For six weeks in November and December, the Tribeca gallery apexart turned itself into a center of solo sing-alongs. Not just karaoke but “Scaryoke!” featuring a simulated shower, car and stage where brave participants sang randomly assigned songs from a menu of 15 disparate tracks.
The rules changed for one special evening last month when a crowd gathered around the Scaryoke! stage to hear 14 invited guests who could pick their songs, but from a dwindling list, depending on the number they drew in the lineup.
“I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her, oh, oh, oh,” Lizzie O’Leary plaintively belted out to Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own.”
“Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl, you are the queen of my world!” Rob Sheffield sang and shouted along with the Bikini Kill number, moving off the stage and onto his knees.
Last, but not least because he was the mastermind behind apexart’s Scaryoke programming, was Slate culture editor Dan Koise. His song—and the biggest crowd-pleaser of all—was the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.”
From the “public terror” standpoint, Koise said later, it was not the song he would have picked. Too familiar. Too easy.
“But once I started singing I realized it was the thematically right song for the end of the night,” he said. “It was the perfect way to close out this funny, weird evening.”