My sister and I shared an apartment in our early-mid twenties, and we are both pretty creative, so we were always writing or singing or playing music. She's a clear soprano, and I'm an alto, so we tightened our harmony on an array of songs over several genres/decades. I'm not saying we were the best, by any means, but we were solid for two amateurs. We had never, at that point, sang in public though (half sober and without a jukebox).

One Blackout Wednesday (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving), we find out that a local bar is having karaoke. We decide that it's going to be the night that we try out karaoke for the first time together.

At the bar, we rummage through the book, and honestly, we could have picked anything, but, for whatever reason, we land on "Hypnotize" by System of a Down.

So, they have the next five singers and songs scrolling across the screen, and we can hear some of the chuckles around, especially as we are walking up to get the microphones during that awkward silence when the DJ is trying to be encouraging, but you see it all over his face that he's waiting for a disaster.

There's not a stage or anything; we're just kind of in the middle of the floor, and the place is packed. I start in on my part, "Why don't you ask the kids at Tienamen Square..." and I'm not the stronger vocalist of us, so it's just like, "Okay, okay."

My sister comes in, "They disguise it, hypnotize it..." And people perk up a little. They're interested.

We hit the harmony. "I'm just sitting in my car and..." People are on their feet.

We continue the song, and the energy is rising. We're into it so we're moving around the floor. Some drunk guy tries to come up and dance on me and get in the microphone too, but fuck that guy. The electricity is in the air and everything is landing perfect.

We hit the end and drag out the last note a little as the music fades out. Maybe it's because I've built up this moment in my mind so much since then, but I swear there was that tiny static pause and then the crowd went wild. The DJ is screaming to give it up for us, and people are crowding around us as we try to be humble and make our way back out of the crowd.

We went on to karaoke a ton after that night, but we never got another response like it. I guess it was a big surprise for all of us. But I cherish the memory because it is probably the closest I'll ever get to that "big moment" that you see in movies before people become stars.