Shout

Shout is in the Block E section of downtown Minneapolis and is a dueling piano bar. There are 3 guys who sing through out the night and every 45 minutes one subs the other out!

They are very entertaining and do a good job at getting the crowd involved!!! The waiter, ours was Matt, was very observant and fun loving. He was there to make us smile and have a good time and he did just that! He was open for suggestions on what to get and figured out what you would like by asking questions! He was great!

There are some downfalls that I saw. On songs where there were duets one guy would sing rather than dueling back and forth. It seemed like they just alternated songs and if someone put in a suggestion they thought the other was better at they pushed the song over to them!

Ha Ha Ha... they also like to get the crowd involved. They have a flash light on stage and if they see a table not joining in they flash the light on the stage and make them stand up. They did this with the song "Sweet Caroline". A group wasn't doing the Bah Bah Bah... so they had them do a solo until the rest of the guests thought they did it happily enough!!!

But all in all it was a really good time... a great place for TBers to get together!

The Shout House is a deuling piano bar in downtown Minneapolis, in Block E. The stage is set with two pianos facing eachother with a big mirror behind them. Two pianists take turns playing requests from the crowd and they feed off each other. One takes the lead with the playing and singing and the other provides back up. They have three players that rotate and play a few songs with using all three of them so they'll add drum set or bass/guitar. The musicians are very talented and fun to watch and each one plays more than just the piano.

If you're there for a birthday or bachelor/ette party, they'll bring you up on stage and sing an embarassing song for/about you that often has adult humor. It is hilarious! I went up on stage and they sang about me being pregnant (which I wasn't) and the song lyrics were "why don't we get drunk and screw".

Sometimes they'll play a horrible song that is slow and boring that no one wants to hear and they'll say, "I got $5 to play this song. You don't like it, $6 will get you a different song." The idea is that people will throw a bunch of money up there with requests so the pianos will "duel" and the players will make more money. We were there on a Thursday, so it wasn't very busy. They are busier and rowdier on weekends with more requests and more crowd interaction. It generally fills up later in the night and is more fun when the crowd gets into the show. If you don't participate, they'll point you out and put you on the spot. This didn't happen nearly enough, in my opinion.

The piano bar serves food and drinks and they play from 8pm-1am. Get there early to get a good seat and you can usually beat the cover charge if you're in before 9 pm. This isn't really the place to go if you want to talk all night because its hard to hear over the piano and you'd probably rather listen to the music anyway. It was a fun time and is perfect for small gatherings and even more fun if you request songs and sing along. Be sure to bring your $1 bills!

UPDATE: I went again to the Shout House on a Wednesday night for 80s night and it was insane! There were so many people there that there was standing room only and so many requests they were turning them away by 10:30 pm. People were dressed in 80s costumes and they only played songs from the 80s or 80s movies. The crowd was a little more into it, but with so many people there it was hard to hear or even see the stage. Plus, they had $1 tap beers (Miller High Life only), so my tab was only $5 for a couple of hours.

BIRTHDAY UPDATE: I went to the Shout House to celebrate my birthday on a Birthday Tuesday. If you bring three friends the birthday person gets a goodie bag that included a free t-shirt, keychain, hat and a mug good for free drinks all night! The birthday person also gets to go on stage for a fun song. Reservations recommended for groups of more than 4 or so. Have fun! I sure did! We also tried the food for the first time. I got the Thai Pie (spicy peanut sauce, chicken, pineapple and peanuts)- it was good! We also got the taco pizza, a caesar salad and buffalo wings and everything was good.