By: William Nolan
Dueling pianos was a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll and everything in between as the fun of a piano bar was brought right here to Western.
Piano bars are typically bar entertainment where two or more musicians will play the piano and take song requests from the crowd. The twist is that it’s not just covers of popular songs, but are more about comedy than sounding perfect.
At a piano bar once the musicians get a song request they replicate it to the best of their ability usually by trying to play the song by ear. The musicians play song request but they’re not concerned with trying to blow anyone away with singing or playing prowess. They add some comedy by either the way it’s sung or from the outrageousness of the request.
Many students didn’t know what they were getting themselves into with this event. Many thought it was going to be some kind of piano competition while others had no clue what it was going to be.
“I heard about Dueling Pianos through the advertising in Blum.” Western student Bernice Brown said. “I was expecting it to be more classical music, but I still enjoyed it. I liked that they took requests. I wasn’t expecting it to be as personal as it was. I would love to see more events like this on campus in the future.”
Once the musicians got the students into the swing of how a piano bar worked the whole atmosphere changed. The crowd got involved and the song requests, which really made the night, came in faster and became more outrageous.
“I have never been to an event like this and I didn’t get much information before the event so I had no idea what to expect,” freshman Kaitlyn Caldwell said. “I loved it because we got to pick the songs that made the set. I really liked when they did the Spice Girls song.”
From Disney classics to old time country songs the requests really put the musicians through their paces. Even new pop hits and rap songs were fair game with their Fetty Wap cover being a crowd favorite.
This event gave students a fun chance to have experience a piano bar without having to be 21. While many of the students may not have known what they were going into the musical comedy stylings will be sure to make them come back for more.