A Fire, Karaoke Or Ex-Brothel: Where Were We In Drag?

Pull up a chair, start a tab and order a round of shots, because this is Rocks Off's weekly roundup of the goings-on in the Houston bar scene. Ups and downs, openings and closings, we will cover it all. Hit us up with any hot tips at craig.hlavaty@houstonpress.com.

Photos by Craig Hlavaty

​Open Tab visited our first bar geared exclusively to karaoke on Friday night while he was in the first of the four costumes we would wear over the Halloween weekend. Yes, the Beebs was in full chubby, sweaty effect. It was a lazy outfit and we had the wig, so there.

Glitter Karaoke off Milam in Midtown is seemingly built for making embarrassing, regretful evenings a reality, and it is fun as hell to watch someone stumble through a Britney Spears song. We went for a birthday, so our friends got a free pass to be stupid, but the rest of you need to practice in your cars more.

And to the guy who sang two Creed songs? You're going to Hollywood.

​Saturday night we were on the way to Montrose to party, in our third costume, which was a bastardized version of Mad Men's Christina Hendricks. Really, we looked like a mad man in bad drag.

Pulling up to the area around Poison Girl a tad after midnight, we noticed flames shooting in the sky near Agora, so we parked the Open Tab Mobile and ran towards the fire and starting taking pics just as the fire at Antique Warehaus was moving to the popular wine and study spot.

The fire was easily one of the most documented events in recent Houston fire history, almost close to the clamor around the Mai's fire in February. Everyone was in costume around the fire, and we all had cameras or cellphones out taking it all in.

We had some fun at Agora in the past, with girls and whatnot. They had a cool jukebox full of Tom Waits and the Clash and an excellent, not too pricey wine selection. It was a shame watching the neighborhood haunt go up in flames, but we know they will bounce back. There is even a Facebook page wishing them well on their way.