Tonight: Karaoke at the Paramount

That’s right. Tonight the venerable venue where I’ve seen everyone from Bob Dylan to the Pet Shop Boys to the reunited Pavement ply their amazing trades will tonight host a bunch of drunks howling along to karaoke tracks of ’80s hits—and I’m hosting!

Why ’80s: The Paramount will soon play host to the touring production of Rock of Ages, the smash Broadway musical featuring nothing but buttrock and opening at the Paramount on Feb. 8. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small town girl met a big city rocker and in LA’s most famous rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the 80s. It’s ROCK OF AGES, an arena-rock love story told through the mind-blowing, face-melting hits of JOURNEY, NIGHT RANGER, STYX, REO SPEEDWAGON, PAT BENATAR, TWISTED SISTER, POISON, ASIA, WHITESNAKE and many more. Don’t miss this awesomely good time about dreaming big, playing loud and partying on!

Why I think such a thing will be way more fun than not: Virtually every shred of faith I have in the entertainment value of Rock of Ages comes from my experience of Seattle’s Buttrock Suites, conceived by choreographer Diana Cardiff and featuring a variety of modern dance pieces set to—duh—buttrock. It was amazing, and made me reevaluate a whole sub-genre of music I’d pretty much dismissed as the audio equivalent of Nascar. It’s hard to explain, but the best of the buttrock songs will be stupidly exciting forever, and carefully orchestrated group experiences with buttrock’s greatest hits (Buttrock Suites, hopefully Rock of Ages) are weirdly intoxicating.

As for tonight’s karaoke thingie, it goes down in the Paramount Theater lobby this evening between 5-8 pm, it is 21 and over, and it is free. Booze will be available (discount Heineken and Maker’s, I’m told), as will special discount tickets to Rock of Ages, with a portion of these ticket-sale proceeds going to the Vera Project.