If you are looking to enjoy a few drinks and a different musical experience, consider Jack n’ Diane’s, a new piano bar downtown on North Brown Street that is well-worth a visit.
Piano bars, most popular in the Midwest, are a kind of live piano performance that often includes comedy and sometimes a live band. The piano bar takes song requests and plays them while you sip spirits.
Jack n’ Diane’s is a dueling piano bar, translating into twice the entertainment as two pianists play together.
Most piano bars feature players from all over the country, sometimes different players every week, increasing the variety since each pianist knows how to play different material.
But Jack n’ Diane’s takes a different philosophy. Three house pianists play every night, which the bar’s entertainment director and pianist Matt Kschinka said allows the musicians to work with each other and play each song with greater precision.
One of the biggest challenges, Kschinka said, is keeping up with what is popular. People request all kinds of songs, often choosing from the top of the charts. Each week the pianists try to learn a new song, and they also keep a tally of all requested songs, learning the most requested ones that they don’t already at the end of the year.
The show got off to a slow start, but as people flooded into the bar, the crowd’s energy picked up. The pianists started with a few slower songs but soon increased the tempo and began to take song requests. At one point, all three pianists were playing on one piano, as one pianist lay over the top, reaching down to key.
Strobe and colored lights completed the show and set the mood to each song. The pianists tried make the show interactive, telling crude jokes, beat boxing, and picking on audience members, for example, by telling the audience that someone from the crowd was paying for drinks.
There were a variety of age groups at the bar, including regulars who knew every word to every song and were ready to get up and dance around. While the show was good and the pianists knew a lot of songs, you had to pay to make requests, tipping the pianist with a slip of paper naming the song. This could quickly get expensive if you requested a few songs.
The bar sells finger foods and burgers and lists jello shots under the dessert menu. The bar has beer, wine, and specialty drinks, but these drinks don’t come cheap. Beers are under $5, specialty drinks are around $8, and a 96 ounce “fishbowl” of mixed punch costs $26. As is true anytime you go out, drinks can get expensive quickly.
There is a $5 cover on Fridays and Saturdays but no cover on weekdays. You can make reservations on the weekends for $10 a seat. Unsurprisingly, the bar is strictly for those 21 and up.
While drinking to piano music may not be for everyone, the interactive show is worth the cost. After all, the more you drink, the better the pianists will sound.
