This month I took a trip up to Vancouver BC and we put on a dueling piano party at the Manchester Public Eatery. Oh man! What an amazing time. This is a great venue for a dueling piano show with a great layout, amazing menu, and top notch staff. I was really impressed.

The show was scheduled to start at 9:30 and the crowd had already started arriving by 8:30. Aniticipation for what was about to happen was building and you could feel the buzz. There's something about bringing in two baby grand pianos to a new venue that gets people's attention! By the time time we started the show, the place was packed, the energy level was up and we played solid until 1:30 in the morning. That is one of the great things about dueling piano shows is there are no breaks in entertainment. Once we hit the pianos and start playing request from the crowd, the show doesn't stop until the bar shuts down.

The show started out with the typical piano bar requests, "Can you play Billy Joel?" "How about some Elton John?". Of course, we knocked those requests out as anybody would've expected. Then we started getting requests for Justin Beiber, Backstreet Boys, LMFAO, Lady Gaga, Coolio and the party really got started. We literally go from sing-a-long piano bar to dance club in an instant. Then we switch back for some crowd interactive songs singing Queen and other Rock and Roll classics. I did my best to get all "gangsta" and rap, but somehow there always seems to be an element of comedy when people see me beat boxing and rapping. Oh well! Whatever keeps the party going, right?!?

We put on a crowd driven, all request show that had everybody partying from beginning to end. I had one guy yell at me towards the end of the night.....I hadn't gotten to his request for "Can't Help Falling In Love, Elvis" mainly because I had a pile of about 40 songs sitting on my piano and I was trying to figure out how to get all the requests played! I felt bad, but if by chance he comes back to the the next show, I'll be his piano beeyatch and play all the Elvis requests he wants to hear! Ha! I really make it my goal to play all the requests that hit the piano, even when people are just trying to mess with me (Justin Beiber ; ), and it's always fun to call people out and acknowledge their requests as well.

In addition to bringing in two baby grand pianos to the venue, we also setup a full drum kit. Both of us are able to play drums and took turns behind the kit. It was a lot of fun and offered a more dynamic sound and feel than just using a drum machine for the dance songs. The other great benefit is that we found some really great drummers in the crowd and we're able to rock out to a variety of songs with both of us on the pianos while the beat just kept going strong!

Overall, it was a great experience for my first dueling piano show in Canada and I'm really excited for the next show.

We are scheduled for New Years Eve at the Manchester Public Eatery! So if you're looking for something to do, come out and experience dueling pianos like you've never seen! It's gonna' be an amazing night....check my calendar for a full schedule!