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
Students struck by KC gun violence search for solutions at MECA Challenge
Editor’s note: MECA Challenge and Startland News are both programs of the Kansas City Startup Foundation, though the content below was produced independently by Startland. For more information on the relationship, click here. Escaping the cycle of gun violence can seem impossible, said Lea Thompson, still wearing a cast on her hand after being shot…
STEAM Studio team coding best fit for boy’s 3-D-printed prosthetic arm
Four-year-old Hudson Borton extended his arm Wednesday, as his father fitted a 3-D-printed prosthetic to the boy’s upper arm and elbow. The light blue plastic piece mimicked the size and length of Hudson’s right arm, though his father and Mandi Sonnenberg, co-founder and director of STEAM Studio, agreed the new device wasn’t yet a perfect…
KC-based SouveNEAR vending machine startup prepping to scale up
SouveNEAR offers travelers a piece of KC — from KC, said co-founder Tiffany King. The Kansas City-based startup, which repurposes vending machines to sell locally made souvenirs, is in its fourth year of steady, organic growth, King said. As a member of ScaleUP! KC new class, SouveNEAR is preparing to grow the business and turn…
Google, Techstars partner to lower barriers for March 23-25 Startup Weekend
A new partnership with Google will allow Techstars to present this month’s Startup Weekend free of charge to Kansas City participants, said John Coler. “It opens up the opportunity to reduce the barrier for entry for those who either would not usually use their discretionary income or (do not) have the ability to pay for…