Watch: Choir Bar debuts ‘One Day’ video from its first reverse karaoke singalong event
June 20, 2018 | Tommy Felts
The excitement was palpable Saturday as Choir Bar launched into song for the first time in River Market, said Matt Baysinger. Now organizers are ready to share the singalong experience with the world.
“People are so dang impressive,” said Baysinger, co-founder of Swell Spark, which debuted the Choir Bar concept in hopes of it becoming a semi-regular event series. “We thought it would be fun to get a bunch of people together and learn how to sing a song as a three-part harmony. … [It was] absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever been involved with.”
About 90 people — family, friends and strangers — gathered Saturday at the River Market Event Place for a professionally choreographed, “reverse-karaoke”-style singalong. The crowd learned and then sang “One Day” by Matisyahu, an alternative artist who fuses reggae, rap and rock.
The result?
With the crowd of singers led by vocalist Jazz Rucker and musician Jared Scholz, Saturday’s event spurred enough interest to warrant another Choir Bar singalong — likely coming in July, though organizers still are working out venue details, Baysinger said.
Watch for news about coming event dates here.
Choir Bar is the latest concept from Swell Spark, a Kansas City-based innovator of interactive, experience-based entertainment. It’s suite of offerings includes popular brands Blade & Timber and Breakout KC.
Swell Spark was named one of Startland’s Top Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2018, in part because of the rapid growth of its Blade & Timber axe-throwing concept, as well as the ongoing development of new business verticals.
The company opened a second Kansas City-area Blade & Timber location in May with 12 lanes at Leawood’s Town Center Plaza. Another location in Wichita is expected to open in July, with Blade & Timber soon expanding to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, as well as to sites in Portland, Seattle, Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri, Oakland, Honolulu, and Miami.
Featured Business
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
‘Invest with women we know’: This $1.4M wellness hub project is redeveloping one neighborhood from within
It’s an old real estate adage: “Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood.” Longtime Kansas City commercial broker Sheryl Vickers said it also applies to business properties, “one thousand percent.” Like twin mid-century office buildings just over the Missouri/Kansas state line in Prairie Village. “I drove by it, what a sad state,” said Vickers,…
Digital health startup aims to save medical providers time while bringing down cost of AI tech
CarePilot is on a mission to bring AI and automation to smaller medical clinics that don’t always have access to cutting-edge technology, shared founder and CEO Joseph Tutera. The Overland Park-based startup’s ambient AI technology — designed to help those smaller practices operate more efficiently — captures patient-provider interactions in real time, automating administrative tasks…
Street art to stage: KC fashion designer styles iconic Jim Crow-era musical comedy without missing a beat
Designing for theater gives Whitney Manney the opportunity to be as big and loud as she wants, the street bespoke creator said. A new musical production of “Hairspray” puts Manney’s bold aesthetic through a new lens — and alongside a timely story of acceptance, diversity, and the power of music. “There is no such thing…
‘People pay for value’: How a young mom’s plan to hold passion tight drives her baby apparel side hustle
Coming from a family of business owners, Riley Rhoads knew she wanted to pursue entrepreneurship: starting her own business — but with a goal to help others, the founder of Hold Tight Baby said. “When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, I want to be an entrepreneur; I want to start and own my own…