First, one misunderstanding to clear.
About half the people searching "Songshan KTV Xinqing" will end up in the wrong district — Xinqing Singing Club is not in Songshan. Its address is No. 8-1, Ln. 121, Sec. 1, Zhongshan N. Rd, in a lane between Taipei Main Station and MRT Zhongshan, 60-plus reviews at 4.2. From Minsheng E. Rd Sec 5 it's roughly twenty minutes by cab, NT$200–300. It has no geographic connection to singing in Minsheng Community; it just belongs to the same format — a small singing club, not a chain box.
Cleared.
What follows is the timeline you can actually sing along in Minsheng Community, from half past eight to two in the morning. The earlier Minsheng Community piece compared prices across three formats; this one doesn't compare prices, it only orders the clock.
8:30 — upstairs
No. 188, Sec. 5, Minsheng E. Rd: an old cinema downstairs, Minsheng Theater Tianlai KTV on the second floor. 120-plus reviews at 4.2, and the only place in Minsheng Community where you walk upstairs and sing.
Half past eight is its best hour. The neighbourhood crowd comes up after dinner, two or three to a room, gone before eleven; Friday and Saturday in that window can fill, so make one phone call. Arrive after half nine and a room is luck. Closing time is whatever the shop posts that day.
The same caveats as before: old equipment, no self-service bar. If you want fast new releases and bass in the speakers, go to ViBES at No. 301, Sec. 3, Nanjing E. Rd — 2,300-plus reviews at 4.7, a price tier up, and on concert weekends its rooms are gone by the afternoon.
11:00 — throat gone, lie down first
Two and a half hours of singing, then downstairs. The massage house at No. 175-2, Sec. 5, Minsheng E. Rd, ground floor, has 2,600-plus reviews at a perfect score, a few dozen metres from No. 188 — the most-reviewed massage shop on this road. Further east, the foot-massage shop at No. 233, ground floor, 330-plus reviews at 4.9.
Forty minutes of foot massage; throat and calves rest together. Most foot-massage shops run late; go by posted hours.
If massage isn't your thing, the izakaya at No. 16 Yanshou St and the beef-noodle bar at No. 145 were covered last time. Skipping them here.
1:00 — Civic Blvd is still awake
Past midnight, nearly every light in Minsheng Community is off. Anyone who still wants to sing has one road: south.
1998 Singing Room at No. 19, Sec. 4, Civic Blvd, 1,100-plus reviews at 4.8, bills by the room — two people walking in at one in the morning won't be frightened by the bill. 777 Music Bar at No. 155, Sec. 5, 550-plus reviews at 4.9, is the bar-counter format where you take turns singing to the whole room; you can go alone, and nobody minds if you're off-key.
About ten minutes by cab from Minsheng E. Rd Sec 5; on foot it's twenty-five minutes or more, and not a walk to do at one in the morning.
Both venues' late hours follow their own postings. On concert weekends, rooms on Civic Blvd can be full at one in the morning too — don't count on them as a fallback.
One drink on the way home
Heading back to Minsheng Community from Civic Blvd, or toward MRT Nanjing Sanmin, Nanjing E. Rd Sec 5 is the road on the way. The izakaya at No. 282 has 1,200-plus reviews at 4.7; Tipsy Dragon Bar at No. 399-5, 230-plus reviews at 4.9, is craft beer first, few people, quiet.
If you've been drinking, leave the car. A cab on Minsheng E. Rd at that hour arrives within three to five minutes, NT$200–300 to the city centre; MRT Nanjing Sanmin is at No. 237, Sec. 5, Nanjing E. Rd, last train around midnight — past that, don't count it.
September weekends in Songshan usually have something on at the Arena. At ten, after the show, every room on Nanjing E. Rd Sec 4 is taken; walk fifteen minutes north into Minsheng Community and the room above the old cinema is usually still free. That is Minsheng Community's most valuable flaw: nobody thinks of it.
The rest of the list is on the Songshan KTV page and the Songshan guide; if you want a drink halfway through the night, the Songshan bar list is one page.