years old.
“I think it’s because a lot of people coming back from uni break wanted to kick off semester with a bang,” Mr Jacobs said.
“Generally the crowd is made up of uni students, but we also generate an older crowd.”
Rob and his brother Greg were not new to the karaoke experience, but were new to Transit Bar, and opened with a great 90s song, ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Backstreet Boys.
“It’s a pretty amazing song, and we grew up with them to a point,” Rob said.
After the karaoke came to an end at around 1.45am, the crowd slowly departed.
“What makes us unique is our atmosphere and our reputation as one of the best karaoke sessions in Canberra,” Mr Jacobs said.
Transit Bar’s karaoke definitely lived up to that reputation, bringing Canberra to life on a Tuesday night.