AJ's on East Court — Restaurant in Des Moines

So for the last over 7 to 6 years, I have been frequencing this place. I've tried out other places and just none of them give me the same feeling really "let out your inner" rock star at AJ's. The service is quite on point. Every time that I've been there, can honestly say, I've never had a bad experience with service. The head bartender, Sam, does extremely good work. She is very personable, as well as she is really good at making sure things are copastatic, safe, and engaging. best of all, she dont play that bullshit. the weekends it's a packed party (mostly) like a pleasant chaotic party. I mean this in a positive light. weekdays like a chill shindig. a decent amount of regulars, once you get to know them, coming in on slow times is more comfortable. almost everyone there is kind and supportive. this place let's you be yourself-within reason of course. as for the food, no complaints, but i think the menu could expand and add... lobster... asian cuisine.. and other unrealistic options. (I add a little funny in there, sorry.) on a serious note, maybe a partnership of sorts with fong's. the song list is pretty nice, my only thought is to expand with more open genere choices- not to take away from what is available, and thats quite a TL;DR, absolutely worth the visit, not expensive at all, chill people, and flashy lights. be there or be square, cause...

Friendly staff, good layout, and I appreciate having a karaoke place open 7 nights a week.

However, the queueing system feels frustratingly arbitrary and the song availability is all over the place.

Bumping from 3 to 4 because I'm happy enough to assume my group just showed up on an off night and had a string of miscommunications.

Was aware of the fast pass for profit sharing. Think that's great. The "queue via the app", wasn't as clear. Mostly writing on behalf of a friend in our group who put in for a popular Queen song and had multiple people in our group get up twice before him, wondering where his spot in the queue went.

As far as song selection goes, that could certainly be advertised better. There's no book at the KJ counter and the slide with the website in the cycled PowerPoint between songs was easy to miss all night. A "go to this bit.ly for the song list" sign near the front would go a long way.

Credit where it's due, AJ's was one of the better NYE nights I've had in awhile. I suppose mostly I'm just confused why I've heard the same guy do "Wonderboy" by Tenacious D each of the 3 times I've been there in the last 2 months, but they somehow don't have The Distance by Cake or (more understandably) anything by Vulfpeck who literally sold out MSG...

My brothers and I all love to sing, so we have been going to AJ's for years. The staff is super friendly, including the owner who is there bartending and talking with customers and busing tables and just always working to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. I can't say I enjoy the all digital songbook that they've gone to (I hate downloading apps on my phone that I only use sporadically or that serve a SUPER limited purpose), but it's not something that would keep me from going there. They have the best song selection and I've come to know several of DJs pretty well and they are just the most friendly and fun people. I love this bar, especially b/c singers can get, heh, kinda cliquey, and AJs does a fairly good job of welcoming all singers and keeping karaoke light-hearted and fun and not like a constant audition for The Voice...