Last Saturday, the only Wayne’s World reference I caught while waiting to karaoke at the Boulevard Park sports bar of the same name was the bartender saying “exsqueeze me” to a server who got sassy with him. Aside from that, Wayne’s World the bar has no connection with the movies or the Saturday Night Live characters Mike Myers and Dana Carvey made iconic in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
I was a little let down at first. The reason I wanted to go there to begin with was the name. I wasn’t expecting anything too extraordinary, like the bartenders being dressed up like Wayne and the waitresses as Garth or the stage furnished to replicate Wayne’s basement. But I did kind of hope it would be a fun comedy-themed bar with a few posters of classic movies from that era, like Tommy Boy and Billy Madison. Then the KJ showed up and played “Roni” by Bobby Brown, and all was forgiven.
This Wayne’s World, originally known as Flight Path many years ago because of its close proximity to the Sea-Tac runway, was actually given that name as a tribute to film legend John Wayne. These days there’s nothing on the walls to commemorate him either, but the place was once a shrine to The Duke. When the original owners sold it, they took all the memorabilia. What’s left on the walls are a bunch of softball trophies and plaques to commemorate the winners of their darts tournaments. Darts is the real draw on Saturday nights. When my buddy Mochi and I arrived at 8:15 p.m., everyone was concentrated in the entrance side of the venue where the dartboards were, and that’s where they stayed. It was a diverse crowd of mostly men. The few females there did participate in karaoke, but I never got to thrust my crotch and drop the “Schwing!” reference once. No one was worthy.
We bellied up to the bar. Mochi’s friend Jimmy, who lived around the way, met us shortly after we got there. Knowing we’d be taking on the brunt of the opening rotations, we got into the tequila right away to loosen up. They didn’t have any good stuff, but the Sauza Gold did the trick. A couple of those followed by a Jäger shot to twist things up got me toasted immediately.The stage area and KJ station are in the back of the room. That’s also where the songbooks are located. When I saw that PCM Musiq ran the show, I knew this night would probably eventually get good. They’re one of the two outfits (the other is Karaoke Kellie) I encounter the most when reviewing south-end spots, and they have a great following.
Hosting this night was an average-looking guy named Billy, stage name “Bill E3.” He didn’t have much to work with early on, but the DJ skills he displayed prior to the show were outstanding. Every cut he played as he set up was a sing-along gem that got me more and more stoked to take the stage myself. We held down a five-singer rotation until 10:30. No one was paying attention, but the sound was great. I sang Bob Seger’s “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” for the first time and it was pretty good . . . not! It was way out of my range. Mochi delivered, with great renditions of Elvis Costello’s “Alison” and “Amie” by Pure Prairie League. And Jimmy topped us both with a great random Dwight Yoakam song called “Little Ways.”
