I was in Portland playing at the Barrel Room Dueling Piano Bar this past weekend. It was towards the end of the night, I was getting some fresh requests on the piano when it happened......"Bruno Mars - Grenade". I hadn't learned to play that song yet, but lucky for me it's on the radio like every 20 minutes, so I'd at least heard it a thousand times. Now put me in a room full of people demanding I play it NOW and paying money to make sure I do it and the stage is set! I reluctantly pulled out my iPhone and did a quick search on Safari while the eager crowd awaited the start of what I could only assume would be a huge embarassing disappointment. I tell the drummer, give me some bass, giving him the fist pumping in the air signal that we all know and love. I look at the crowd and say, everybody clap with me......I might've been hoping for enough noise to drown myself out during the initial attempt. It worked! Before I knew it, I was through the first verse singing into the chorus when people started yelling, "We can't hear you!" "sing louder". Then I'm pretty sure I heard someone distinctly say "This sucks....that's not good enough. I paid you 20 bucks, do it better!" I love a supportive crowd! Half way through the song I had already realized that Bruno Mars has the voice of an angel and I'd never be able to pull off the song in the original key so I'd have to drop it down and start all over. Now fully determined to satisfy this group of people who suddenly seemed almost as motivated as I was to make this song work, I wasn't going to give up until it had some kind of success....

It was a lot of fun seeing the different personalities come out during a single song. I found everyone from the supportive sideline coach that had my back all the way to the hard critic that may have had a few too many adult beverages leading up to this moment in time and was having way too much fun yelling at me during my song attempt. Either way, everybody in the room added to the fun of the moment. People were cheering while others were heckling! Some were just waiting anxiously with nervous attention worried that I was just auguring in for the face plant of a life time. In the end, I made it through two verses and two choruses in a key that was manageable for my low vocal range yet high enough that everybody was able to sing along. The mixed reviews were drowned out by enough cheering to make me feel good about myself.

There's something to be said about a show that has that much spontaneity and crowd interaction. It's what keeps me coming back for more and more. I love me some dueling piano shows......